I became a god through archaeology in the Wizarding World.

The night was heavy, and the iconic spire of Royal Academy looked particularly menacing in the firelight.

The defensive barrier that originally covered the academy now appeared as a sickly dark yellow, with occasional flashes of light.

Rod, along with Professor Isaac and Sieg, passed through a special passage forcibly cleared by the military police and returned to the history department building.

The situation inside the college is worse than outside.

The apprentices who used to be well-dressed and talk eloquently about the truth have disappeared.

Discarded books, broken test tubes, and several undisposed corpses were scattered along the main road.

The ground around the corpse was corroded black, indicating that a small-scale corpse explosion had occurred.

"How could this be..." Professor Isaac's voice trembled as he looked at the ruined campus before him. "This is a royal academy, with so many qualified wizards and protective magic arrays..."

"The plague doesn't recognize academic qualifications, professor."

Rhodes indifferently stepped over a pool of green slime, his gaze sweeping over several school buildings with their doors tightly shut in the distance: "Moreover, the more magic gathers in a place, the more active this biological toxin that targets magic transmission becomes. For the Corpse Spores, these apprentices, whose bodies are brimming with magic, are more delicious petri dishes than those malnourished beggars in the slums."

He didn't stop, but went straight to the entrance of the underground laboratory.

Sig followed silently behind like a gray shadow.

His eyes scanned his surroundings warily, his demon-slaying short sword always ready to be drawn at any moment.

Pushing open the heavy iron door to the basement, the distinctive smell of old, dusty earth brought Rod a sense of reassurance.

"Professor, lock the door and activate the defensive runes."

As Rhodes removed his coat, which was tainted by the outside air, he quickly issued an order: "Lord Sig, please keep watch at the ventilation shaft. If you see anything with green mist trying to drift in, whether it's insects or dust, burn it immediately."

Sieg nodded, then vanished into the shadows in a flash.

Rhodes walked to the lab bench and turned on the operating light.

He pulled a sealed glass bottle from his pocket, containing samples of green flesh and blood he had collected from the exploded corpse on his way back.

"Let's get to work."

Rod put on specially made alchemical gloves and took an extremely thin scalpel from the tool rack.

"Professor, record the data."

Rhodes' voice was calm and even: "Sample number 001, source: remains of an infected person in the lower city. Appearance is gelatinous, with obvious phototaxis and magical aggregation properties."

He gently cut open the clump of green flesh with a scalpel.

No blood flowed out; instead, countless fine threads emerged from the incision, like some kind of mycelium, dancing wildly in the air, trying to find a new host.

Rod extended his left hand, and the dark green tattoo on his middle finger glowed faintly.

[Poisonous Vine Demon] Gene Activation.

Instead of releasing the physical vines, he hovered his finger above the sample, using the plant sensing ability inherent in his genes to read the information from the mycelium.

In his field of vision, the chaotic mass of green flesh and blood was instantly deconstructed.

"The structure is ingenious."

Rhodes narrowed his eyes, sensing as he spoke, "Mortimer is indeed a genius. He used necromancy to construct a basic negative energy cycle to maintain cell activity and prevent them from dying. Then, he grafted the characteristics of a parasitic plant with an extremely fast growth rate, allowing these cells to proliferate indefinitely after absorbing magic."

"That's why infected people swell up." Professor Isaac was taking notes quickly. Although he didn't understand the principles of magic, he was a competent scribe.

"That's right. When proliferation reaches a critical point, that is, when the host's skin can no longer withstand the internal pressure, a physical explosion will occur."

Rhodes used his scalpel to pick up a mycelium and examined it under a microscope: "But that's still not enough to explain why the explosion was so infectious, and... why these spores could survive for so long in the damp, dark environment of the sewers."

Ordinary necroviruses dislike light and prefer shade, but they can be diluted in flowing water.

This plague, however, broke out along the waterway.

Rhodes poured a small amount of the secondary acid onto the sample.

"Sizzle sizzle..."

The hyphae twisted violently, and white smoke rose from their surface, but they did not die immediately. Instead, they secreted a transparent mucus that neutralized the acidity.

"Acid-resistant, water-loving, and highly salt-tolerant..."

Rhodes frowned. This did not conform to the characteristics of terrestrial plants, nor did it resemble common swamp plants.

He activated the Poison Vine Demon's senses again, this time focusing his perception on the components of the transparent slime.

A faint pheromone with a salty, fishy smell returned to his brain.

That smell... was like a beach after a storm, a mixture of seaweed and the stench of rotting fish and shrimp.

Rhodes' pupils contracted sharply.

"This is not an ordinary plant."

Rhodes looked up at Sig in the shadows: "Lord Sig, does the Royal Intelligence Database have any information on the creatures around the Storm Sea?"

Sig emerged from the shadows, looked at Rhodes, a hint of doubt flashing in his gray eyes, then nodded, pulled a palm-sized miniature poison identification guide from the leather pouch at his waist, and tossed it to Rhodes.

Rod quickly flipped through the pages, finally stopping his finger on a page with a drawing of dark blue seaweed.

Storm algae

[Distribution: Waters surrounding the Storm Islands in the Western Sea]

[Characteristics: Found near storm sea serpent nests, highly toxic, capable of rapid reproduction in extremely harsh marine storms, its spores are extremely hygroscopic and explosive.]

"really."

Rhodes closed the encyclopedia, a cold smile playing on his lips: "That old Mortimer, his trump card isn't just necromancy. Or... he's unearthed some ancient ruin related to the ocean."

He mixed algae extract that had been treated with algae with algae that had been refined with algae into the cadaver spores!

This is why plagues can spread wildly through sewers, and why exploding corpses have such great power.

After absorbing enough water and magic, the storm algae themselves become miniature water mines.

"Once the lesion is found, the surgery will be much easier."

Rhodes pushed the sample aside and turned to walk toward the alchemy table.

Now that we know the core ingredient is a mixture of storm algae and necromantic magic, there's no need to try to purify the necromantic energy head-on when making an inhibitor; that's a stupid thing church priests do.

He only needs to disrupt the stability of the storm algae, causing it to lose its ability to absorb water and expand, and the corpse will not explode.

If it doesn't explode, the chain of infection will break.

"Professor, bring me that bucket of silver nitrate powder, and also the bone meal of the Thunder Frog that I collected on the second basement level."

Rhodes' movements became incredibly fast.

He dissolved silver nitrate in distilled water and then added bone meal from the thunder frog.

The skeleton of the thunder frog contains a natural electrical charge, which has a strong destructive effect on the cell membranes of marine organisms.

"Stir and heat to 80 degrees Celsius."

As Rhode operated the device, he constructed the alchemical array in his mind.

He doesn't need to create a perfect antidote; that's something for days or even months later.

What he needs now is a detonator that can be mass-produced quickly, is inexpensive, and has an immediate effect.

"Sizzle..."

As the last drop of the inhibitory toxin secreted by the [Poison Vine Demon] was added to the flask, the originally turbid liquid instantly turned into a clear light blue.

Rhodes picked up the flask and shook it.

"Lord Sig, may I borrow your dagger?"

Without any hesitation, Sieg drew his short sword and handed it over.

Rhodes used his short sword to pick up a bit of the pale blue potion, then turned and walked to the green flesh sample that was still wriggling slightly.

"Watch closely."

A drop of medicine fell.

"laugh!"

It's like throwing a red-hot iron block into ice water.

The green flesh that had been rapidly multiplying and secreting mucus trembled violently the moment it came into contact with the medicine.

Immediately afterwards, the green on its surface faded rapidly, turning into a lifeless grayish-white.

The nauseating feeling of expansion disappeared, replaced by a withered, shriveled appearance.

It didn't disappear, nor was it purified; instead... it petrified.

The electrical charge in the potion disrupted the algae's cellular structure, and the silver nitrate and toxins instantly locked down the flow of necromantic magic, solidifying it into a static equilibrium.

"It's a success."

Rhodes put down the flask and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"This stuff can't revive people who have already mutated, but it can stop the spores in an infected person's body from multiplying and prevent the corpses from exploding. Just spray this agent, and those green monsters will turn into stiff, dried-up corpses."

"As long as it doesn't explode, the spread of the plague will decrease by 90%."

Professor Isaac stared at the shriveled sample, stammering with excitement, "This...this is a miracle! Rhodes, you really did it! This is even more effective than the church's holy water!"

"It's just science, Professor."

Rhodes calmly dispensed the potion into several metal test tubes: "Moreover, this stuff is very inexpensive. As long as we have enough lightning-attribute materials and silver powder, we can produce many batches in a single day."

He picked up two test tubes and handed them to Sieg, who had been silently observing.

"Lord Sig, this is the first report I will submit to His Majesty."

Looking into Sig's emotionless eyes, Rhodes said earnestly, "Please send these two samples to the palace immediately. Tell His Majesty that this is a silencing agent. Have the military police dilute it with water and spray it on the streets and piles of corpses using high-pressure water cannons."

"in addition……"

Rod paused, his eyes darkening. "Please tell His Majesty that this potion only treats the symptoms. To completely eradicate the plague, we must enter the Necropolis, interrogate Mortimer, and find the source that keeps releasing the primordial spores. Before that, I need more resources to enhance this potion, and... to prepare for the attack on the tower."

Sig took the test tube and gave Rhodes a deep look.

Although he is mute, he is not blind, much less stupid.

He saw in this young man a quality more terrifying than Mortimer's.

Calm, precise, and extremely rational.

Faced with a plague capable of destroying a city, Rhodes showed no fear or pity whatsoever.

Such a person, if a friend, is a blessing to the kingdom.

If it's an enemy...

Sig put away the test tube, gave Rhodes a salute that he would only give to officers of the same rank, and then turned and disappeared into the end of the passage like a ghost.