Chapter 14
The Second Corpse
Lucy Felicia?
The new girl in Morgue No. 66, a cautious yet very bold apprentice.
Cautious, because she had gone to great lengths to set up a question, and even after learning about it from him, she was still not reassured and went to another morgue to verify it.
Bold, because after just one day in the morgue, she was already eyeing the specimens.
He himself had taken three months before daring to attempt it.
Such a person would either soar to great heights in the future and become a great official witch, or would quickly die in some unknown corner, slowly rotting away.
As for that pretty little face, smooth silver hair, and a graceful figure that the witch robe could not completely conceal...
Honestly, though it was indeed tempting, for most witches, a good-looking appearance was not much of an advantage.
Even if it was heart-stirring...
Thinking this, Hain reluctantly shifted his gaze away from his witch notes.
Clank!
The heavy iron door slowly opened.
Lucy stood at the door and gave a slight bow.
"Good morning, Senior Hain."
"Hello."
Hain nodded a bit awkwardly, then spread his palm and said, "One question costs 5 points of magic sand, no guarantee of being able to answer or of accuracy."
Lucy handed over the magic sand.
"Ask away."
"I want to know where I can buy basic potion-making ingredients."
"Are you planning to also study the potion-making school?" Hain was stunned, a little surprised. "That is not an easy field of study."
"I just want to give it a try. After all, potions are the quickest way to make money."
The price of a witch's potion was generally ten times the cost of the required ingredients. As long as the success rate of potion-making exceeded one in ten, one could earn a steady profit.
But this one-in-ten chance had deterred many witches who had hoped to make money through this path.
Although he did not have high hopes in his heart, since she had already paid, Hain spoke.
"Our Tower of the Four Sages doesn't have potion-making witches or apprentices, so naturally we don't store many ingredients. But if you only want some basic materials, you can try your luck at the North Tower."
"North Tower?" Lucy was surprised. "You mean the Green Vine Garden?"
Like the West Tower where Anatomy was located, the North Tower was one of the four laboratories of the tower. It was the 'Symbiotic Mutation Studies' laboratory under Madam Vine, also known as the 'Green Vine Garden'.
"That's right." Hain rubbed his sleeve and continued. "Although Madam Vine's garden doesn't specifically cultivate potion ingredients, the land there is rich in magical energy, and occasionally some basic ingredients will grow. That should meet your needs."
"Thank you, Senior Hain."
Hain did not reply. With a loud bang, he closed the iron door, signaling the end of this transaction.
Lucy, accustomed to this, did not mind. She strolled back toward her own Morgue No. 66, pinching her smooth chin as she walked.
If she remembered correctly, that little girl Talia had gone to the Symbiotic Mutation Studies laboratory.
It had been a few days since they last met. It would be a good chance to catch up and ask about potion ingredients.
Having made up her mind, Lucy used the key to open the iron door.
As soon as she entered, she heard a pleasant clanging sound.
It was the sound of a metal tray sliding and striking the pipeline.
With a loud bang, the iron gate of Morgue No. 66 trembled violently.
Lucy immediately set aside her thoughts, locked the morgue door from the inside, and, with the quickest speed, put on her dissection gown and rubber gloves, donned the plague doctor mask, and impatiently opened the sealed iron gate.
As the crimson iron gate flipped upward, a large iron tray slid along the pipeline to the edge of the dissection table. A large amount of dark red blood dripped to the floor, quickly pooling into a foul-smelling puddle.
Lucy gripped one corner of the black cloth and lifted it forcefully.
"Another humanoid!"
Beneath the black cloth lay a female corpse with its chest and abdomen torn open. But Lucy soon corrected herself.
Although this corpse bore many characteristics of a woman, its height of only half a meter, the eagle talons on its lower body, and wings in place of arms clearly indicated that this was not a pure human.
This made Lucy secretly breathe a sigh of relief.
After all, the psychological pressure of dissecting one’s own kind was still quite heavy. If possible, Lucy truly did not wish to dissect a second human so soon.
But...
This wasn’t all that different from a human either.
Looking at this "broad-chested" humanoid corpse specimen, Lucy resigned herself and transferred it to the sterilized silver dissection table.
When she looked down, she saw that this humanoid enchanted beast’s corpse was glaring at the apprentice witch with eyes full of resentment.
Having gained experience from last time, Lucy was not frightened.
"No need for that. I wasn’t the one who killed you, and I don’t have much choice in this matter either."
Though she said she was helpless, her beautiful azure eyes had already examined the corpse from head to toe, her gaze full of excitement and eagerness. At the same time, she summoned the system to locate the enchanted organs.
While waiting for the blue light spots to coalesce, Lucy examined the enchanted beast’s corpse once again.
Judging from its appearance, it was likely a banshee.
Of course, this conclusion did not come from the tower’s knowledge, but from the games she had played in her previous life.
Humanoid creatures with eagle talons like this were generally called banshees.
However, Lucy could not determine whether this banshee belonged to the birdfolk or the undead category.
Judging from the corpse, the fatal wound was undoubtedly the trauma to the chest—a massive gash that nearly spanned the entire chest and abdominal cavity.
It had not only shattered all the ribs in the chest but had also left the internal organs completely hollow, with only a spine and a few pitiful strands of flesh connecting the remains.
"I wonder how high a witchcraft grade it would take to inflict such a clean wound."
Lucy traced the cut with her fingers. It looked as smooth as a cake sliced with a hot knife.
By this estimate, the living banshee must have been much larger than this corpse suggested.
After a rough assessment, Lucy took out The Witch’s Anatomical Notes and a quill pen. She turned to the back of the first page of the parchment and began sketching the banshee.
Although she had not been a professional artist in her previous life, she had attended two years of art classes out of interest. Though she could not make her drawings look lifelike, a few strokes were enough to capture a fairly accurate likeness.
By this time, five clusters of blue light had already formed on the corpse.
Four small clusters were located on the pair of talons and the two wings, while the largest cluster of light was concentrated at the banshee’s throat.
Lucy briefly examined the structures she would need to dissect, then took the sharpest No. 5 scalpel from the tool kit.
With her previous experience behind her, Lucy was clearly much more composed this time.
Not only did she no longer feel guilty about desecrating the corpse, but she also felt a faint sense of excitement and joy.
The sharp silver scalpel slowly approached the base of the banshee’s wing, slicing through the skin along the feather gaps, then cutting along the muscle fibers to expose the stark white bones and tendons.
Lucy then switched from the No. 5 scalpel to the largest No. 1 scalpel.
"Such hard bones!"
When the scalpel accidentally struck the scapula of the wing, its sharp edge was chipped slightly.
It should be noted that although apprentice tools were not the finest, the hardness of a dissection scalpel’s blade far exceeded that of ordinary iron implements.
Yet such a blade had only left a shallow scratch on the banshee’s bone.
And that was not all. After removing one wing, Lucy was surprised to find that it weighed no more than 11 pounds (5 kilograms), yet when fully spread, it reached a length of one and a half meters. No wonder the banshee could fly.
After folding the right wing and placing it into a glass jar, Lucy proceeded to remove the left wing and both legs in succession. Finally, she extracted the most valuable part: the throat.
Not until the banshee had been disassembled into a "human hog" did Lucy push the silver dissection table and dump the remaining parts into the crimson recycling bin by the door.