/Author's note

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Longer chapter this time. Please comment your feedback on the chapter and rate my fiction.

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World Advancement Chapter 11: The Sickened Slums

Once Alric heard about riding horses to get to the next city he realized that this time the stealth wolf, Shadow, would be unable to keep up.

Alric had trained Shadow to use his optical camouflage at all times other than when he was alone with Alric.

Although he was incapable of speech the stealth wolf was highly intelligent and able to pick up on the basic meanings of various words.

Alric trained him to respond to various words and commands.

“Hide” meant to activate camouflage and do everything possible to escape detection.

“Hunt” signified allowing Shadow to roam free and pursue prey

“Until I Say” is added onto any other command to perform until Alric whistles.

“On My Mark” is the opposite, to wait to complete a command until Alric whistles.

“Stay Nearby” tells Shadow not to stray too far from the location the command was given.

Commands like stay, attack, and follow are self-explanatory.

Alric, before leaving Berrik, used a combination of these commands to tell Shadow to remain there while he was in the city.

“Shadow, Stay nearby, hunt and hide until I say.” (Alric)

With that Shadow would stay in Berrik and provide for himself until Alric returned and whistled for him.

Additionally Shadow was trained not to hunt any humanoids or livestock in order to prevent conflict.

The horses that the three rode were much faster than ordinary horses.

Originally from the endless plains the horses were stark white and nicknamed the white wind after their unbelievable speed.

These horses could run at speeds of up to sixty miles per hour.

As Catherine said it would take four hours to reach the city Alric estimated the riding distance to be about two hundred miles.

As they rode down the path the trees of the forest gradually began to get shorter.

Alric assumed that this was caused by both the ambient mana level, which was lessening the further they got from the mountain above the great mana cave, and the amount of rainfall the land received.

The large mountain Alric had emerged from served to cause the clouds to break and release their rainfall upon the forested area, leaving none for the area further from the mountain.

Roughly halfway along the journey the trees died out altogether and the mountainous terrain gave way to flat, rolling plains.

On these plains there could be spotted groups of wild horses, although there were none of the white winds, and occasionally in the distance there would be a brown cluster that looked suspiciously like a herd of buffalo.

After three and a half hours their destination came into view.

“That is the city of Eben, our destination.” (Catherine)

As they rode closer to the city Alric examined the layout.

The city was situated between two small lakes and was set up like a layered cake.

Near the larger lake was the main body of the city, consisting of three levels.

The outer, and lowest, level contained ordinary houses and shops.

The middle level contained large estates and gardens.

And the highest level contained one large building that probably housed the lord of the city.

Stretching out from the main body of the city toward the second lake was the slums.

Shabbily constructed homes with a lack of organization spread outward from the main city.

The trio decided to stop off in the outer ring of the city to house the horses in the stable and to gather some information from the residents.

-----Eben, Outer Ring-----

Catherine was talking to a local about the condition of the people of the slums.

“Do you know anything about the ailment of the people of the slums? I am a physician sent to help treat the illness and to help prevent any further spread.” (Catherine)

“It started a couple months ago, during the summer. The people of the slums began feeling weak and were affected by headaches. Many figured that they were simply not drinking enough water so they drank more often. However, this didn’t help anything. On the contrary, the people of the slums began getting worse. These days many of the older and younger slum dwellers are so stricken that they are unable to get out of bed and the first deaths have already occurred. Merchants and people from the main city will no longer enter the slums for fear of getting the sickness.” (Random Local)

“Thank you, we will do all in our power to heal those people and keep anyone else from getting sick.” (Catherine)

“Make sure you do. No one around here gives a damn if those worthless slum dwellers die but we can’t have them getting any of us sick.” (Random Douchebag)

Catherine replied curtly, “We will stop this sickness,” and the group quickly walked away.

Catherine was fuming.

“Is everyone in this city like that despicable man?!?” (Catherine)

“I’m sure there are people who care. But it seems that his opinion is shared by many. Eben has fallen on hard times in recent years and many believe that the slum dwellers are wasting land that would be better served for farming.” (Meredith)

“Then it’s possible that this is no random sickness, but intentional by someone looking to claim the land.” (Alric)

“Possibly, but we don’t have time to think about such things now we must make haste to the slums and put an end to this sickness.” (Catherine)

-----Eben Middle Ring-----

The man stood outside the large doors waiting to give his report.

“Come in.” (????)

“Yes, my lord.” (Man1)

“What news do you bring today?” (Noble)

“Today a group of three physicians entered the outer ring and began asking questions about the slum dwellers. What should we do with them?” (Man1)

“Leave them be, they will leave just like the others once they learn there will be no compensation.” (Noble)

“Even if they don’t leave they won’t be able to cure the villagers. The method I’ve prepared is undetectable.” (Noble)

“Very well, I will take my leave.” (Man1)

“Hahaha! Those stupid slum dwellers, in a few more weeks that land will be mine and any of them that survive will have no choice but to become my slaves!” (Noble)

-----Eben Slums-----

As Alric, Meredith and Catherine walked through the slums their mood became grim.

There were only a few people up and about, silently working sluggishly.

Occasionally they would stop only to clutch their heads and groan but despite their pain and suffering they worked on in order to feed their worse off family members.

Catherine spoke to Meredith and Alric, “I need to begin diagnosing these people and working on a treatment you two look around for any possible sources of disease or contamination.”

With that they split up.

“Alric, do you have the ability to use magic?” Meredith asked.

“Yes, I do however I do not yet know any spells.” (Alric)

“That’s fine, it’s easy enough to learn if you have the mana. Just think of what you want to do and speak the incantation. I will be teaching you a spell that tells you if a substance is contaminated by something harmful. The drawback is it does not tell you the type of contamination.” (Meredith)

“Alright, what’s the incantation?” (Alric)

“Explico Periclum, once the incantation is spoken any mana is released the targeted item will briefly glow either green, for harmless, or red, for harmful.” (Meredith)

“Another drawback of this particular spell is that it requires that you recognize the substance as harmful. The less knowledge one has about harmful substances the more likely it is to miss a harmful substance. Since you have knowledge of chemistry I decided to teach you this spell to act as a backup for me checking to see if there are any harmful materials I may have no knowledge of.” (Meredith)

Alric tested out the spell on their supplies.

As expected of a pharmacist and alchemist all their supplies were safe, except for the alchemy materials which obviously had dangerous properties.

After using the spell multiple times Alric learned he could memorize the way the mana flowed in order to replicate the magic without speaking the incantation, however, he did not share this fact with Meredith.

Alric and Meredith spent the day wandering through the slums searching for dangerous substances.

Mostly the things they analized glowed green and were deemed harmless and there was the occasional red.

Milk that was too old and had become spoiled, bread that had been pooped on by a rat, rotten fruit.

But they couldn’t find anywhere that had a contaminant that could be causing the sickness.

Thus they asked one of the slum dwellers where they get their water from.

“The main city gets their water from the large lake, but here in the slum we get ours from the small one.” (Slum dweller)

To Alric this fact seemed very suspicious.

Only people living in the slums had been getting sick thus far.

There were no cases of someone who just visited getting sick, and there was no cases of the sickness spreading.

The slum dwellers got sick over time so it is likely that the water from the lake is the culprit.

Alric and Meredith went to the lakeside and, sure enough, when the spell was applied to the water it glowed red.

The slum dwellers were told to spread the news that the water was poisoned and to stop drinking it.

“I have a spell to cleanse water, however because there is so much it will use up my entire mana capacity and I will not be able to use magic for a few days. If this does not work I will not be able to try again for at least a week.” (Meredith)

“Aufero Malum Aqua!” (Meredith)

A massive amount of mana flowed out of Meredith and the water became unclouded.

Meredith collapsed, exhausted.

“Alric, check the water.” (Meredith)

Alric used the spell on the water and it glowed…..

Red.

The dangerous substance had not been removed.

That meant that it was something Meredith recognized as dangerous but not as a conventional water contaminant.

Alric inspected the water closely with his ability.

Now that much of the impurities of the water were removed by Meredith’s spell Alric was quickly able to identify what was contaminating the water.

“Damn! So that’s it! The water is contaminated with lead! The slum dwellers have lead poisoning!” (Alric)

“Meredith, I can remove this contaminant from the water but to do so I need you to promise never to tell anyone what I am about to do.” (Alric)

“Alright, as long as you can save these people I will keep that promise. (Meredith)

Alric called up, in his mind, all the knowledge he had of the element lead.

Concentrating a large portion of the massive amounts of mana stored in his body Alric used class 1 magic on every speck of lead simultaneously, grabbing each particle and pulling it out of the water.

-----Meredith’s POV-----

When the light cast on the water turned red my heart was filled with despair.

I had tried my best and gave up all my mana in order to save the slum dwellers.

But still I failed.

In that moment I had given up.

However Alric did not he went over to the water and after inspecting it was somehow able to identify what the contaminent was.

Something called lead.

Then he told me that he had a way to remove it and that I had to promise to keep it a secret.

I was so relieved.

Honestly I would have agreed to any condition if it had meant cleansing that water.

After I promised I noticed an amazing phenomenon begin to occur.

I felt a tremendous amount of mana, more than I had ever seen, form around Alric and I realized why he had made me promise to keep it a secret.

I wondered, what exactly was this boy to have this much power at such a young age?

Then something even more astounding happened.

Without even speaking an incantation mana began flowing out from Alric and what looked like black sand began rising from the water.

I realized he was doing something that was thought to be impossible.

He was using class 1 magic on every single particle of this lead substance to pull it out from the water.

“This boy just might be the greatest magic user that ever lived.” Meredith thought to herself.

----End POV----

After all the lead had been extracted from the lake Meredith confirmed that the contamination had left the water when the spell returned a green light.

Meredith asked Alric, “What is this black sand you call lead? Apparently it is something I have knowledge of or my detector spell would have not been set off.”

“Go take a look, just be careful not to touch it or inhale any. Then tell me what you know it as.” (Alric)

“Gods! This is cursed iron! What the hell is it doing here! Cursed iron can’t be found within five hundred miles of here. What’s more it is never in this fine grain form.” (Meredith)

“Aye, it is as I feared someone imported this lead ground it down to fine pieces and put it in the lake to kill the slum dwellers.” (Alric)

“We need to get back and tell Catherine.” (Meredith)