DAKU
"Before I should teach you about anything, I must first assess you with your current status," Thelah began. "In this way, I know where to start and what must be done. Teaching you with no objectives will teach you nothing."
I nodded in full determination, agreeing with her statement. And so, I told her about what I could currently do. That includes healing myself, my target, and of course, the one where I could enhance my strength by reinforcing my muscles with healing magic.
"Increasing your strength through healing magic. That's new," Thelah commented while wearing a confused but intrigued look. She suddenly shook her head and brought back her calming and comforting face. "We should deal with that later. Now, let me see you in action."
Thelah waved her hand and a sudden pang of pain on my cheek surprised my body. I winced as the pain lingered until it was bearable to feel. Was that even magic? I didn't even feel any magic thrown at me. When did the magic touch me?
Bombarded by questions, I forgot that I was currently training. If it wasn't for Thelah who cleared her throat, I wouldn't be able to return my focus to the present.
"You got easily distracted by things you don't know," Thelah concluded and I was guilty of that. It was true that unknown things intrigued me so much that I would shift my focus just to get answers to the questions I had in my head. "We should work on that, too. But now, I want you to heal that wound on your cheek."
"Got it," I replied.
I closed both eyes and focused my mind on the stinging sensation on my cheek. I visualized my whole body to have better precision on the spot I wanted to heal. Turned out, that my daily routine of watching myself in the mirror came in handy. It made this visualization and projection thing easy.
Once I had a clearer image of myself and the wound, I let magic flow from my chest toward the injury. I imagined the magic as a green light tracing my body as its path until it reached its destined target. At that very moment, the pain abated until I could no longer feel it. I let the magic stay on the spot for a minute before deactivating it. When I opened my eyes, Thelah's unsatisfied look greeted me.
"Too slow. At that rate, other injured people have already died," Thelah frankly said. "You need to be fast. The faster, the more lives you save. Again."
Thelah waved her hand again and another wound appeared on my forehead. Right after the wound was inflicted, I immediately closed my eyes and redone everything I had done earlier—the visualization of my body and the magic. But still, I wasn't fast enough.
"Again." Maybe the third time is a charm...or maybe not. I failed thrice in a row. "Tell me, Daku, as a warrior in the middle of a battle, what is one thing that you should never do?"
I thought. Intensively. What should a warrior never do in a battle?
"Let the enemy think they got the upper hand?" I guessed.
"It could be, but not the answer I want. Guess more."
"Separate themselves from their weapon?"
"One could still win a fight even without a weapon. Remember, weapons are just an extension of one's body."
I stared at the ground masked by thin green grass and adorned by a variety of flowers. I thought and thought but nothing came to mind. What could be the right answer? I knew I had the answer in my head but this pressure emanating from the Goddess before me seemed to push all those thoughts at the very back of my head.
"Vision," the Goddess suddenly said, catching my attention. "A warrior should never take his eyes off his enemy because even a blink can be used as your enemy's blind spot against you. When you cast your magic, you always close your eyes and if I were to guess, it's because it helps you to focus. But you can still do that even with your eyes open. You just need to know how not to get yourself distracted. Let's do it again but this time, no shutting of eyes."
Another wound appeared this time on my neck. I focused on the pain while my eyes were fixated on the divine in front of me. But my peripheral vision caught something at my far right, distracting me. When I look at it, it was a doe made of magic. But who could—
I returned my gaze back at Thelah who lifted her right hand covered in magic swirling around it, implying that it was she who made the magical creature. And so I failed, again.
At this point, I should be giving up already. Failing on the tasks back at the shop was one thing but failing in front of a Goddess was far more shameful than I could possibly imagine. Humans did great things almost perfectly just to please the gods and yet here I was, failing before one of them. I bet she was already thinking I was not a worthy student and anytime would dump me out of this forest.
But Thelah held a patient persona. Something that I thought gods failed to have as a quality. Divine entities disliked being waited and delayed but not Thelah. She patiently watched me like a dedicated mentor—I meant, she was a dedicated mentor, otherwise, I would be on my way now back to Greygor's hut as a failure. No wonder Greygor was confident when he said that Thelah was the kindest god of all.
No matter how many times I failed, I never received any degrading words from her. Instead, she would just tell me to repeat the process again along with her insights on how to perform better. She told me that visualizing my magic traveled from a certain point of origin to another point was a waste of time and so, she suggested that I should imagine my magic originating at where the injury was. I always thought that magic had a source like at the chest but turned out, that magic could originate anywhere in the body.
The training persisted for an hour or two before the Goddess concluded. The sky was now pitch black and nocturnal creatures arose from their daylight slumber. Thelah offered me a walk out of the forest which I found sweet and reassuring. Sometimes I wondered if she was actually a god or not.
When we finally got out of the forest, Thelah and I bid farewell to each other. Thelah vanished before me, probably teleporting back to the clearing, while I trudged toward the hut. It felt surreal to learn magic from a god. This was something that we never expected to happen and were glad that it happened.
***
"HAH!" I screamed followed by a loud bang after I delivered a deadly blow to the boulder in front of me. A huge dent was left where my fist once was and several visible cracks extended from it resembling tendrils. Another blow would sure break this boulder into pieces.
It had been a month since I started my apprenticeship with the Goddess of Health. I didn't even realize a month had already passed if Kenshi didn't mention it. Speaking of Kenshi, he finally accepted the fact that I was now an apprentice of the Goddess of Health. After he saw my improvement these past few weeks, he was convinced that being trained by a god was not a bad thing after all.
Also, he had some training himself. Greygor offered to train him which would enhance his fighting prowess against formidable mages like Greygor. And he improved a lot as well. His sword skill was more sharp and swift. His footwork was defined and accurate.
When not training, we helped the villagers do their job. Sometimes we helped harvest the crops, feed the animals, or hunt. We also visited Miss Hanaka and Kana occasionally whenever they would invite us over for dinner.
A lot happened and changed. Back then, I found it difficult to heal one wound, now, I could heal multiple injuries in just a split of a second. My magic control improved tenfold as well that I could cast a necessary amount of magic to the target without effort—this technique reduced the use of mana by a quarter. Another thing I learned was healing multiple targets at once. Among all the techniques I learned, the latter was the tough one. Thankfully, Thelah was always there to help me.
At the moment, I just showed her the technique I used to defeat the corrupted lizard before. This was her first time seeing such a technique so I understood her curious glare and confused expression.
"Interesting. I never knew healing magic could be used in such a manner," Thelah said as she carefully examined the casualty left on the rock. She even placed her hand on one of the cracks to feel its existence. "How did you learn this? Who taught you?"
"I don't know, really, and no one," I admitted. "It just happened."
"You mentioned you were in a dire situation that time?" she clarified and I nodded in response. "Your body must've acted on its own and invented this new type of magic. I knew you were an interesting one, Daku."
"Thank you? But is it normal though?"
"If I were to contextualize that in today's time and established history, no, it's not normal," the Goddess frankly stated. "Healers should lack in strength, thus, they should never be able to do this."
"Great. I'm not just a Healer but also a freak," I mumbled as I stared at my hands.
"Go easy on yourself, Daku. You're bound to do great things in the future. Just because it was beyond the ordinary doesn't mean it's bad. Sometimes wonderful things are hard to understand."
"Thanks," I replied but deep inside me, I was still unconvinced that I was just an ordinary Healer. I could feel it. Something was different within me. Something scary. Because otherwise, this murdering technique would not appear. Am I asking for a way to fight so hard that it gave me this power?
"Let's end here for now. We'll learn more of that technique tomorr—"
Thelah was cut off when a flock of birds suddenly soared up to the sky as if they were disturbed or threatened. Terrestrial animals sprung out of their hiding spot, hopping and running away from the direction of the village.
Out of the blue, my heartbeat paced up and an unsettling feeling weighed down my body. I looked at Thelah and became more confused to see her serious and stern expression. Her eyes gazed far toward the location of the village. Whatever was happening right now, it was not good.
"The village," Thelah mumbled and floated swiftly.
I chased behind her, evading notorious rocks, twigs, branches, and poisonous herbs. Our location was not far from the village so it only took us a couple of minutes to reach the place.
The scene before was beyond explanation. Houses were lit up, lifeless bodies scattered everywhere, and cries of both pain and grief filled our ears. I could see two groups of people fighting: one was the villagers and the other were of unfamiliar faces.
"I should hel—"
"No," I interrupted the Goddess. I faced Thelah who was now wearing the face of both worry and sorrow. Her fists implied that anytime she would engage in a fight. "The gods should never involve themselves with human affairs. Let me help them. It's time to use what you taught me."
"But—"
"Go hide in the forest. We'll take care of the villagers," I ordered. I knew I was not in the right place and authority to command an order to a god but it must be done. Thelah was too good—too good that even a criminal could win her trust with little to less effort. She was lucky enough to only meet me. Imagine if she stumbled upon these bandits. "Thelah, hear my plea and trust me on this."
Thelah looked me in the eye and I could see how her worry was replaced by pride. "Don't fail me, Daku"
"I promise."