Chapter 26
Master-Level Devouring Contamination Potion
The lock on the laboratory door clicked softly at five in the afternoon, and Blaji stepped out, rubbing his temples.
Dark stains of unknown origin clung to his grey robe, and shadows lingered under his eyes.
With her knowledge of potionology, Lucy could confirm that those were definitely remnants from a failed resistance potion.
Leticia glanced at the few remaining grains of black sand in the hourglass clock and exclaimed in surprise, "Have we really talked for four whole hourglasses?"
She hastily lifted her skirt and stood up. "Wait here, I’ll go speak to him."
Lucy watched the beautiful Leticia walk toward the laboratory, and soon after, soft whispers echoed in the corridor.
Leticia and Blaji’s conversation didn’t last long. Moments later, the two of them returned to the lounge.
Unlike their meeting in the plaza that day, Blaji's grey hawk-like eyes swept across Lucy on the sofa, then he suddenly placed his right hand over his chest and performed a formal wizard's salute.
"To think that the one who refined the Devouring Contamination Potion is actually a probationary apprentice. Allow me to reintroduce myself: Blaji Hall, Tier-6 Elemental School apprentice."
A probationary apprentice normally didn’t deserve a greeting from a mid-level apprentice, but if she was a potionologist capable of crafting resistance potions, her status was equal to his perhaps even slightly superior.
Lucy stood and returned the salute.
"Probationary apprentice of Anatomy, Lucy Felicia."
After a brief exchange of greetings, the two sat down again.
"Leti says you can cure contamination syndrome. While I don’t believe a probationary apprentice could manage that, considering you kept her company in conversation..." He paused, tapping his knuckles on the oak table. "Let’s hear the plan."
Lucy took out a vial of dark brown potion from her wizard robe and placed it on the table.
Blaji frowned. He recognized the potion inside the bottle.
"The Devouring Contamination Potion?"
"Yes, and no," Lucy replied with a faint smile. "Strictly speaking, this is a master-level Devouring Contamination Potion."
Indeed, this potion was Lucy's greatest gain from her five days of seclusion.
With the more than forty sets of ingredients she had bought twice from Talia, she had successfully brewed eight regular potions and one master-level potion.
This master-level Devouring Contamination Potion not only raised the Mental Strength threshold of resistance potions to 60 points but also gained a new property.
"After drinking this potion, contamination syndrome will be completely suppressed within half an hourglass. As long as the mutated organ is entirely removed during this window, it can be completely cured."
Blaji snatched the brown potion from the table, uncorked it, and brought it to his nose to sniff.
Ever since his wife had contracted contamination syndrome, Blaji had been studying potionology. Although his progress was limited due to a lack of talent, he could still distinguish the differences between this Devouring Contamination Potion and the previous one.
The medicinal properties and magical energy fluctuations of this potion were far beyond the earlier version.
Even the contamination particles drifting in the air momentarily stilled.
In almost an instant, Blaji made his decision.
He turned and softly called his wife’s name. "Leticia."
She nodded with a smile.
"I've had enough of contamination syndrome. If this fails and causes the source to spread, then for me... and for you, it would still be a release."
Blaji moved his lips but said nothing in the end.
As the magical energy in the air trembled, a burst of blue flame suddenly ignited on Leticia’s house clothes.
In the blink of an eye, her garments turned to ash and vanished, revealing her proud figure, pale skin, and...
A festering tumor growing near her back and shoulder.
No wonder Leticia had survived despite having contamination syndrome.
No wonder Blaji, a Tier-6 apprentice, had not given up.
Leticia’s contamination value had not caused the mutation of existing organs but had instead led to the growth of an entirely new one.
It was a head a rotting skull fused to a spine, its twisted features twitching with each breath, and from its plaque-ridden teeth oozed dark green pus.
Blaji's face remained calm, showing no sign of distress at his wife’s grotesque mutation. Instead, it was Leticia who hung her head in silence after undressing.
Blaji asked, "Well, is there a way to cure her?"
The copper clasp of the plague doctor mask clicked shut as Lucy, wearing dissecting gloves lined with intestinal membrane, pressed against the edge of the tumor.
"The resistance potion is containing the source of contamination very well. I’m eighty percent confident."
Although Lucy had never performed a live dissection before, it was still just about removing a mutated organ. Whether the host was alive or dead probably didn’t make much difference... right?
The couple exchanged a glance, both catching the excitement in each other’s eyes.
Before Blaji could speak, Leticia exclaimed excitedly:
"Then cut it out right now!"
Fortunately, Blaji remained composed and asked:
"What do I need to prepare?"
"A secure laboratory," Lucy replied after a moment of thought. "A silver surgical table, a set of dissection tools, and recovery potions... as well as a sufficient dose of mandrake tincture. Live separation is a hundred times more painful than dissecting a corpse."
Blaji listened quietly to the list.
"Understood. Wait here, I’ll be back in half an hourglass."
With that, not even bothering about his wife being naked in the same room with another person, Blaji pushed the door open and left.
Although he had said half an hourglass, he returned in just over ten minutes.
Behind him were two men in servant uniforms. Their bodies emitted a subtle distortion in the air some kind of energy and they were carrying a large silver dissection table.
Although not made entirely of silver, the table was embedded with a two-meter-square ironwood slab. Its total weight must have exceeded a thousand pounds. Clearly, these two servants were no ordinary men.
Servants in the tower fell into two categories: ordinary servants made up of slaves and commoners, and knights affiliated with the tower.
These two clearly belonged to the latter.
Lucy had little direct experience with the knight profession and even less understanding of it.
All she knew was that, like wizards, knights also required talent. However, their talent was known as the seed of life, and their cultivation method was the knight's breathing technique.
This breathing technique could enhance both strength and agility. At higher levels, it could even generate battle aura.
However, knights had one fatal weakness whether it was the seed of life or the breathing technique, neither offered much enhancement to Mental Strength.
Even the strongest knights rarely exceeded 10 points in Mental Strength. While that was ten times that of an ordinary person, it still couldn’t withstand a single Mental Strength strike from a wizard apprentice.
Thus, no matter how formidable a legendary knight might be, they remained subordinates to wizards.
After the dissection table was set up, the two knights bowed respectfully and left the room.
All the items Lucy had requested were now prepared.
Standing at the doorway, Blaji suddenly spoke.
"No matter what brought you here or made you decide to treat Leti, according to the rules among wizards, once the surgery is complete, I’ll do everything I can to fulfill your request. I leave it in your hands."
Lucy, in the middle of sterilizing the surgical knife, responded solemnly, "I’ll do my best."
With the laboratory door closing behind him, only Lucy and Leticia, wrapped in a bath towel, remained in the room.
Although this would be her first time operating on a living person, Lucy was not overly nervous, having already dissected two humanoid corpses. She continued her preparations methodically.
Leticia stood to the side without urging her. Only when she began to feel a chill did she finally hear the words:
"Lie down."
Upon receiving the instruction, Leticia removed the towel and lay flat on the cold silver dissection table.
The faint chill of the table raised tiny goosebumps on her skin, but it was nothing compared to the nauseating sensation of the tumor writhing on her back.
Wearing her dissecting gloves and plague doctor mask, Lucy once again examined the mutated organ.
"I’ve only ever dissected enchanted beasts. This is my first time cutting into a living human. I’m confident I can cure the contamination syndrome, but I can’t guarantee the wound will heal perfectly."
Leticia nodded.
"The wound doesn’t matter." She stared up at the magical energy chandelier on the laboratory ceiling. "As long as I can get rid of this damned thing..."
As the anesthetic potion slid down her throat, the last thing Leticia saw was the cold gleam reflected off the plague doctor mask.
Lucy picked up the sharpest No. 5 scalpel and slowly moved it toward the boundary between the tumor and the healthy flesh there, a purplish-black blood vessel was pulsing like a slumbering viper.