"Ahem, I'm still here you know."
Beulus was watching the two of us the entire time, almost acting as a third wheel on a date. He had a slightly smug expression as if he had everything figured out, "Hey Hasrem if you ever need a wingman, I'm right here-"
"Oh shut it! I just said that it wasn't like that, and Quis is still technically a student. I have a contract to follow. Ugh, the mood was so nice and comfortable until you opened your mouth. Do your words have a curse to ruin the atmosphere, hold still and let me check!"
Hasrem jumped at Beulus and, although I was expecting Beulus to evade, Hasrem was a lot faster than I thought she would be. They wrestled a little before Hasren claimed victory by sitting on his belly, thereby suffocating him. He tapped on her and she got up with dirt and grass stuck to her in various areas, but mostly her hair, "Hah, I win this time!"
Beulus got up and coughed a little before asking Hasrem, "What happened Hasrem? You are a lot stronger than I remember."
Hasrem flashed Beulus a cheeky grin and proudly announced, "Well, I had some divine inspiration and got a Wood Branch Fruit that permanently increases my dexterity, so of course I beat you in some simple wrestling."
Beulus gave a muted laugh, "Pft, what's that gonna do? Are you gonna wrestle your way into victory? Or maybe you'll- Wait! Did you say divine inspiration? Hasrem?... Did you..."
Hasrem took a proud stance and declared, "That's correct Beulus! I'm officially an Elder of the sect now! You can applaud."
Beulus looked shell-shocked, but that shock soon turned into desperation, "What?! I thought you didn't have a high enough Talent to get to Coal Class! I thought we would be the two Stone Class buddies! What am I going to do now?! I can't be the only Stone Class in the group!..."
He held his head and continued to yell like a maniac. I ignored him and walked toward Hasrem, "Hey Hasrem, a bit of a strange question, but since you do have a healing Fruit I have to ask. Do the Medical Halls hold records of how many times people have been healed or have some numeric values attached to how many heals they have left? I haven't seen that topic in any books around here."
Hasrem tilted her head in confusion, "... No... There'sa, there's no system like that... at... all." As she spoke, her eyes went wide in revelation, "There's not something like that in place at all! Maybe I should try to make something like that... but... just thinking of the numbers involved makes my head queazy. I really wish I could do something like that, it would help a whole lot in the healing industry."
It was my turn to be confused as I said to her, "What do you mean? That's just some basic measurements. First, you would start with what number base your system will work with, tens are easy, so we would do multiples of those. Then you just say that, for example, a shallow cut that doesn't bleed or a bruise would be on the lowest end of the spectrum with one... unit? Maybe call it something like HP, short for health points. Anyway, we can just say that if you use a healing fruit on a small bruise, it takes away one HP from however much HP that person has depending on their Class, Path, Branch, and Fruits used. A deep cut would be ten HP, A minor limb being cut off like a finger would be 100 HP, a major limb like an arm would be 1,000 HP, and a near-death would be 10,000 HP. It may be best to take everything down two decimal points though, to get rid of huge numbers. Of course, a small non-bleeding cut being, let's say 0.01 HP now, would only be true with a Dirt Class Fruit. There would be reductions with higher Class Fruits. Maybe something like HP / (whatever the shallow cut limit is of whatever Class you want to do / the Dirt Class limit). Of course, there would be outliers, but you could tweak the equation however much you needed to. It would take some human testing, but I'm sure some Devils would be happy to volunteer-"
Suddenly I felt a hand pressed against my mouth and was sucked out of my rambling. The hand was slowly lowered to make sure I wouldn't start talking so much again and then Hasrem, the owner of this hand, sighed, "My Sovereign Quis. You actually gave me a headache with how much math you were talking about. The hell do you mean by "basic"?! Do you secretly cultivate the Math Branch?"
What? I mean, what I was talking about might seem complex at first, but it just uses variables and some logic along with the pretense of testing being done. Once you take a second to think about it, it should make sense... But now that I think about it, I actually haven't seen any sort of math class or something similar. I never noticed before... but there's also no kind of language class, nothing science-related like astronomy, physics, or chemistry, nor was there any mandatory study of other regions' culture, history, and geography. At first, it seemed normal, even I was lulled into not noticing it because of how stressful learning cultivation already was, why would you need to know these things if you had the overwhelming power of cultivation?
But there was an unknown fact about any kind of world: When people are bored, they'll do anything for some fun, even if it isn't all that necessary. That was how science could be born in my world of magic. And it found its use eventually, even being integrated with magic somewhat. But there was none of those things here. I could understand it just being this sect because of the inner conflict going on currently, yet it's obvious that it has nothing to do with that. I hadn't found any books on this type of education, but there is such a thing as the Math Branch, as Hasrem just pointed out. There could easily also be an Astronomy Branch or Physics Branch, although I couldn't guess how they would fight. So that raises the question once again. Why is there no information on these subjects available?
It could be something like the cultivators of those Branches deciding not to spread the information by book, only doing so by mouth. But that would be way too reliant on everyone doing their part. A system like that would absolutely end with one greedy man mass-releasing a book and distributing it to every corner of the world...
Let's think about this reasonably. If it can't be a lack of circulation of knowledge... then maybe it's the location. Regions are very separated from each other. It was rare to see someone of one Region in another, and since the Jungle Region is mostly focused on the Magic Path, it doesn't have enough saturation for books like that to be common. And since there will still be a couple of people who take on the challenge of an uncommon Branch, once they get to a high enough level, they're sucked up by a superpower, like the Jungle Lotus Sect, and then only that sect could have to benefits of that knowledge. It was definitely a conspiracy-level hypothesis, but I don't think I would be in the wrong to say it probably has some truth to it.
Although, I was actually fine with this turn of events because I held knowledge that others didn't. When I was still in my own world, I made sure to study as much as possible, so of course that had me studying both the simple and advanced of many scientific topics. If I could use my knowledge as leverage in this world... like if I were to make a proper system that would level up the entire healing industry for example... I could make a killing. In both money and people.
But that of course runs the risk of making people much stronger than me angry. It's not like I was scared, but the wrath of the Jungle Lotus Sect wouldn't be something I could escape right now. They had Iron Class and Gold Class Cultivators aplenty. I would be killed with a snap of their fingers. So I could only shelf the idea for now, but it wouldn't be a bad idea for me once I got strong enough to ward them all off at least. And in the meantime, I could still exploit the unscientific nature of this region for my own benefit.
It was a lot that had just gone through my head from one question, but it only took me around ten seconds to get to the conclusion I wanted. So once I was done with that, I got back to my original goal, "Never mind that, just a passing thought of mine. Do the Medical Halls at least have patient records of some kind."
This time she seemed certain in her answer to my question, "Yes, they in fact do. Although we don't have any numeric system, whenever someone uses a healing Fruit on someone else, they are obligated to send in the papers on who healed and what Class of Fruit you used. That way they don't accidentally give someone with a shallow cut a new orifice because they just had a near-death experience. So what about it?"
I straightened my eyes and said to her, "I have a great way to kick off your sworn allegiance. I need you to get me the medical records of a certain person. And I would also appreciate some healing Fruits of yours. I assume you have the Coal Class variant of your healing Fruit now, I'll need some of those."
Hasrem nodded her head, "It's not like you haven't asked me for healing Fruits before, so that's fine with me. I'll also get any papers you need, but I still need to ask. Who's record do you need and when will you need it?"
I gave her a small smirk, "As soon as possible is preferable. And as for the person... I'm sure you'll recognize her name. She's a pretty popular Elder of the sect right now. I want medical records on Vernam Exmor."
___________________________________________________________________________
It was some time after midnight, a point in time when it was still dark out, but the smell of the morning was beginning to freshen the shadow-coated land. I was back in the classroom where the Elders were fast asleep. It was an exhausting day for them, so they were in deep sleep. My body could also use some sleep as this would be my second all-nighter in a row. My body had grown some endurance for sleep, but I was reaching my limit. I would have to at least sleep the next night away.
But right now I couldn't. I had to finish studying the binder of papers Beulus gave me. And it proved very wise on my part to have a new look at the roster of students. Most were still the same, but there were big changes in two people in particular. The first was Capcis. She was going through what I could only describe as intense depression. I wouldn't be surprised if she ended up killing herself if not for her still having people who cared for her. She was a sweet person, so even in depression, she would still think about how she would affect others.
This was great for me. According to the information the Hasrem wrote in, the depression probably had to do with my disappearance. I honestly didn't see this coming. She was sheepish, but I didn't think her mental space was so fragile that me being "dead" would hit her so hard. It was probably a mix of me and Pulchra leaving her life. Still, it feels... unnatural. If there was one thing humans were good at it was finding the hope to move forward, so her suddenly giving up on life was suspicious to me. But I wouldn't know anything more before meeting her again. Of course, I would make sure to be in the form of Igmor during that meeting.
The next to have a dramatic change was Spiravit. He has become more likable, more friendly, more charismatic, and more of a leader. As I read about his actions, I found many interesting little interactions of his that actually were a step forward on the path of power, via manipulation. But it wasn't the same type of manipulation I did. My style was to either break the other person and then make me their savior or weasel my way into their life and make myself irreplaceable. I like working with more controllable aspects like dependency, fear, and desperation.
But it looked to me that Spiravit took a different path. He made himself into a likable leader. One that would share a drink with you, complain about life with you and grow a personable relationship with you. It wasn't a bad way of growing into power, especially with a small group of people like the class we were in. Problems with that method only show up once you get to the big leagues. It was an ultimate truth that the good deeds one does suddenly disappear in the other's mind once riches are involved. You would eventually need to transition into an iron fist type of ruling.
But right now, his methods are effective, and now he's the leader of the classroom. I was fine with this. He was actually only making things easier for me. Once I took him over, the entire class would fall under my reign. And I planned to take him over. I would do it during the midterms, along with Capcis I suppose.
The midterms were going to be a chaotic mess filled with both trying to appear excellent in the eyes of the sect and also taking over Spiravit. It would be difficult, but oh-so rewarding.
Knock Knock.
Two knocks? It must be Hasrem then. I closed the binder and then opened the shabby door, finding Hasrem behind it. In her hand, she held a folder that I assumed was the medical records I asked for. She took a second to catch her breath before saying to me sarcastically, "This is quite the estate you have here."
I responded likewise, "Well, let's just call it in an investment. I'll flip this baby for millions."
Hasrem chuckled at my response a little bit before handing me the papers, "Here you go, try and give it back to me soon. They probably don't check the files too regularly, but just in case, it would be best to cover it up as soon as possible. Also, here are the Fruits you wanted."
Once the folder left her hand, around 25 Fruits were dropped on the floor. I touched the pile and teleported them into my Duranian before thanking Hasrem for her swift response. She promptly left to get as much sleep as she could before her shift began, leaving me alone with the file in my hand.
I flipped open the file and after reading it over, put it down. I turned to Vernam who was silently sleeping on the floor and gave a wicked smile.
"Tomorrow night is going to be real interesting for the both of us."