Chapter 30
Nightmare and the Girl
Returning to the dormitory from the morgue, Lucy set down the newly acquired scalpel with a hint of helplessness.
She had bought it last time from the Exchange Office. Clearly, she had not yet adapted perfectly to this set of tools, which was the main reason her dissection score had dropped this time.
The magically enchanted organ named "The Springtime Palpitations of a Girl’s Heart" had a simple structure and vague application, making it likely to end up merely as a display item on a laboratory shelf.
If it had been a higher-value enchanted organ, Lucy figured she would have been upset for quite some time.
After cleaning the bloodstains and meat fragments from the dissection table, Lucy took a shower.
When she returned to her bed wrapped in a bath towel, the system interface appeared at her call.
[Name: Lucy Felicia]
[Rank: Trainee Apprentice (Mental Strength: 8.1)]
[Meditation Method: Bramble Loop Meditation I]
[Witchcraft: Basic Magical Trick (Tier-0), Basic Ring of Resistance (Tier-0), Basic Magical Energy Storage (Tier-0), Basic Piercing Screech of Pain (Tier-0)]
[Skill: Devouring Contamination Potion (Advanced)]
[Equipment: Gear Staff (+2° magical energy)]
[Contamination Value: 33%]
[Academic Points: 10 + 2]
Dissecting "The Springtime Palpitations of a Girl’s Heart" had only provided 2 Academic Points, but with the addition of the "Banshee's Phase Wings," Lucy's total Academic Points still reached 12.
However, Lucy did not plan to use any more Academic Points for now she was saving them for something important.
Sitting cross-legged on the soft single bed, Lucy quickly entered a meditative state while pondering her thoughts.
...
Rustle... rustle... rustle...
What was that sound?
A faint noise suddenly pierced her eardrums. Lucy snapped out of her meditation. When she opened her eyes, she found herself standing in a quiet corridor.
The Everbright Lamps on the walls emitted a dim, warm glow, and the branches outside the window twisted eerily like tentacles.
"Who's there!" Lucy shouted sternly into the darkness, instinctively grabbing an Everbright Lamp from the wall.
When the torch-like light swept around the corner, a deformed figure gradually appeared.
A gaunt frame over two and a half meters tall, paired with arms that reached the ground this feature instantly reminded her of the humanoid horror she had encountered that night.
As the light moved upward, a pale human face emerged from the shadows.
"It’s all because of you..." a hoarse voice laced with venomous hatred said, "I became this monster... I’ll come for you!"
"Orlando!"
Shock gripped Lucy’s heart as she recognized the face.
But hadn’t he already died?
Before she could think further, "Orlando" suddenly opened a gaping, blood-red mouth and lunged at her.
Just as he was about to devour her...
"No!"
Lucy awoke with a scream, lightning-fast drawing the staff from beneath her pillow, her left hand clutching the distress crystal gifted by Blaji.
Yet, in the dormitory, only moonlight cast a pale reflection through the towering high windows onto the floor. The terrifying scene from moments before seemed to have never existed.
"Was that... a dream?"
Her sweat-soaked nightgown clung tightly to her back, revealing the graceful curves of her figure in the moonlight yet Lucy paid it no mind.
She stared at the dimming ruby glow at the tip of her staff, her thoughts in disarray.
"Was that a dream, or some kind of prophecy, or perhaps... a curse?"
"Did Orlando really die? And where did the horror that was with him that night go?"
"Looks like I’ll have to find Senior Blaji tomorrow for a checkup."
Too tense in both body and mind, Lucy didn’t dare continue her meditation. She got up and lit the candle on her desk instead.
As the flame flickered to life, a fleshy tumor in one of the specimen jars on the shelf also "awoke," lifting its top and waving eagerly toward her.
She tore off a piece of meat jerky and tossed it in the tumor immediately devoured it.
Lucy had exchanged for this jerky at the Exchange Office specifically to feed this tumor.
After two days of feeding, the tumor had stopped ramming into the glass and no longer showed hostility toward Lucy, its "caretaker."
Every time it saw her, it would straighten up and bob its top as if bowing repeatedly.
At dawn, after a quick wash, Lucy headed to the cafeteria with a newly brewed dose of Devouring Contamination Potion.
Same spot in the corner.
Lucy: "Take this. It might help with the parasitic spores in your body. At the very least, it could prevent your Contamination Value from exceeding the limit."
Talia, drinking porridge, tilted her head and took the potion bottle.
Talia: "What is this?"
Lucy: "Anti-contamination potion."
"Heavens! Doesn’t this cost over a dozen magic stones?"
The brown-haired girl nearly knocked over her porridge bowl. Realizing her voice was too loud, she quickly leaned in and whispered, "Where did you get this?"
"Would you believe me if I said I made it?"
Talia shook her head without hesitation.
"Don’t joke around..."
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Lucy... alright, it was exactly that she didn’t believe Lucy could brew potions.
She still remembered that just half a month ago, both she and Lucy had been equally anxious about the upcoming Job Division Meeting. There was no way Lucy could have learned potionology, one of the advanced schools, in such a short time.
Seeing the thought in her friend’s eyes, Lucy rubbed her brow helplessly.
"Wasn’t I always asking you to buy herbs during this time? It was for studying potionology. I’ve made some progress now. This is the first potion I’ve brewed there will be more to come."
"No one can know about this. You understand what I mean, right?"
Talia’s eyes grew wider and wider. She thought Lucy’s next words would be, ‘Just kidding, it’s just a bottle of cabbage juice.’
But even after finishing her explanation, Lucy still looked completely serious.
"You’re serious!?"
Lucy nodded again, calmly lying without a change in breath or expression. "I’ve actually been secretly practicing potionology all this time."
"Lu... Lucy, wuwuwu..."
Talia’s hand, holding the potion bottle, began to tremble more and more, until she finally burst into tears. She suddenly stood up and hugged Lucy’s slender waist tightly, her face buried into her swan-like neck as she sobbed.
Now it was Lucy’s turn to freeze.
Talia might not have been a classically pretty girl, but she carried a youthful fragrance unique to girls, like blooming gardenias, flooding Lucy’s senses.
It made Lucy’s face flush slightly after all, in her past life, she hadn’t even held a girl’s hand.
"Ta... Talia, don’t cry now. Everyone’s looking over here."
The interaction between the two girls had already drawn attention; a few of the kitchen staff serving food were casting glances in their direction from the corners of their eyes.
"I don’t want to cry either, but I just can’t help it... wuwu..."
Warm tears seeped into Lucy’s collar as she fumbled awkwardly to calm Talia down.
Only after asking did she find out that the parasitic spores on Talia’s arm wouldn’t take her life in the short term, but they would continuously increase her Contamination Value, just like contamination syndrome.
This was the practice method of Symbiotic Mutation Studies: either the host suppressed the parasite to draw power from it, or the parasite overtook the host and turned them into nutrients for the Green Vine Garden.
And in this struggle, Talia was clearly falling behind. That was why she had spoken to Lucy as if preparing for her last days.
But now, with Lucy providing the Devouring Contamination Potion, the girl who had braced for the worst could finally see a sliver of hope.
"You must never tell anyone about this. Remember that."
Worried that Talia hadn’t fully grasped the warning, Lucy reminded her again.
Talia nodded solemnly.
"So... do you still want me to keep buying herbs for you?"
"Of course," Lucy nodded. "But you also need to be careful not to get caught."
Talia: "Don’t worry, I’ve been buying them directly from the ‘plants’ Madam Vine planted in the garden. Not a single apprentice knows about it."
"Good," Lucy smiled. "Drink the potion. And stop saying things like ‘we’re not making it back.’"
Talia nodded and downed the potion, hope reigniting in her eyes. "When we both advance to official apprentices, let’s go home together."
Lucy looked speechlessly at the overly excited brown-haired girl across from her.
Stop jinxing yourself, sis.