I can see experience bars after being transported to another world.

Lu Yuan did not press further.

He glanced at the position of Klaus's right hand fingers, which were resting on the armrest. There was a very slight tremor in his fingertips, which could not be noticed unless you looked closely.

My fingertips are pressing down hard on something, preventing it from spreading outwards.

Klaus also noticed Lu Yuan's gaze.

He removed his right hand from the armrest and placed it under the table.

"No need to know too much." His tone returned to its usual calm. "They can handle the Tower of Learning themselves. Several of our wounded are still recovering, Franz being the most seriously injured. The branch's conditions aren't adequate. When Beren leaves tomorrow, take Franz with you to headquarters."

He paused for a moment.

"As for what leaked out... it's being processed."

Lu Yuan nodded and did not ask any further questions.

Klaus didn't want to say much because there were some things he himself might not have fully understood, or perhaps he had understood them but now was not the time to talk about them.

Klaus changed the subject.

"The Earl's party begins the day after tomorrow."

"After the incident at the Bo Xue Pagoda, an additional topic was added to the gathering: the aftermath and follow-up arrangements for the fishing accident. The Bo Xue Pagoda team is already making preparations."

He looked at Lu Yuan.

"you go."

"I?"

"You participated in the first fishing expedition; you're the Night's Watch member with the most firsthand knowledge of the Sea of ​​Knowledge," Klaus said directly. "And your abilities might be useful in that situation."

Those abilities. He didn't specify which ones.

Lu Yuan understood.

"knew."

Klaus's gaze lingered on his face for a moment.

"Go back and rest. We'll talk about it the day after tomorrow."

Lu Yuan stood up and walked to the door.

It paused for a moment.

Your wound—

"It doesn't bother you," Klaus interrupted him, his tone as flat as before.

Lu Yuan didn't leave. He turned around.

"I can cure it."

Klaus's fingers stopped.

The office fell silent for a moment.

"What did you say?"

Klaus's tone remained unchanged, but the hand that had been resting on the armrest was pulled back below the table.

"The injuries on your body are two kinds of damage combined," Lu Yuan said in a low voice as he walked back and sat down opposite Klaus. "One is an old injury that has been aggravated, and the other is the erosion from the Sea of ​​Knowledge. My methods can analyze it."

He did not use the word "specialized research".

Klaus looked at him. His gaze was sharper than before.

How do you know there are two?

"I could tell when I walked in."

Klaus was silent for two seconds. He was probably trying to figure out what Lu Yuan meant.

"Tell me first, how did you get injured?" Lu Yuan did not avoid his gaze.

"Clean up the leak site." Klaus's tone was as flat as if he were talking about someone else. "Something from the sea of ​​knowledge has reopened an old wound, and both sides are acting up at once."

Right.

"There's something in my path," Lu Yuan carefully chose his words. "It can devour these two types of damage you're suffering from."

When the word "eat" was uttered, Klaus's brow twitched.

It was so light, almost invisible. But Lu Yuan noticed it.

Klaus didn't respond immediately. He leaned back in his chair, his gaze lingering on Lu Yuan's face for several seconds.

Lu Yuan had seen that look before. From day one, Klaus had been looking at him with that gaze. It was scrutinizing, weighing, and occasionally carrying a hint of something ambiguous. But this time, there was something more.

"You don't need to tell me the specifics," Klaus said, his voice lowering slightly. "But I have a question for you."

"You ask."

What is the success rate?

"Ninety percent. Combined with the restorative medicines available at the branch pharmacy, that should be enough."

But when he heard "90%", Klaus visibly wavered, clearly aware of his injuries.

Klaus leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes briefly.

It didn't take long.

When he opened his eyes again, his gaze had returned to normal.

"When?"

"Get the injury treated tonight before the party. We need a quiet place, about an hour away."

Klaus nodded.

"Come find me after midnight."

Lu Yuan didn't say anything more, turned around and left the office.

The sound of footsteps gradually faded away in the corridor.

The door was ajar. Klaus was the only one left in the office.

The bottle of medicine that had just been drunk from on the table hadn't been capped back on, and a thin layer of dark green liquid clung to the bottle's surface.

Klaus leaned back in his chair, the blue patterns beneath the gauze flowing slowly, spreading from his wrist up his forearm and all the way to the inside of his sleeve.

The Bronze City was quiet at night. The eerie blue light from the inscriptions on the city walls shone through the windows and onto his face. He seemed lost in thought.

The smell of medicine in the corridor was less strong than when I first arrived, but it hadn't completely dissipated.

Lu Yuan walked back down the corridor, and stopped when he passed the medical room.

The door was ajar, and the lights inside were bright. A night watchman in the uniform of the South District squad came out, his face pale, and walked past Lu Yuan with his head down without saying hello.

Lu Yuan pushed open the door.

The medical room was small, with three beds lined up against the wall. The two beds on the left were empty, their bedding neatly folded. A person was lying on the bed on the far right.

It's Franz.

The efficient and decisive captain from the pipeline operation was now lying quietly on the narrow bed, his eyes closed and his face ashen.

His breathing was shallow, and the rise and fall of his chest was so small that it was almost invisible.

A bottle of dark green medicine hung by the bedside, dripping slowly into his mouth through a thin tube.

Lu Yuan walked to the bedside and looked down at him for a few seconds.

Grayish-white text jumped out densely at the edge of my field of vision.

[Taboo Studies - Research Begins]

[Analyzing target status: Franz (Mysterious and Extraordinary)]

[Status Analysis: Deep coma. Reason is severely damaged; consciousness is in a self-imposed state and cannot be actively awakened. The damage bears the residual imprint of the Sea of ​​Knowledge, slowly eroding the foundation of the host's consciousness.]

[The plan is being developed...]

[Solution Generation: Insect Damage Marks (Optimal Version)]

[Principle: Knowledge-derived insects infiltrate the deep layers of the host's consciousness, gradually eroding the remaining imprints of the sea of ​​knowledge, while a high concentration of rationality-enhancing drugs maintains the foundation of the host's consciousness from collapsing.]

[Estimated success rate: 18%]

[Note: Knowledge-derived worms possess a natural ability to erode and digest the imprints of the Sea of ​​Knowledge, but the host's consciousness is already extremely fragile, and the worm's intervention itself carries the risk of further eroding consciousness.]

[Solution Generation: Rational Infusion (Conservative Version)]

[Principle: Continuously injecting high-level sanity potions to maintain consciousness activity, waiting for the host to naturally reject the residual imprint.]

[Estimated success rate: 4%]

[Note: The rejection process is extremely time-consuming, during which the imprint continues to erode the host's consciousness, and there is a high probability that the host's consciousness will collapse before the rejection is completed.]

18%.

Lu Yuan withdrew his study and stood by the bed without moving.

The highest possible 18% is only. It's simply not worth trying; if it fails, Franz will surely die. But there are so many people at headquarters, and if there are professional resources available, there might be other solutions later.

Lu Yuan glanced at Franz's face, remained silent for a moment, and finally turned and left the medical room, gently closing the door behind him.

Back in his room, he opened the window, and the night breeze outside blew in, carrying a slight chill.

The faint blue light of the inscriptions on the distant city wall was reflected on the rooftops opposite, forming streaks.

I was just about to take off my coat.

A voice came from the corridor.

It was the sound of a cane, a slow, rhythmic sound that Lu Yuan knew all too well.

Burren appeared in the doorway. Kale followed half a step behind.

"You're back."

Beren's tone showed no surprise. News always travels fast in the branch. When Lu Yuan arrived, he met Glock. Glock met someone else, and who told whom. Before long, the branch knew almost everything.

"Come in and sit down." Lu Yuan pushed the door open a little.

Beren came in, leaned his cane against the table, and sat down in a chair. He looked unwell, with dark circles under his eyes, as if he hadn't slept well for several days.

Kai'er stood to the side, the gauze on her shoulder had been removed, revealing a section of newly healed skin with a noticeable color difference from the surrounding sun-exposed skin.

The injury has clearly healed.

Buren didn't beat around the bush.

"Kale has chosen."

He glanced at Kale beside him.

"Dark Inscription. It's been confirmed by Green."

Lu Yuan's gaze lingered on Kai'er.

Dark Inscription.

On the day he obtained the Inscription Direction Tablet, Beren said that the Empire currently only has two people with Tier 3 Dark Inscription skills, one of whom is likely to die, making them far more dangerous than those with Eerie Inscription skills.

Kel chose this path.

"Are you sure?"

"It's confirmed." Kai's voice was deeper than before, no longer the nervous boyish tone he had when he first arrived at the branch.

Lu Yuan didn't say anything more.

"good."

Buren continued.

"The injury has healed, so we're ready to leave."

He pressed his finger on the head of his cane.

"I originally planned to go to the pipeline layer again, but after this incident, I can't wait any longer."

"Klaus has already reported the situation at Bronze City to headquarters, and they've sent a specialist who's on his way. But I can't wait for the specialist to arrive; headquarters is pressing me."

He paused for a moment.

"Frantz is coming with us too. His injuries can't be treated at the branch office; he has to be sent to headquarters."

Lu Yuan could tell that there was more to the phrase "urging them to hurry" than met the eye. Headquarters had clearly realized that the branch could not guarantee the safety of Beren, a third-order inscriptionist.

"The inscriptions on the pipe network layer," Berren said, his tone becoming more nuanced. "I only made a small rubbing of one of the engravings on the bronze pillar."

He looked at Lu Yuan.

"If you have another chance to go down there, help me expand it further. Those inscriptions are very valuable for large-scale inscription studies; they'll come in handy when we bring them back to headquarters."

"I've got it."

"The address is..." Buren thought for a moment. "Oris Empire, Triumph City, Night's Watch Headquarters. Buren."

After he finished speaking, he took something out of his pocket.

A piece of grayish-white coarse cotton cloth, wrapped around something, not very big, just big enough for Beren's palm to cover it, he unfolded the cloth and placed it on the table.

Three thin silver plates.

It's about the size of a palm, so thin it's almost transparent, with rounded edges and no sharp corners.

Each piece is engraved with extremely fine inscriptions, the patterns of which are consistent with those on the walls of the Bronze City. Lu Yuan had seen those patterns countless times on the city walls and would not mistake them.

Grayish-white text appeared at the edge of the field of vision.

[Detection Target: Inscribed Silver Flake (Inscribed Creation) (3/3)]

[A kind of backdoor created within a large-scale inscription on an artifact, capable of drawing upon the power of similar inscriptions to a limited extent.]