Damned Healer-Chapter 136: Magically Disappeared

Niara kept climbing on pure stubbornness. When she reached nine-tenths of the way up, she hit an unprecedented crisis. She felt a violent current of green and white energy slam into her.

Her whole body hurt — it was like being ground down by a whetstone. On top of that, the energy went straight through her body and her scales. It felt like millions of flies were eating her alive.

Darian, who couldn’t feel any of it, watched the changes in her with surprise.

The first steps tested aptitude and willpower. Then came physical resistance. But the final ones... it was like they refined the climber’s life force.

That made sense, since this martial art used exactly that. If you didn’t have enough life force, the technique would be useless. To help, the trial itself boosted one of those powers in whoever passed it.

Niara was already using her mental power to the max; the pressure had forced her to externalize it and use it as efficiently as possible. On top of that, she had a mutant Bloodline, which gave her strong life energy. Combining the two, the only "normal" life force left in her was her soul — and that’s exactly what was being refined now.

She felt like her blood, flesh, tendons, bones, soul, and will — every part of her, whether it had form or not — was being crushed. The pain was indescribable. But it was just the sensation; the soul, being connected to everything, made the whole body react with pain when it was under pressure.

"Nine more steps to go. Take a deep breath, you’re already there," Darian whispered gently to her.

Niara took a deep breath, clenched her teeth, and lifted her foot for the next step.

When she reached the second-to-last step, she felt like she’d turned transparent. A strange force pierced her body, while her soul went through an agonizing grinding. The more she resisted, the stronger it got.

But her will was solid. She ignored the pain and kept climbing.

On the final step... everything changed.

A waterfall appeared in front of them, its waters crashing down on them.

Niara’s body trembled. That wasn’t water — it was energy pouring straight into her.

"Soul power — this is really good," Darian said, excited.

That energy filled Niara’s injured soul and fused with it at the same time, making it stronger.

In just a few seconds, the waterfall ran dry. At the same time, Darian, surprised, felt that Niara’s soul was now three times stronger. Her spiritual root had also become much thicker and more powerful.

"Excellent. Your weakest link just got a huge upgrade. But... why would they give us something this good?" Darian muttered, surprised.

She took a deep breath, excited. "Every test benefits whoever tries it. They were built with a Stellar Ore."

Darian turned to her, confused. Niara explained the little she knew: these ores had already been rare way back then, before the Risen took over everything. Like the name said, they formed when a star died.

When they were born, they could be Stellar Ores of any element — or a mix of several. The most common ones concentrated life force. After all, when a star died, it often took countless life forms from nearby planets with it.

These ores worked like a power core that someone could draw energy from. After a while, the ore would recharge itself.

When fully charged, the internal energy kept getting denser and denser. If it was a natural element, for example, it could theoretically evolve to the Calamity level.

Darian nodded, getting it: "This test was probably meant to give a little boost to the winner. But since this martial art is super specific for people with a Dragon Bloodline and no one’s ever reached the end before, you got the purest, most concentrated reward they’d built up."

Niara nodded. Then she looked at the waterfall and started moving slowly around it, heading for the top, where the martial art should be.

"Are there a lot of these Stellar Ores in the Academy?"

Darian asked — and in that moment, he noticed a bitter, painful feeling coming from Niara. She kept walking, climbing the waterfall.

"The pure ores... counting this one, there are less than ten in the Academy. In the past, the dwarves used them to forge stellar weapons. Those weapons were insanely powerful, but they were all destroyed and lost during the long war. When the last dwarf died, the forging method was lost too. Unfortunately, the Academy doesn’t have much use for the few ores they’ve got, but... they keep trying..."

She answered with a hint of emotion. Darian listened quietly, trying to guess what connection she had to all this.

Then she stopped. Right in front of her was the top of the waterfall. Floating a few inches above it was a round stone about the size of a fist. It didn’t look completely solid — it was covered with tiny green, violet, and white runes.

Darian saw it, and his eyes went wide.

"Is that a Stellar Ore?" he muttered, and immediately pulled something out of his inventory.

Niara turned to him, then saw something small, like a crystal, with pulsing purple and red lines. It was the High-grade Lightning and Fire Crystal that Darian had gotten from the array.

She held the crystal, sensing it, then looked at the other one in front of her, picking up on both of their fluctuations.

"They definitely seem to come from the same source..." she concluded.

Darian trusted her instincts and senses. If these minerals and crystals appeared when a star died, then stuff like this should exist across many universes. The array had simply handed him that one — now he could research ways to use it.

Niara moved closer to the ore in front of her. Connected to it was a simple, discreet Jade Slip.

She moved excitedly and touched it; immediately, she closed her eyes and a flood of information poured into her.

It was automatic; later, she wouldn’t waste time studying it. Niara always learned through practice — when she needed to fight, she’d use it to train. And surprisingly, this always worked for her.

While that was happening, Darian was staring at the Stellar Ore there...

’Hmm... leaving this here hurts my heart...’ he muttered to himself.

’Nobody comes up here, right? If I just leave it, it’ll be a waste...’

He remembered when he was in the array and had chickened out. Back then, he’d burned it into his brain that he wouldn’t leave any opportunity to grow behind. But taking this now would obviously cause a problem...

What if...

He activated the rings on his wrists and tried an idea.

"!"

That Stellar Ore was literally a core. Inside it, all its energy was stored.

’This thing’s completely ownerless and unprotected... perfect.’

Darian just gave it a try — and all the stored energy in the core started moving and flowing out.

’Hmm... I’ve got it!’

Darian wasn’t a baby with a machine gun anymore. Meru had beaten the basics of all his powers into him. Ownerless energy, sitting completely still inside the ore — for him, controlling it was pretty easy.

It was really different from the planet’s elemental energy. That was connected to the place, and he’d need enough strength to control it.

He looked at the area under where the ore had been. There were three runes there — they were what attracted the energy when someone did the trial.

Darian focused, then pulled out everything the ore had. Following that, he gathered the energy into three small orbs and used his control to hold them perfectly still.

He placed them carefully right near the runes. When someone entered the trial, those orbs would supply energy, and the process wouldn’t feel any different.

With the ore, as its energy got used, it would naturally recover. But those orbs, once used, would simply vanish, and the trial couldn’t happen again.

Darian figured what he’d left behind should last for about a dozen attempts — assuming no one got past halfway up the mountain. But since almost no one took the trial, it would probably be centuries before anyone noticed the theft.

...

When Niara opened her eyes, she almost jumped.

"The Stellar Ore!"

"Yeah, yeah, it magically disappeared," Darian said casually, and she stared at him in surprise.

Then she smiled playfully and nodded, turning around.