Chapter 15
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: Mad Doctor Asclepius
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"Follow me."
Right after Chiron announced my enlistment, some pale white pretty boy grabbed me.
A slender frame and small stature, the kind of sickly beauty that could awaken maternal instincts in any woman.
At first, I thought he was a girl, but it was like he read my mind.
"I'm not a girl, I'm a boy. Mistake that, and you die."
With that threatening line, I quietly swallowed my doubts.
Anyway, led by the hand of this snow-white kid, we arrived at a quiet single-story building in the corner of the forest.
The place I'd been dragged to was a clinic filled with the smell of disinfectant alcohol and the bitter scent of medicinal herbs.
"Sit."
He sat me down in a treatment chair and started bustling back and forth between the shelves and desk before the white one opened his mouth.
"First, let me introduce myself. My name is Asclepius. I'm the head of this clinic.
And the guy you battle maniac wild boars see the most. Let's see..."
"Um...?"
"Quiet. I'm concentrating."
His green eyes flashed a stern warning, making me too scared to say anything.
As I shut my mouth, Asclepius nodded in satisfaction,
then pulled out clean bandages, herbs, and a wooden bowl in front of me before yanking my arm toward him without hesitation.
"Let's see. Bones are damaged, muscles are ballooned up like they're about to burst, and your legs?"
-Crack!
Asclepius suddenly tapped my knee with a small wooden hammer.
It didn't hurt, but my leg jerked from the reflex, and I glared at him like, What the hell are you doing?
But the pale mad doctor ignored it and continued the examination.
"Nerves are fine. Good thing. We can save a bit of nectar."
"Nectar?"
The famous drink of the gods from Greek mythology.
Why was that coming up here?
"Ha, so you react to that too."
Asclepius smirked as if he'd expected it while poking and prodding my back, chest, stomach, and so on for diagnosis.
"The food and drink of the gods grant immortality to the gods themselves. But if a normal human eats it, they can't handle the power and melt into a puddle of blood."
However, for students who could enter this forest, it showed different effects.
"To those who inherited divine blood or were born with exceptionally sturdy constitutions, it acts like a panacea."
The gods' food, ambrosia, which preserves their bodies eternally, heals any wound in an instant as a bodily remedy.
The gods' drink, nectar, which makes their souls immortal, heals any spiritual pain as a soul tonic.
And it tastes great, too.
He shrugged as if joking, then started pulling potions from the ceiling and mixing them every which way.
"Normally, ambrosia and nectar don't leave Olympus. But thanks to my father and Master Chiron, I get a little for medical use."
"Oh... Is that safe?"
This was Chiron's forest, where all sorts of heroes gathered.
And heroes were synonymous with troublemakers who brought storms wherever they went.
Would those guys leave an SSS-grade item like the gods' food alone?
"Might as well dangle fish in front of a cat."
"...You're a weird one. Most hear about ambrosia and nectar and worry about security instead?"
Asclepius, who'd dealt with countless troublemaking heroes, tilted his head as if my words were unexpected.
"Maybe you'll be someone I can actually talk to. The thick-headed idiots in this damn forest never think that far. Here, this, and this—drink them in order."
He sighed while handing over some mystery pills and herb-infused wine, clearly fed up already.
"This... safe to eat?"
"It'll taste bitter, but if you want to walk on your own two legs tomorrow, I recommend it."
He's a healer, so he wouldn't give me poison, right?
I swallowed the bitter pills and the subtly flavored wine, and I couldn't help but be amazed at their effects.
"What the hell are these?"
"Working?"
"Like a charm."
The moment I drank them, my swollen meridians and muscles started healing, even the cracks in my bones, and the raging blood and qi settled down.
A bit inferior to the Demonic Cult's Divine Demon Pills or Shaolin's Great Return Pills.
Even that level would have martial artists pouring gold to buy them.
"Good to hear it's effective. But you're not fully healed, so sit still if you don't want it to worsen."
"Got it."
Despite churning out such incredible meds like candy, Asclepius just kept grinding herbs and potions in a mortar, lamenting away.
"Word's already spreading quietly. That the clinic has the gods' food. This month alone, sixty-third break-in attempt at night.
Frontal robberies, pickpocketing, scams—not even worth counting. Master Chiron issued a strict order, but even that can't stop Hermes' kids or the boars' curiosity."
"Oof..."
This pale healer's weary face was just like an office worker buried under endless work and trolling teammates.
"Of course, I made them all suffer a week of agonizing stomachaches and diarrhea, so they've quieted down."
Look at those eyes gleaming with murderous intent. By the vibe, he's probably already taken a few out.
No surprise—the Greek myth's god of medicine reborn, and at that age, casually whipping up Shaolin Great Return Pill-level stuff. Sanity was never on the table.
Yet his hands, swiftly applying salve and bandaging my limbs, were so skilled it made me think he lived up to being the next god of medicine.
"Bones aren't shattered or broken, so no splint needed. But you overexerted, so muscles and skeleton took a hit. Salve and bandages on—don't mess with them."
"Done now?"
"No, one question left. A very important one."
Asclepius sat in the chair opposite me, smiling darkly.
His eyes, scrutinizing me closely, gleamed like a madman eyeing a new test subject.
"As the forest's healer and Chiron's proxy in medicine, I ask: What are you?"
"What?"
To my reflexive question, Asclepius shook his head like he knew it all.
"Don't play dumb. Even in tiny amounts, digesting ambrosia and nectar without fever or discomfort—how many like you do you think exist in the world?"
"Ambrosia? Nectar?"
The gods' food he'd been griping about security for earlier?
And I'd eaten it?
"No way... in those meds just now?"
"Bingo. Even Jason or Theseus get hyper after, groaning all night. The boars twitch like their bodies itch.
All because of ambrosia and nectar's special nature."
The pale kid started explaining patiently, like teaching a child.
"Ambrosia and nectar aren't really material food. Think of them as processed special auras. Substances that act directly on human body and soul."
Aura—the energy called innate true qi or natural true qi in the martial world.
The gods' food and drink condensed that energy?
"That alien aura around your navel. Not a natural organ, yet it gathers aura from there, circulating through your limbs and hundreds of channels—at your will, clearly.
The ambrosia and nectar in the pills and wine? Your auras handled and focused them on healing."
"...!!"
For a moment, goosebumps rose, making my two lifetimes feel meaningless.
Just from a few touches, he'd detected my dantian and Ghostless Divine Art's internal energy, then confirmed it flawlessly.
Had I gone soft living as Dianes? Getting my qi exposed so easily.
"Probably thanks to that energy you matched Master Chiron in sparring. How is that possible?
Using aura as naturally as breathing? Only gods whose bodies and souls are made of aura, or innate monsters.
You've got a flesh body, yet you gather and wield aura inside it.
Even Heracles barely pulls it up with a grunt."
Aura existed in this world too.
That thing called aura or ore was the domain of mighty beasts, gods, and heroes born of divine blood.
But from Asclepius' words, no one but gods or monsters could handle qi as freely as my cultivated internal energy.
"So... fascinating. Are you perhaps..."
Deep green eyes sparkled with innocent madness, like a kid finding a fun toy.
I knew that look all too well.
The Demonic Fairy Maiden Gong Honyeon.
Her eyes blazed as she wondered how anyone could inherit the Twelve Demonic Sages' true demonic qi like me and stay sane.
Even snuck into the Heavenly Demon's bedroom disguised as a woman to draw my blood—a Demonic Cult follower at that.
'After I drew plenty out of her instead, she mellowed out.'
Anyway, med students or healers all had this passive madness?
The better the skill, the crazier they got.
"If you don't explain clearly right here, I might have to tell my father. A human—not god or monster—wielding aura so freely. Could be the seed of great disaster..."
I couldn't help laughing at the fake-smart kid's threat.
"Pfft, hahahahaha!"
My reaction caught him off guard; the white one, grinning like a mad scientist, went wide-eyed.
Was he seriously trying to threaten me?
"Heh heh, trying to pull that naughty stunt, huh, whitey?"
"White... what?"
Let's see. Whitey's dad would be the god of medicine, Apollo?
"He probably knows already."
"...What?"
I smirked at the dumbfounded whitey, mouth agape.
You think you've got the Heavenly Demon throne locked down, punk?
I've got you all figured out.