Merlin was quite proud of the wood elf for finding out his secret lesson. It turns out that Truen had a good head on his shoulder, worthy of being Merlin's apprentice.
The wizard was initially reluctant to take on an apprentice other than Zero because many magicians back when he was a human often lacked the ability to create. They were power crazy and full of snobbishness that Merlin couldn't stand. The brightest of his students back then worked for riches and fame instead of the crown and for the future generations. He was sick of that. As a Sage God, he knew just how ugly humans could be. Truen may be a living wood spirit in a wood elf's body now. However, Merlin wasn't fooled. Truen was once human and a leopard never changes its spots.
Watching his apprentice struggle day and night, trying to understand the books way beyond his intelligence was amusing. The wizard didn't think much about it, deciding that Truen would quit in a few days and beg the Great Gods for help.
Truen did ask the Great Gods for a favour but it wasn't what Merlin had anticipated it to be. Instead of feeling discouraged, Truen became twice, if not more, determined. Reading the few thousands of books in the ancient library would take many lifetimes. To understand them, it took many more. Merlin painstakingly built it up over the centuries of research. He didn't expect Truen, who was merely an ordinary existence, to find the loophole in his request.
Merlin gave him a year to finish reading everything. However, the wizard thought that it would take the wood elf at least a few good months to figure out that something wasn't right and a few good months more to understand the hidden lesson behind the impossible task. Of course, he had no intentions of teaching the wood elf more than he had to. After all, the deal was for Zero and not his ordinary bodyguard. Merlin intended to give Truen a crash course with the space-time technology before he let the wood elf go. For Truen to grasp the hidden lesson so quickly and efficiently, Merlin saw promise and his blood was set on fire once more.
Truen had a nightmare. Nobody knew what the contents were but En worried about him. Was the wood elf pushing himself too hard? He knew that Merlin was an eccentric person who was hard to get along with. His fastidious attitude and tendency to demand perfection was enough to drive anyone up the wall. Could it be that Merlin was bullying Truen? King Yama wanted very much to interfere but he had been warned by his mothers not to. Truen had to overcome this by himself and the best that En could do was provide moral support when the wood elf needed it. When the wood elf finally called his mother, En couldn't help but ask for details.
"It looks like he's had quite the nightmare, poor thing. He asked us to check if Zero's underwear had any enchantments and if they were blessed with anti-theft enchants."
En raised a brow. He remembered the horrible image Truen painted for him. King Yama had been thorough about putting anti-theft enchants to all of Zero's clothes. He was a meticulous person and not a single piece of clothing escaped him. En remembered enchanting even the socks and hat that Zero owned even if they weren't enchanted with heaven-defying powers. King Yama was known for many things and paranoid was one of them so he checked everything three times before giving the good to go.
"It's fine," he told Gaia. "I'm certain of it. I checked everything thrice before they left. So, how are they?"
The Nature Goddess hummed with a troubled look on her face. "Zero's doing rather well. However, it's Truen I worry about. That child pushes himself way too hard. I'm starting to think that we should have sent him more than just energy replenishing rations."
En had similar thoughts. Freya and Isis went all out, troubling the best chefs to make nutritious and long-lasting rations for Truen as he requested. However, they were beginning to think that it was a mistake. The wood elf abused it to keep himself awake for nights on end, neglecting the need to rest by forcing the regenerative abilities in Gaia's avatar to work overtime.
Truen only fell asleep in the first place was because he had exhausted all the mana in his body, forcing it into a comatose state. Neither En nor Gaia could bear to see Truen suffering but they promised not to interfere with Merlin's lessons. The wizard may be a grouch but he understood what tough love was. Mollycoddling the young ones wouldn't make them grow and he had his reasons.
"We can only continue to root for him," Gaia told her son as they continued to watch over Truen for a little longer.
***
"What herb can aid in fever relief?"
"Viola flower!"
"What are the uses for wolfberry?"
"Treating heart, kidneys, nervous system, immune system, improve eyesight, relieve joint pains and improve digestion!"
Hua Tuo was impressed as he put the book down. Zero was a brilliant student. After slightly over a week, Zero approached Hua Tuo after lunch claiming that he had finished reading. Zero didn't slack off and the doctor was pleased when he tested the boy's understanding. Now that his apprentice had all the theory down to a pat, it was time to start on something practical.
Hua Tuo heard from Gaia about his other disciple's progress. He didn't spoil Zero but he thought that Merlin was being much too harsh. Truen collapsed from mana exhaustion because Merlin gave him an impossible time frame to finish his first task. Hua Tuo considered himself a good judge of character and knew that Truen was a man of his words. He couldn't interfere with how the wizard treated his students but he could at least provide some aid towards Truen's progress.
"Zero, how do you feel about learning how to make medicine?"
The brunet perked up at the mention of something practical. He was sick of hunting and cooking as the only form of physical activity. Other than the morning exercise, Zero spent the rest of his day buried in books. He couldn't wait to get into something new and Hua Tuo chuckled. The boy simply couldn't wait to put his new pill making kit to use. Hua Tuo didn't blame him. It was a good pill making kit.
"Follow me," he told the boy. Zero didn't protest and hopped after the physician to his workroom.
There were many tools and herbs. In fact, Zero had a hard time telling one apart from another because they looked so different from the ones in the field. After accompanying Hua Tuo to tend the fields for a week, Zero was quite confident in his abilities to identify them. After seeing the plants in their processed form, Zero wasn't too sure about it.
"Don't worry too much about it for now. It's common for physicians to keep stock of their herbs. You'll be familiarised with this inventory very soon. The small cabinets are labelled, you can find the herbs you need there. Most of them are well stocked but if you discover any running low, let me know. I'll teach you how to prepare the herbs when it happens. For now, we're going to be making mana recovery pills."
Zero raised a brow. Hua Tuo didn't like magic so why would he decide to craft mana recovery pills of all things?
"While it doesn't work for you, this pill is helpful for many. It rejuvenates the tired organs and stimulates the meridians to absorb more energy. When that happens, the chakra pathways are free to recover mana rapidly in a short period of time."
The brunet nodded and absorbed everything that his teacher was saying. he paid close attention to every single action in detail and soon made his first batch of pills.
Hua Tuo inspected the quality of the pills Zero made and found it to be satisfactory. Although Zero's craft wasn't as good looking as his, Hua Tuo had no doubts that the hardworking boy would improve over time.
"Very good for your first try. Now, all we need to do is let them dry under the sunlight for a few days before they are ready."
Zero beamed. He couldn't wait to see the finished pills. It was a lot of fun today as Hua Tuo explained how pills were made and the different types they could try. The toughest part of pill making was definitely the grinding. Zero's arms hurt from rolling and pounding the herbs into a paste. He did enjoy rolling the paste into little balls together with Hua Tuo after all that sweat-inducing work. Zero tried a little of what he made and decided that the honey was a very important ingredient when it came to pill making. He couldn't imagine eating pills without the sweetness of honey because it was very bitter with a strong aftertaste lingering.
"Normally, pills without honey are made because honey is expensive. Water is commonly used as well as seed oil instead of animal fat oil. We're only using honey and animal fat oil today because we had some extras from hunting the pygmy boar. I normally use arrowroot for my pills because it has bonus health benefits but any starch can be used for pills. Corn, potato, yam, wheat and rice are some of the substitutes that can be used."
Zero noted that down in his communicator. He would definitely love to try them out in the near future if Hua Tuo allowed him to experiment.
"The pills can be roasted for faster drying if honey is not used, it's a common trick many pharmacists use when they needed pills to be mass produced. Of course, I wouldn't encourage it as the effectiveness of the herbs would be drastically reduced. However, it is sometimes required to be done especially when there is an epidemic..."
As Hua Tuo continued his lecture, Zero found himself wondering if he could become a doctor as great as Hua Tuo. The world of medicine sounded interesting and he wanted to see more new plants, meet more new people, treat more illnesses while travelling to new places.