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"Ah? Me??"
Warrod pointed his finger at himself and blinked in surprise at Weston.
"It's you!"
"I have something I need your help with!"
Warrod was even more bewildered.
Was there really something in this world that Weston couldn't complete, but only he could?
Precht, however, quickly realized something: "Did you find something during the investigation of the illness?"
"Something like that."
Weston nodded and asked back, "What do you all think about this plague?"
No one in the towns could clearly explain the source of this plague.
In the beginning, some people pinpointed the source of the plague to the group of people Weston had brought to Magnolia from outside a month ago.
They believed those people were carrying some kind of pathogen, and that this towns finally met with disaster because of their arrival.
But later, this rumor was debunked.
One reason was that some people among that group also died from the plague.
Of course, the most important point was that news of plague outbreaks also came from surrounding towns, and the outbreaks in other towns occurred even earlier than in Magnolia.
"Based on the timing and severity of the outbreaks in several nearby towns and villages, as well as the living habits of the infected, I've calculated that the source of the problem is likely polluted water."
"The water source?!"
"Yes!"
As he spoke, Weston used the Super Archive to open a map of Magnolia and the nearby towns.
He had marked the areas where the plague broke out into several clearly visible regions with different colors according to the timing and severity of the outbreaks.
Then, he reached out and circled an area at the very top.
"Look, this area was the first to have an outbreak, and it's also where the situation is currently the most severe."
"Following the river downstream from here, it leads exactly to the areas where this plague broke out, with the timing being progressively later and the severity gradually decreasing."
"I don't think this is a coincidence."
Hearing the commotion, the guild members gathered around to look and found that the situation was indeed exactly as Weston described.
Including Magnolia, the water for all the towns and villages where the plague broke out all originated from there!
"So, you think something went wrong with the water quality upstream, which is why we living downstream are being affected?"
"I see, indeed, it's indeed very likely!"
"It seems the only way to completely resolve this disaster is to start at the source."
Warrod rested his chin on his hand, his eyes narrowing into slits: "But why would the water quality upstream suddenly have issues for no reason?"
"The reason is right here!"
Weston lightly moved his finger, landing on a large plain next to that bright red area.
Warrod frowned: "Is there anything special about this place?"
"This place was a battlefield during the previous Fiore Royal Family civil war."
"From the start to the end of the war, a total of three battles broke out here, with a cumulative death toll exceeding 150,000!"
"In other words, a massive number of corpses are buried there!"
Hearing the word "corpses" from Weston's mouth, everyone present felt their scalps tingle, their faces turned pale in an instant, and they couldn't help but shiver.
A bold idea emerged in their minds.
"150,000 corpses?!"
"Hey, wait! You don't mean to say—"
"I don't know why, but I suddenly feel itchy all over. Maybe I should go home and take a bath. Actually, forget it, better not use the water."
Weston's eyes lowered slightly.
"It seems you all understand what I'm trying to say."
"When we participated in the war, we would carefully clean up the battlefield after every fight."
"But we don't know what the other factions did."
"It's very likely that the factions fighting there didn't properly clean up the battlefield after the war ended, which led to this plague outbreak!"
Everyone was dazed for a while before gradually recovering.
"Then what help could I possibly be if I go there?"
Warrod looked at Weston curiously: "I have no clue how to solve this kind of situation!"
"If the situation is as I suspect, and the source of the plague is pathogens growing on the corpses, then if we find herbs that counteract them and use your magic to grow them quickly, it might eliminate the pathogens to some extent."
"Ah, this, will it work??"
"Let's give it a try for now."
"Even if it doesn't succeed in the end, greening the environment will still be of some help."
"I understand."
Half a day later, Weston left the guild's operations to Mavis and Precht, and then set off with Warrod.
The two left Magnolia and rode toward the battlefield suspected to be the source of the plague.
By the time they arrived, it was already late at night.
The dim moonlight spilled over the grayish-black earth. Looking around, ruins were everywhere, and distorted weapons were half-buried in the soil, as if silently recounting the brutal slaughter of the past.
However, the war had already been over for several months.
Although this plain was still like a ruin, not a single corpse could be seen, and there was no unusual smell in the air.
Warrod also noticed that tufts of tender green weeds had already grown in the cracks of the ground.
These weeds had their roots deep in the soil, quietly sucking the energy supplied by mother earth and continuously growing toward the sky.
"There are no corpses."
"Weston, could your guess be wrong?"
Was it wrong?
If the problem didn't originate here, where else could it come from?
"Don't jump to conclusions yet."
"Let's first find the place where the army concentrated the disposal of corpses, and then check the nearby river."
Weston pulled up the interface of the Super Archive again, intending to use it to detect the quality of the surrounding air, soil, and water, as well as changes in the concentration of Ethernano while they moved.
"Ah, oh, okay!"
Half an hour later.
Weston stood still above a clearing, glancing at the interface of the Super Archive: "It should be here! The place where both sides of the war handled the corpses—"
Warrod followed quickly and asked curiously, "How do you know?"
"Look, this clearing is different from its surroundings."
"The surface is relatively flatter, and there are no piles of weapons, rocks, or other debris on it. Instead, the weeds are growing very thick and dense."
"This indicates that the soil in this place is very nutrient-rich."
"On a battlefield like this, how could there be a patch of nutrient-rich soil?"
"There's only one possibility!"
"That is, something special is buried inside it!"
"So I used magic to detect the underground layers around here, and this is the image sent back."
Warrod poked his head over and found that the interface of the Super Archive showed an image like this:
——Surface——
Gray Gray Gray Gray Gray
Gray Brown Brown Brown Gray
Gray Brown Brown Brown Gray
Gray Gray Gray Gray Gray
"The situation is clear at a glance, right?"
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