The Crystal Disease Part I

Shortly after, Merlin flew the kid down in the area before the village. He did not want to stampede people with his visit because being someone who could fly was not such an ordinary thing.

If it was not an elemental expert, that person had to be an archwizard to be able to fly in the air.

This place was a typical village located in the middle of the forest, which was a thoroughfare. There were no more than sixty families in this whole village.

It was quiet inside this place probably because it was in the border area between the Church of Light and Aragon Kingdom.

There were not many stores in this village and only a few people walking around on the roads. This place was profoundly desolate.

Merlin carried the boy with one hand. Although it was a child, this one was even bigger than Merlin.

Merlin’s appearance now looked like a ten-year-old boy. Achieving the stem-building stage had both good and bad sides because if one achieved it when too young, his body would look like it stopped growing.

In the zone of the stem-building stage, Merlin had to wait for another five years for his body to grow one year older. Although he was twelve now, his body was frozen at ten.

Walking along the road, Merlin found a bar. It was nameless, which was possible because it was the only bar in this village; people knew it well so it was unnecessary to have a name.

Merlin brought the boy in immediately.

There was a possibility that the villagers would know this child.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

The bell rang when Merlin pushed the door.

An old man behind the bar showed his face smilingly and was prepared to do the service when he heard customers coming in.

“Hello, what would you like…oh! Children! What are you guys doing here?”

The owner’s manners changed instantly after he saw the two kids.

Merlin seemed a little upset after seeing how the bar owner was acting. He left the boy on a chair in the bar and asked,

“I have something to ask.”

The owner gave a disdainful smile and answered,

“Huh… young man, this is not your playground. Get out of my bar before I kick you out myself.”

The old man crossed his arms and yelled loudly.

“Is this how you welcome your guests?” Merlin started to get mad. Although they met for the first time, he could not be polite to this type of person.

“HA HA HA HA, do not make me laugh. A kid like you, my customer? Go get your parents first then you can be my customer.”

The bar owner saw that Merlin was just a child; approximately from what he saw, he could not be older than ten years old. Without having to guess, this child must have no money to pay for his service.

It might be that this one was an aristocrat, but he had no followers by his side. So, the bar owner could guarantee that the customer in front of him definitely did not have any money to pay him. The boy sighed; he was trying to cool himself down from getting any angrier.

Disdain was not something people could easily handle. Even though Merlin used to be a servant, it was a different situation then; it was different now, with his present skills and status, they had revived his dignity.

Merlin’s pride was not easily erasable.

BANG!

Ten thousand zenis were heavily put onto the table. This amount of money was more than enough to eat and drink anything in the bar.

Merlin glared at the owner and said boringly,

“Alright, do you have time to talk to me now?”

When the shop owner saw a lot of money put in front of him, right away, his eyes glowed; his manners completely changed.

“Oh, my dear guest, what can I do for you? I am willing to give you the best service there is.”

Human behaviors could be changed so easily by money. The bar owner was almost like a different person. It was definite that the customer had a heavy pocket. Normally, it would not cost anything more than six hundred zenis when someone wanted to have an extravagantly good time; but this child in front of him paid ten thousand zenis without even thinking.

In the middle-of-the-forest village like this, business was slow. With the village’s situation being like this, there had rarely been any customers.

“I want to know if you know this kid?”

The shop owner looked confused; he forgot to notice the other child that he brought with him.

“That kid is so dirty; can I look at him closely? I may know him.”

The owner walked closer to the boy sleeping face down on the table. To see his face clearly, he used his hand to brush the hair covering his face off.

“This is!…no way! He is Jerald from the back of the village. I’m doomed. I am so doomed. He caught a contagious disease: the crystal disease.”

In shock, the shop owner was taken aback and stepped away from Jerald. He looked extremely nervous; he did not even know what to do when he saw that this kid was Jerald.

Just horrible! The disease was crawling into his place!

“I have to apologize; please take your money back and bring this boy out of my place right now.”

The reason why this village was so quiet was that there was a contagious disease. If anyone knew that an infected person was in his place, this bar would not make any money. Although this was a generous amount of money, he did not want to risk taking it.

“Hang on!” Merlin looked at how the shop owner was reacting in confusion. He just wanted to know why he was so terribly scared.

“Please do not touch me. You have touched Jerald; maybe I’ve already got the crystal disease.”

The shop owner ran back to hide behind the counter. He wanted to keep the furthest distance from Merlin and Jerald because he was so afraid of getting this disease.

Merlin sighed and walked to check Jerald’s condition. At first, he thought that this boy got scared by the beast and passed out. But it seemed like he was wrong; this boy probably passed out because of the symptoms of this disease.

In the past, in one period of his life, he used to be a doctor healing people. So, he had some basic healing skills and was not scared of any contagious diseases because being a stem-building practitioner, his body was cleansed and re-created as a supernatural creature. Human poisons and disease did not have any effects on him unless they came from a practitioner who used Xian vital essence.

When Merlin checked Jerald’s pupils, he found something wrong. Some of Jerald’s tears became crystallized. And when he looked at the pustules, he saw that some of them started to crystalize too.

“So…this is why the villagers call it a crystal disease.”

Suddenly, the information from Lemegeton came rushing into his head.

“Living Spirit Crystal” These crystals were similar to the spirits of the fairy remains: being parasitic. They absorbed and lived on human life energy which was different from the spirits of the fairy remains of the same type. The Spirits of the Fairy Remains would fuse and consume the magical power without touching human life energy.

So, for human beings, Living Spirit Crystals were awfully frightful. If lucky, that person might die; but if not, he or she might live on in the crystalized body forever.

In the past, there were people who garnered up Living Spirit Crystals; they turned them into Crystals of Life; they were tremendously powerful. and could give the possessors an unimaginable amount of power.

Rumor had it that the Crystals of Life could even bring people back to life; that was why they were also called by another name “Miraculous Crystals.”

Thus, these Miraculous Crystals were considered the crystals that brought death to countless people. Whenever they appeared, there was always bloodshed. People would do anything to get them.

While Merlin was in his reverie, a group of people walked in. From the way they dressed, they must be people sent by the kingdom; some of them were soldiers and sorcerers.

This village was going through a disease; they were sent to handle this problem.

“Shop owner, notify the village’s leader to bring all the villagers to the village yard.”