Task: The Shadows of the Past

Requester: Norden, traveler

Quest Rank: E-rank

Rewards: 11 Large Copper Coins

Description: Because of an old dispute I had with a friend of mine, he ended up dead... Terrified by what I have done, I fled, fled through all parts of the continent, seeking repentance, seeking forgiveness...

Yet none of those found me, only my friend's shadow keeps chasing me, haunting me, giving me visions of him, entering my dreams giving me nightmares over the moment of his death... Over and over again...

Please help me... I'm so sorry for what I have done...

As soon as Zinc entered the guild hall, he noticed a rambling middle-aged man causing a slight commotion by the receptionist desk. The man was Norden, a traveler who had visited many places before coming to Nagrand. Curious as to what the commotion was about, the dwelf edged closer.

“As I was saying. I need help. They…these things just won’t stop haunting me! I must be possessed or something! Do you have an exorcist in your group?” Norden pleaded as he held his head in pain.

The receptionist Norden was conversing with looked around in hopes of finding someone to take the middle-aged man off of him. The receptionist also felt some headache coming along as he tried to calm down Norden.

“What seems to be the problem?” Zinc asked as he approached the two.

The receptionist, upon seeing the doctor, light up and explained. “Norden here seems to be suffering from something from his past. Can you try to help him?”

“Hmm…judging by what he said, I think Norden might be suffering from the mid-stages of anxiety. It will take a while, but I think I can help him recover.”

“That’s great.” The receptionist clapped his hands as he motioned to the traveler. “Norden, this is Zinc. He’s a good doctor. Maybe he can help?"

“Doctor? I don’t think you can help me. I’m possessed! I need an exorcist!” Norden shook his head upon hearing Zinc’s occupation.

“Well, some forms of ‘possession’, as you call it, could very well be a form of mental disorder…for example, extreme stress?”

“E-Extreme stress? That can’t be.”

“Have you had trouble sleeping? Do you dream or constantly think about the events that happened from before? Do you feel disconnected from yourself and your surroundings? Have you blanked out a number of times and don’t remember what you have done during specific points of your day?”

“Y-Yes, how did you know?”

“And you said you experienced a terrible incident? Such a happening can cause the symptoms I’ve listed.”

“Is that so?”

“How about this? Let me help you out my way and we can see if you stop suffering from the ‘hauntings’ of yours.”

“Okay. At this point…I’m willing to try anything.”

“That’s good."

Zinc led Norden to his store and gave the traveler a more extensive diagnosis. Upon a closer look, the doctor found that Norden was also suffering from a feverish state. Before curing Norden’s stress, the doctor felt that it was necessary for him to cure Norden’s fever first. After all, the fever may have played a part in Norden’s delusions.

Zinc checked Norden’s skin and found some patches of inflammation. The inflammation seemed to converge at his back. Upon having Norden expose his back, Zinc saw a long, narrow wound. It was rotting and burning reddish purple. Norden was poisoned…mostly from some sort of bacterial infection.

Zinc reached back and pulled out a few acupuncture needles. Placing them at certain key points on Norden’s back, Zinc was able to numb the traveler’s back so that he won’t be able to feel what happened next. Once Norden cannot even feel his shoulders moving, Zinc began cutting away at the dead flesh. After cutting out the flesh, Zinc began squeezing out the pus and poisoned blood to clean the wound. Once that was done, Norden was able to recover from his fever.

Although the poison was squeezed out of the wound, the wound itself was prone to further infection. To disinfect the wound and detoxify the skin, Zinc needed to buy some salt to rub on the wounds. The dwelf had Norden rest while Zinc rushed out to buy some salt. The doctor didn’t go far when he found a peddler selling some premium quality salt.

“Premium salt! Selling premium salt! Not only does it taste good, it was even blessed by nobility as well as the temples.”

Zinc rushed over and asked. “How much for this bag of salt?”

“Three Large Copper coins per sack.” The peddler replied with confidence.

“Three? Deal!”

After buying the salt, Zinc hurried back to Norden. He applied the salt on Norden and also fed him some salt water. While he put the leftover salt aside, Zinc ordered the traveler to relax while he applied some acupuncture on the man’s head to relief pain caused by migraines. Next, Zinc compiled an herbal powder made from crushing dried jujubes, licorice roots, and wheat. Mixing with some sleeping powder, Zinc poured the contents into a glass of water. After stirring thoroughly, the doctor administered the solution to the patient. Norden went to bed soon after drinking the potion.

The next day, Norden felt refreshed as he woke up from his deep slumber. Having not suffered any nightmares last night, Norden rushed to Zinc to report of the good news. Nodding, as if to be expected, Zinc gave Norden some more medicine. He told the middle-aged man to drink a glass of the medicine each day before going to sleep for about a week. After a week was up, Norden visited Zinc’s store early in the morning for a full-body checkup. It seemed that the week went by without any problems.

While Zinc finished preparing some light breakfast, Norden reported that he had stopped seeing the nightmares and was able to get a good night sleep each night. Although his head still throbbed a bit, Norden felt that he was almost completely treated. Upon hearing that, Zinc smiled at the small success and beckoned the traveler to sit down while he administered some acupuncture treatment to cure the headache.

Zinc inserted some needles glazed with fire into different points of Norden’s head, ending with the last needle in the traveler’s Upper Star acupoint. The Upper Star acupoint was located halfway between the top of Norden’s head and his forehead and was well known to suppress head pains. However, something strange occurred as soon as Zinc inserted the needle. To the surprise of both Zinc and Norden, a howling scream pierced the air and a black, gaseous substance flowed out from the insertion.

“What’s going on? How did this happen?” Although Zinc exclaimed this, he immediately thought back to something he glanced over a few months back. In his quest to expand his knowledge, he found a book that spoke about the ghostly points of a human body, specifically for treating supernatural possessions.

Zinc had dismissed it earlier as unfounded superstition, but he recalled that the Upper Star acupoint was similar to one of the ghostly acupoints – the Ghost Hall acupoint. Could the ghostly points be real? With no time to think as he saw the black gas began to converge into something more demonic. Zinc quickly looked around his store for anything that could be used to drive the spirit away. He tried the cross symbol as well as the pentagram, but nothing seemed to work.

Seeing the spirit draw closer to him, the doctor panicked and reached for the nearest item…his breakfast. With a hurl, he threw the salted butter toast at the spirit. To his surprise, the spirit coiled back in pain as a sizzling sound could be heard from where the toast struck the spirit. Could spirits be afraid of bread? Of breakfast? That couldn’t be. Zinc then remembered about the salt. Wasn’t it blessed by the temples? Holy salt!

Zinc rushed to his kitchen and grabbed a cup of the salt. With a fling, he threw the salt – cup and all – at the spirit. The salt slammed into the spirit, covering it with sizzling wounds. In a matter of seconds, the spirit disintegrated into nothingness.

As Zinc exhaled in relief, Norden shook out of his surprise and blurted out. “I told you I was possessed!”

After the ordeal, Norden thanked the doctor and left Nagrand to continue his travels while Zinc reported back to the guild about the situation.