Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

In the active healing process, a healer was required to mimic the mana sense of those who were the target of their healing or recuperating magic. This was done with the help of their spells. Of course, there was no way it would be 100 percent accurate. But the good thing was it didn't have to be.

Mana in the surrounding area was generally pure, unblemished, with no sign of anyone's mana sense. It would only be marked with mana sense when it was absorbed by rankers, making it part of themselves.

It is the healer's responsibility to act as a mediator between the ranker and the unblemished mana. Then they would actively try to imbue that mana with the ranker's signature using their spells. It required exceptional intelligence to sense the fluctuations of mana sense and adjust the active healing spells accordingly to make it work.

The recuperated mana would get partially absorbed by the ranker. The healing of wounds would be similar to first aid in active healing. A healer recovering their teammate's mana would be a temporary top-up. The rankers' mana cores would eventually reject the mimicked mana thrust into their bodies. It was only a matter of time.

Once the mana with mimicked mana sense had dissipated, rankers receiving first aid would return to their original condition regarding mana depletion.

But before the mana dissipation takes place, rankers could use the mana their healers have provided them with to cast spells and keep things going for a while. Their spells' effectiveness would suffer a bit because it was being driven by the mana that was not theirs.

The active healing skill had become a sought-after skill among ranker parties despite all its disadvantages when compared with passive healing because it offered rankers a way to fight back against a stronger foe. The side effects of active healing could always be dealt with passive healing after the battle is fought and won after all.

Live to fight another day!

This was what active healing emphasized. So it was natural that Eren wanted their healer to acquire the skill as soon as she could. No matter how impressive her passive healing skill was, Eren would judge her by her active healing performance.

Eren observed Ana's performance while she took part in the team play and performed active healing on her teammates. Since she was immature, she was required to touch her target of healing before initiating the spell.

It was obvious that the active healing she performed while moving around on the battlefield was not as effective as passive healing. And yet, Eren was satisfied with the newbie healer's performance.

'She really is a healer prodigy. It's worthwhile to invest resources in her.'

Eren thought to himself and clapped his hands, indicating that the mock battle was over. The healer had passed with flying colours in her test and Eren didn't hold back conveying what he felt to the healer and his teammates.

But the newbie test wasn't over yet. There was still one guy remaining with his messy, light orange-brown hair and oversized spectacles smiling nervously towards his teammates. He was soon called upon:

"Bel, you are up."

Bel was patted on his back by Steve right after Eren called him up. The guy was about to almost fall off on his face because of that. He barely managed to keep his stance intact and came forward as a result of Steve's push.

"Er… Eren. I've just broken through the F-Rank and all my spells are not fine-tuned to the way I like yet. Isn't it better if we keep this test until tomorrow? I can…"

Eren cut the guy off before he could finish:

"Bel, we understand that you are nervous. But you don't have to be. We are not planning to drop you off the team just because you performed poorly. Neither are we intending to treat you especially because you performed exceptionally well?

This is a test to see how we measure up individually in our ranking abilities. It is done now so we could adjust our team play based on the data we have on ourselves. So relax."

Eren pacified Bel with the right words. He was cold and sharp with his words when he needed to. But he had also shown how to be encouraging in the right direction by the way he handled Bel.

"Al… alright! What do I need to do?"

Bel asked while adjusting his glasses that didn't need adjusting. Eren decided to tease him a bit:

"Well, the mock battle that took place just now. Can you trace the entire event with your historian magic?"

Eren asked while folding his arms. It was as if he had asked Bel the most basic thing he expected his historian to do. The latter started sweating buckets after hearing Eren's demands.

*****************

A historian's magic involves finding the residue mana signature in the surrounding environment. The mana signature was the imprint of mana sense left on the items and objects handled by the rankers.

The residue mana signature would be abundant or sporadic depending upon the way the rankers handled items or behaved in their surroundings. But it was never zero. Rankers would always leave their mana signature behind even if they merely passed by the place.

The residue mana signature would also dissipate with time. It would turn almost negligible after a certain period has passed.

It was a historian's job to make sense out of the residue mana signature. A talented historian could trace the residue mana signature left behind the rankers even after days or weeks had passed.

But like all magic, historians' magic also had its limits. Or to be precise, the historians too were bound by their talent and ranking status when it came to tracing the residue mana signature.

A newbie like Bel couldn't trace the residue mana signature of so many individuals all at once. So it was natural that Bel had his face turn pale after hearing Eren's expectations from him.