Chapter 34
NO·5: Poison Gland of the Three-Eyed Banded Serpent
Completely unaware that the enchanted specimen she had submitted had nearly scared Carlton into wetting himself, Lucy had already left the cold morgue and was making her way up the spiral stone stairs, returning to the Tenth Floor's Tentacle Library.
But unfortunately, just as Carlton had said, knowledge regarding “Occult Studies” was scarce—even the library contained only a few records.
As for whether anomalies could affect dreams, that wasn’t mentioned at all.
...
Dormitory
Lucy carefully inserted the needle tip into the dark green poison gland.
The glass syringe drew back slowly, and the viscous fluid shimmered with an emerald glow under the moonlight.
As a drop of venom was injected into the small white mouse’s vein, the rodent suddenly convulsed violently, its claws scraping harshly against the pinewood tray.
Soon, the entire body of the white mouse began showing signs of systemic failure. After a few breaths, it lost control of its bowels and died of cardiac failure.
It appeared the snake venom’s effects were even more potent than anticipated—virtually lethal upon entry.
Lucy stored the remaining venom in a reagent vial. The ink-dipped quill scratched softly against the parchment.
Serial Number: NO·5
Scientific Name: Poison Gland of the Three-Eyed Banded Serpent
Dissection Time: Witch’s Calendar Year 3040, May 27, 23:00
Organ Source: Dissected in Morgue No. 66, hidden behind the secondary fangs at the tail of the snake corpse
Morphological Description: Two rhomboid sacs with an obsidian texture embedded deep within the jawbone, their surface etched with golden patterns of shed snake skin. Cross-section reveals nine honeycomb-like chambers, with liquid venom suspended in the innermost layer.
Anomalous Reaction: The experimenter experienced a phantom limb syndrome, with a burning pain as if their bone marrow were being licked by a snake’s tongue.
(Magical Vein Diagram)
Core Magical Vein: Twin-helix serpentine magical veins coiled around the central axis of the poison sac
Application Direction: Can be refined into neurotoxic potion
After writing the final letter, Lucy set down the quill and quietly awaited the system’s grading.
Soon...
[NO·5: Poison Gland of the Three-Eyed Banded Serpent]
[Evaluation: An ordinary dissection experiment]
[Academic Points Earned: 6 points]
With the previously accumulated academic points, Lucy’s total now reached 18.
However, she had not yet decided what to deduce next.
Her original plan was to continue deducing the "Bramble Loop Meditation," but unfortunately, the subsequent part of the meditation technique could only be exchanged at the Tower after becoming an official apprentice.
As for the previously planned “Mixed Witchcraft,” it also required a Mental Strength of over 10 in order to construct the witchcraft model.
As things stood, all her plans were stuck due to her pitifully low Mental Strength.
Currently, Lucy’s Mental Strength was at \[8.3]; following the usual cultivation path, it would take just twenty-seven more days to steadily surpass 10.
But now, with the inexplicable anomaly that bore an uncanny resemblance to Orlando hanging over her, she didn’t dare to meditate recklessly.
As a result, she couldn’t even lower her Contamination Value.
Frustrated, she ruffled her silver hair.
“No matter what, I have to find a solution tomorrow. If nothing else works, I’ll trade my Gear Staff for a magic stone and ask Blaji to find a peak-level apprentice to check me out.”
Having made up her mind, Lucy didn’t dare to sleep. She pulled down a book thicker than her fist from a nearby shelf—High Elvish Introductory Dictionary.
She vaguely remembered that in her previous life, the Chinese language had about eighty-five thousand characters, with more than thirty-five hundred commonly used ones, already considered the most difficult language to learn.
But even Chinese paled in comparison to High Elvish in this world.
According to the High Elvish Introductory Dictionary, the total number of High Elvish characters was far less than Chinese—just over ten thousand—but memorizing those ten thousand characters only equated to graduating from kindergarten.
These ten thousand or so basic glyphs were called “root characters,” which were equivalent to strokes like horizontal, vertical, and diagonal in Chinese.
Once one mastered all the root characters, by applying a few combinatory rules, it was possible to develop tens of millions of meanings.
For this reason, the meaning contained in a single High Elvish character could require hundreds of standard wizarding terms to annotate—and even then, it couldn’t be pronounced aloud.
High Elvish was not meant for everyday communication; it served instead as technical terminology and incantations.
All in all, even among wizards, High Elvish was considered the most difficult language. Despite the countless benefits it offered, there were only a scant few across the wizarding continent who could claim to have mastered it.
The night passed in silence.
The next day, with dark circles under her eyes, Lucy left her dormitory. Before heading to the library, she needed to visit the morgue to settle last week’s work.
When she arrived at the base of the West Tower, the person sitting at the entrance was not Carlton, but an elderly white-haired man in a black robe.
“Apprentice witch Lucy Felicia from Morgue No. 66 greets you.”
The elderly man, who had been sitting with his eyes closed in meditation, opened them upon hearing her voice. A flicker of intelligence flashed through his eyes, and he smiled.
“You don’t remember me?”
Lucy studied him closely in puzzlement, then realized that the old man behind the desk was the same one who had recommended she study High Elvish in the library yesterday.
“It’s you!” Lucy exclaimed in surprise. “You’re with the dissection lab too!”
The old man nodded without confirming or denying it.
“Where’s Senior Carlton?”
“Carlton took a leave today. I’m covering for him.”
Lucy gave a soft “oh,” and glanced toward the nearby flesh construct. Seeing that its breathing was steady, she felt relieved.
Noticing Lucy’s subtle expression, the old man’s lips curled into a faint smile as he unrolled the parchment on the desk: “Morgue No. 66, received five enchanted beast corpses, submitted eighteen organ specimens… Let me take a closer look, hm.”
“There’s something I’m quite curious about. Why are all the specimens you submitted among the lowest grade? Based on the enchanted beast corpses assigned to you, you should have been able to submit at least two high-value specimens.”
The old man’s words made Lucy’s heart tighten.
No wonder Carlton was absent today—they’d sent someone to audit her.
Yet Hain from Morgue No. 65 had never mentioned that the West Tower conducted audits.
Still, she knew her act of hiding specimens must never be exposed.
She could only brace herself and say, “Sir, it’s as you said—there were indeed two high-value specimens. Unfortunately, I accidentally damaged them during extraction.”
“Is that so?” the old man replied calmly. “But I checked your disposal bin and found no specimen fragments. And can you explain why all five enchanted beast corpses were thrown into the bin at the same time yesterday?”
“This...”
A slight sheen of sweat appeared on Lucy’s forehead.
This old man hadn’t just checked the specimens she submitted—he even rummaged through the trash bin!
And due to the incident with Orlando, she had indeed processed all of last week’s enchanted beast corpses just yesterday.
“Still not confessing? Must I search your dormitory before you’ll admit it?”
Fernando had expected that his words would send the little apprentice into a panic, maybe even have her fall to her knees begging for forgiveness.
But instead, Lucy’s expression, once flustered, slowly turned calm.
“You’re not afraid?”
Lucy replied, “I was very afraid at first. Now… not so much.”
Fernando asked in puzzlement, “Oh? Why?”
“At first, the things you said made me think you were trying to blackmail me. I was worried I didn’t have enough magic stones on me to pay you off. But if blackmail was your goal, there’d be no need to lay everything out so clearly.”
“Although I still don’t understand your real motive, if you truly intended to report me, I’d be facing an iron crow right now—not you.”
As she finished speaking, Lucy’s bright blue eyes observed every movement the old man made, while her right hand had already gripped the handle of her Gear Staff beneath her gray robe.
If she had guessed wrong, she wouldn’t hesitate to unleash a “Molten Steel Torrent” right then and there.
Time passed slowly. Just as Lucy thought she had misjudged the situation, the old man behind the desk suddenly burst into hearty laughter.
“Hahaha… What a pity. What a pity you’re only a trainee apprentice. Otherwise, I’d take you on as a disciple this very moment.”
Lucy’s eyes widened gradually, and a certain suspicion in her mind became increasingly certain.
In disbelief, she bowed and said,
“You… you’re Wizard Fernando!”
She had already suspected as much back in the library, but had not dared to be sure.
But only formal wizards had the right to accept disciples within the Tower. If she still couldn’t realize it now, she’d truly be a fool.