His first step to find the cure is obviously by checking an Eternal Slumber patient's body. It can be said to be a human experiment, but this is the only way to find the cure of this illness, so even the law allows it.
Of course, Indra needs to get permissions from the country, some important organizations, and also the patient's family. He also can't just do the research anywhere because there is a facility dedicated for it.
Luckily, it's easy for him to get all of those with his reputations. Besides, people actually always want him to join the research to find the cure of Eternal Slumber because he is the best Healer in the world.
But he was just too busy and this isn't an illness that can be cured just by using a Healer's skill. If it is, then S-Rank Healers would have cured a lot of these patients already.
Indra is now in England where the research to find the cure for Eternal Slumber is done. Many experts from all over the world are working together in Oxford to find the cure.
These experts are doctors and magic researchers who are mostly Mages and Healers. But normal doctors actually won't be of much help to find the cure because it's a problem with magic power.
Still, they are needed because most of the Mages and Healers don't have medical backgrounds. So they don't know what to do if the patients' bodies are getting worse. They all need to work together.
Anyway, Indra doesn't waste time and quickly checks the patients. He already told the researchers and involved organizations that he has a clue of what causes the Eternal Slumber, but he needs to do thorough checkups on the patients to make sure of it.
The researchers are watching Indra very seriously when he checks the patients' bodies. Though they can't understand what he does because he just puts his hands on the patients' bodies for a while and that's it.
"Um, Mr. Smith, what did you do to the patients?"
An A-Rank Healer decides to ask what everyone has been thinking of for a while.
"I was flowing my mana into their bodies to check how their bodies react to mana. These people become like this because of long exposure to the mana radiating from awakeners, right? But it's still strange how they are also using mana from magic stones to stay alive. So I want to see how their bodies react to mana by flowing my mana into their bodies. As you know, Mages and Healers are sensitive to mana more than other classes. I am confident to say that my sensitivity is times above even S-Rank Mages and Healers. So I was hoping to find unusual things in their bodies when I flow my mana. It's also to confirm my theory."
"By theory, do you mean your hypothesis about the cause of Eternal Slumber?"
"Yeah, and it seems I am right."
Indra then explains his theory to them, about how the mana flows through mana veins inside human bodies and the patients' mana veins are blocked, so their mana can't flow properly.
"Mana veins? Are there such things?"
The Mages and Healers are very confused because they never know that mana flows like blood in their bodies.
"Yeah, I told you my sensitivity to mana is very high, right? I can even feel how they flow inside my body. Our mana is being stored in our hearts and it flows through the veins similar to blood veins. When we use skills, more mana will be pumped, but even when we do nothing, our mana will circulate in our bodies."
Indra explains to them how mana works similarly to blood in awakeners' bodies and they understand quickly.
"My theory is that the mana radiating from awakeners actually stimulates others to awaken as well. They are absorbing the mana leaking out of those awakeners. Of course, the absorption rate is different for everyone and the result is different too. I was thinking that maybe these patients were actually in the awakening process. But because their mana veins are blocked, the mana becomes stagnant and affects their bodies."
They all nod because now they can imagine it more clearly.
"So have you confirmed it, Mr. Smith?"
"Yeah, my guess is correct. Their mana veins are blocked so their mana can't flow properly. The numbers of blocked veins are different for each patient, but all of them have quite a lot of blocked veins. Maybe those with low numbers of blocked veins would only feel discomfort and won't enter Eternal Slumber because only a few veins are blocked."
The researchers seem delighted that they finally can find the true cause of Eternal Slumber now even though they can't find the cure yet.
"That means we need to find a way to open those blockages, right?"
"That's easier to say than done."
"We don't even know mana veins until Mr. Smith explained it to us a while ago."
The researchers are being rowdy as they start talking about how to find the cure. They know they need to open the patients' mana veins and break the blockages, but they don't know how.
Indra is also thinking about it now. If it's him, then he can find those blockages and break them with his mana. But others can't do that, so it's not a solution because he needs to find a method that can be used by others. If not, then he will need to cure all Eternal Slumber patients alone.
That's why he tries to find a method that can be used by other Healers or even by using machines like the current life support machines.
Thanks to Indra's participation, the development for Eternal Slumber's cure is progressing faster than ever. They also receive more funds from various sources now since there is a hope to find the cure.
Just a month after he joined the research, Indra already succeeded in curing a patient. He has found the method to break open the blocked mana veins in the patients' bodies.
Everyone is ecstatic, but he reminds them that it's no use if only he can use this method. The curing method is by flowing mana in the blocked mana veins and hit the blockages carefully until they break open.
But they need to be able to find the blockages and move the mana in the veins. Also, they need to be careful when hitting the blockages or they will damage the veins instead.
That's why even if they have found the method, they still haven't announced it to the world because currently, this method is still unusable as only Indra can do it now.
"Hmm, as I thought, it's very hard for awakeners to learn this method. The problem is they understand how to do it, but they can't even feel the mana that flows in the veins and can't find the blocked veins either. Their mana sensing ability is the biggest problem."
They have even tried to teach it to S-Rank Healers and Mages. Indra even personally called the National Level Hunters to try his method, but even they can't do it even though they have much higher sensitivity to mana than even S-Rank Hunters.
So now, they are working to make a device just like the life support machine that keeps the patient alive. It will be powered using magic stones, of course, because they need mana to open the mana veins.
But it's not easy even with a lot of great engineers and researchers working on it. After all, it hasn't been long since humanity is exposed to magic power, so they still don't know much about it to utilize it freely.
Then after another month of research, they finally find a solution. They just need to pump the mana from the heart at a frequent rate, just like a heartbeat.
It will frequently pump the mana into the veins and the force will open the blocked veins. They can slowly increase the pumping power to avoid damaging the veins until they open all the blocked veins.
After some tests, they find out that the mana veins can't hold the frequent strong pumps. So they make another device that has Indra's Rune Magic on it.
The Rune Magic that is placed there has the function to coat the patients' mana veins with more mana to strengthen them during the frequent pumps to open the blocked veins.
The result is very satisfactory. They succeed even though it will take days for the patients' blocked mana veins to open and get cured from Eternal Slumber depending on the numbers of the blocked mana veins.
But it's still a success nonetheless and now Eternal Slumber won't be a problem anymore. Now the problem is the appearance of 2 S-Rank Gates at the same time.
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