Ed was also momentarily stunned. For a split second, he even thought it was Gray's joke, but after seeing the other's eyes, he immediately realized something was wrong and caught Gray with the vine net before his upper body hit the ground.
" Gray, Gray!"
Ed called out to Gray's consciousness while slapping him hard across the face. The plant-like lower body that Ed had installed immediately began a self-check, only relaxing after confirming that Gray's mechanical heart had not stopped working.
It seems he's just unconscious... but an unconscious state is a big problem because Ed isn't a doctor.
Although the world itself, along with all living and non-living things, was seriously ill, Ed discovered that he had never seen a single doctor since he came to this world.
Even Ed was a little flustered. He naturally had Little Green do its best to check Gray's physical condition, but the result was nothing unusual.
It can't just be that I'm sleepy, right?
Ed still felt uneasy, and after thinking for a moment, he snapped his fingers.
Although it was already night, liches have a very low need for sleep. Willow was engrossed in writing and drawing in the laboratory in the corner of the castle when she suddenly sensed a Psionic Energy fluctuation around her. The fluctuation was very shallow and gentle, more like an incidental effect when using other abilities.
She looked up at the window and saw the vines winding and twisting there, quickly forming several words she recognized:
" Gray is sick. Come to the study and take a look at him."
sick?
Although Willow recognized the word, it was somewhat unfamiliar to her.
For a demon like her, there are only three words to describe her physical state: alive, dead, and worse than dead ( Blood Corpse Transformation ). What disease is is a distant concept for Willow.
She vaguely remembered her mother talking to her about the concept of "illness" when she was little.
The example her mother gave was that after a slime accidentally ingested certain minerals, its habits would change for a period of time. For example, it would become sickly and lethargic, or enter a super-male state where it wanted to attack everything it saw. After a while, or after eating other minerals, it would return to normal. This was Willow's understanding of "illness" and "medicine".
The problem is that slimes had already become extinct due to the contamination of Chaos Psionic Energy in the first year after the outbreak of the Demonic Tide, so her understanding of the disease was not very deep.
Although she felt she couldn't be of much help, Willow went to Ed's study immediately.
She is now a member of the Second Holy See, and as this is her first job after graduating, she is very ambitious and has a strong sense of teamwork.
Willow quickly arrived at the study and saw the man in the jar placed on a simple rattan bed, and Ed deep in thought.
In fact, Ed also wanted to call in Professor Evergreen Tree, a biology professor, for help. Although most of his expertise was useless in this world, and he was showing signs of turning into Incarnation scientist lately, the saying goes, "a monk from afar is better than a monk from elsewhere," and if he were there, he might actually be able to offer some useful advice.
Unfortunately, it is nighttime in the World of Disorder and daytime in the real world. The professor has returned to his normal persona and should be sitting in front of his computer reviewing the subversive academic papers of some unfilial and rebellious students.
How did he become like this?
Willow looked at the unconscious man in the jar and didn't know what to do. She could only ask about the situation first. So Ed replayed the conversation and actions between Gray and her before he fell unconscious in front of Willow.
The lich pondered for a while but didn't see anything wrong, so he looked at Ed and asked:
Can I use Detection Spell on him?
Ed nodded, looking at the unconscious merchant:
He acquiesced.
Willow scanned Gray's remaining body with her Psionic Energy, analyzing the situation carefully in her mind, and gradually formed some ideas.
She looked at Ed and said seriously:
"I understand, the cause of his illness is likely..."
What is it?
"I'm not used to the local environment."
"?"
Now, not only Ed, but even the Little Green in his head was a bit off:
"Is this... what I understand as 'acclimatization sickness'?"
Willow's fingers twirled through her loose hair, and she didn't know what Ed had understood, but she simply explained:
Simply put, he is not completely compatible with the rules here, and the influence of the rules has caused internal Disorder in his body.
"You mean his body is more mechanical and non-biological, and since this is the Tree Worship Church, he became like this after staying here for a long time?"
Willow nodded:
"That's the idea. It's like the wilderness I passed through on my way here. Because the rules there were so chaotic and disorderly that they didn't meet the needs of any of the Tree Worship Church, the Eternal Domain, or the Graycast Corridor, everyone left that land empty."
" Gray is the same. Although there's nothing wrong with his body, because he's incompatible with the rules here, the mechanical part of him has begun to gradually malfunction."
So that's how it is... Ed thought to himself. Following this logic, the Tree Worship Church's territory is so vast, most likely because the region is suitable for plant growth rather than because the Tree Worship Church itself is that powerful. Similarly, the split of the Southern Starlight Empire might not be due to internal strife, but rather a rift in the rules...
But then Ed felt something was off. He glanced at Gray and then at Willow:
"But he's a traveling merchant, and he spends most of his time outside the territory of the Graycast Corridor. If he were going to have problems adapting to the environment, it should have happened long ago. Why did it wait until today?"
"Furthermore, if it's due to the rules, you, Seraphina, and Xilǐ'er are all individuals under different rules, so why haven't similar situations occurred?"
Willow nodded, agreeing with Ed's point, but she was, after all, a knowledgeable lich, whose knowledge level was essentially equivalent to that of a prophet in the talent-scarce Second Holy See.
So she quickly came up with a new guess:
"That Lady Seraphina is a powerful Red Dragon. She can contain her rules within her body; otherwise, it wouldn't be your rules corrupting her, but her rules corrupting you..."
"As a lich with Psionic Energy, I am able to do something similar. In addition, with the gift my mother left me, I can also construct a domain that only envelops myself, ensuring that the inside and outside are isolated from each other and do not interfere with each other."
"As for that armored knight, his strength is not particularly great but is quite strange. He is not affected by the rules here, perhaps because of the blessing of the Twin Kings."
"But the Twin Kings and the Grand Foundry Master are basically at the same level of strength. It doesn't make sense that Xilǐ'er is fine while Gray is suffering from acclimatization problems. So I think Gray's current condition is related to his previous injuries."