Asura in Arknights

"First, leave Iberian territory as soon as possible, and never come back here again."

"Second, if you see someone carrying a silver lantern, don't let them discover your presence. If you can escape, try to escape."

After hearing Dr. Kent's ambiguous words, Li Ang gradually realized something.

In other words, everything that happened to him was related to Iberia?

Iberia...

"Wait, wait for me, Dr. Kent! You two are walking too fast!"

At this moment, Adele ran breathlessly to the corner of the stairs. She had been thinking about what was wrong with that village, and in the short time she was distracted, she was left alone in the clinic.

Dr. Kent's words just now conveniently avoided mentioning Adele.

“Little Adele, why don’t you go rest for a while? I’ll give this kid a check-up.”

As he spoke, Dr. Kent pulled Li Ang up the stairs. He looked very old, but he was surprisingly strong, which was also related to the fact that Li Ang did not resist.

The second floor looked like an ordinary clinic, with several empty wards. There were no other patients in the clinic at the moment, otherwise Dr. Kent wouldn't have kindly offered those two 'suggestions' earlier.

Besides the few empty wards, Li Ang also sensed a somewhat rudimentary operating room... It seemed unbelievable that such a thing would appear in a small clinic, but after thinking about those even more unscientific Originium Arts, Li Ang suddenly didn't find it so strange.

As one of the few doctors in the town, old man Kent must have mastered medical Originium techniques.

Afterwards, as Dr. Kent had instructed, Adele found a chair and sat down to rest for a while.

Li Ang lay down on the simple operating table, waiting for Dr. Kent to examine him.

Not long after, Li Ang felt a rough hand pry open his eyelids. Dr. Kent was holding a small flashlight and pointing it at his eyes.

"This is..."

Li Ang heard Dr. Kent's surprised and uncertain voice.

"Dr. Kent, is his condition serious?" Adele also came closer, wanting to see the specifics of the situation.

As soon as she got close to the operating table, she was completely drawn to a bright red light.

“So beautiful…” Adele murmured.

Under the not-so-bright light of the flashlight, Li Ang's eyes resembled perfect red gems, reflecting the flashlight's light into a dreamlike red glow.

It was indeed beautiful, but in Dr. Kent's eyes, it was a rather ominous sign.

After observing the condition of the red crystal for a while, Dr. Kent opened Li Ang's other eye.

Just like the previous eye, Li Ang's two eyeballs had been completely transformed into another unknown substance.

The conclusion is quite clear: even a freshman in medical school wouldn't misjudge Li Ang's current situation.

Dr. Kent put down his flashlight and said calmly, "His eyes are completely crystalline; there's no saving him."

Chapter Twelve Blood Crystal Density

Every infected person will show crystallization symptoms to varying degrees, whether it is in an organ inside the body or a part of the body surface. The first part of Li Ang's body to crystallize was actually his eyes.

Neither Leon nor Adele had noticed this detail before.

Except when he was first rescued, Li Ang kept his eyes closed for the rest of the time and did not feel anything unusual about his eyes. Adele, worried about causing further damage, never pried open Li Ang's eyelids to check the condition of his eyeballs.

Now, Dr. Kent's diagnosis has dealt a significant blow to the two, and the examination room instantly becomes so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"...Is there really no cure for Oripathy?"

Dr. Kent sneered and said, "Perhaps you could try going to bed early and waking up early every day, and drinking more hot water? Regular sleep and maintaining good lifestyle habits might cure your Oripathy."

Li Ang fell silent, knowing that Dr. Kent had just been mocking him.

Can going to bed early and waking up early, and maintaining good lifestyle habits really cure Oripathy? How could it be that simple?

If Oripathy were so easily cured, it wouldn't have been an incurable disease that has plagued the world of Terra for thousands of years.

According to Adele, Oripathy cannot be completely cured; the onset of symptoms can only be delayed through various methods, which are usually quite expensive, enough to make a middle-class family unable to make ends meet.

If he really wants to survive, he needs to carefully consider making money.

However, there is some good news: different races have different resistance to Oripathy, and the consequences of infection with Oripathy are completely different.

For example, the Sarkaz have extremely low resistance to Oripathy, and it can be said that almost the entire race is infected. However, the Sarkaz's bodies have a strong adaptability to Oripathy, and even without taking any drugs, they can live for decades by frantically using Originium Arts.

In contrast, the Sarkaz are extremely resistant to Oripathy. Unless a high concentration of contamination enters their bodies directly, they are almost impossible to contract Oripathy. However, if they do contract Oripathy, it is tantamount to death.

Leon is an Agor, a relatively rare race in Terra. Only a few regions, such as Iberia and the Eastern Kingdom, have this race's resistance to Oripathy... Not bad? He should be among the most game-like.

After carefully considering his words, Dr. Kent said with a sigh, "To be honest, your condition... is very rare."

“Most infected people crystallize in the organs inside their abdominal cavity, but you have eyes. You know that this crystallization can spread. The eyes... are just too close to the brain.”

Once crystallization spreads to the surrounding areas, the brain is the first to suffer.

"The symptoms of crystallization spreading to the brain... I'll mention them anyway."

"I haven't actually seen patients like this before; these are just some cases I've seen. If Oripathy spreads to the brain, those patients will experience hallucinations or auditory hallucinations. If you see this trend, you'd better be careful."

As he spoke, a hint of doubt flashed through Dr. Kent's mind.

He wasn't initially in charge of these patients; he had only glanced at some of their medical records. However, compared to normal medical records, these patients' records seemed rather strange, with very little information recorded on them.

The above only briefly mentioned that Oripathy can cause hallucinations when it spreads to the brain, and those patients were taken over by another department, and no one knows whether they live or die in the end.

It seems a bit strange now that we've encountered another patient who might develop the same symptoms, which has suddenly brought back long-forgotten memories for Dr. Kent.

However, that was a long time ago. He had been out of work for more than a decade and was now working as an ordinary doctor in a remote town. No matter how curious he was about what happened back then, he could never go back to find out.

Dr. Kent shook his head and put the matter aside.

"But don't worry too much. If you don't abuse your body, Oripathy won't spread so easily."

The atmosphere in the consultation room was somewhat somber, so Dr. Kent comforted him, "Besides, there are several different indicators for judging the severity of Oripathy. What we just did was assess your somatic cell fusion rate. Next, we will test the density of Originium crystals in your blood."

"This indicator is usually more important than the previous one. If the density of blood mineral crystals can be controlled at a low level, then Oripathy will not spread easily."

After hearing Dr. Kent's explanation, Li Ang's expression improved somewhat.

However, he didn't have high hopes for the next test. By lowering his expectations to the minimum, he wouldn't be disappointed by the final result.

What Dr. Kent called the blood Originium crystal density test is actually just a routine blood test that is often performed. It's just that the special circumstances of this world give this test another meaning.

Dr. Kent brought over a blood collection bag. It took him a lot of effort to pierce Li Ang's skin and draw a tube of bright red blood. After that, he left Li Ang on the operating table and ran to the next room to operate the blood analyzer.

During this time, Adele didn't say a word. She knew she wasn't good at comforting people, and that saying anything in this situation might backfire.

Both of them sat quietly in their seats, waiting for the test results to come out.

Time passed slowly, and the blood test only took a few minutes. Before long, Dr. Kent came running back with a strange look on his face.

"Something's not right. Could there be a problem with the equipment? But there was nothing wrong with the last test," Dr. Kent muttered to himself.

"Dr. Kent, what's the result?"

Before Li Ang could speak, Adele, who had been waiting for a long time, ran over first, looking even more nervous than Li Ang himself. "Is the situation... bad?"

Adele knew something about the density of blood-origin stone crystals, and knew that this data was easily affected by external conditions. Li Ang had only been pulled out of the disaster-contaminated area yesterday, so the test results... probably wouldn't be good.

Dr. Kent shook his head and replied, "The results are not yet certain. There might be a problem with the equipment; the final data is somewhat incorrect. I'm going to try again."

Before he could finish speaking, Dr. Kent pulled out a lancet from somewhere and pierced Li Ang's arm with a snap.

"..."

After drawing another full tube of blood, Dr. Kent didn't give the two of them time to ask questions and hurriedly took the blood bag back to the testing room.

A few minutes later, Dr. Kent came out with a sour face.

"The test result is 0.007u/L. Are you kidding me? Even a newborn baby has a crystal density of at least 0.08u/L. It seems that the broken thing is indeed broken. I wonder how much it will cost to get a new one."

"But it's okay, I have a folk remedy I can use. Although it can't measure specific data, it can still determine the severity of the illness."

Dr. Kent walked step by step toward the operating table where Li Ang was, and in his hand was a blood collection bag with a much larger capacity than the previous two.

Li Ang's face immediately darkened.

Seriously? Again?

Chapter Thirteen: The Witch King's Legacy

Finally, Li Ang was still given an injection in his arm. He couldn't feel at ease until the final test was completed.

After drawing the blood, Dr. Kent found a small bottle from somewhere in the room and put Li Ang's blood into it.

The bottle had a rather unique shape. In addition to the glass body, there were some unknown metal structures at both ends of the bottle. When the stopper was put on, the whole bottle looked like a small electrochemical battery.

“Come on, Adele, can you help me try this out? I only know healing Originium Arts, so the effects aren’t very noticeable,” Dr. Kent said.

However, holding the small glass bottle filled with blood, Adele seemed somewhat bewildered, not quite understanding what Dr. Kent wanted her to do.

"Dr. Kent... what should I do now?"

"Huh? You didn't know?"

Seeing Adele's bewildered expression, Dr. Kent seemed quite surprised. "Isn't this something your Witch King created? How can you, a Letanian, not know about it?"

From Dr. Kent, Li Ang heard a new term.

'The Witch King'.

The meaning of this term could be quite bad, and Li Ang could sense that Adele's emotions had clearly fluctuated.

"Dr. Kent... do you want me to use this as a treatment unit?" Adele's tone was somewhat complicated.

When Dr. Kent asked her for help, she had a bad feeling, but Adele didn't expect that the so-called 'folk remedy' would refer to this.

In Letania, researching such technology in private is a serious crime. But then again, which Letanian sorcerer hasn't come into contact with the legacy left by the Witch King?

“That’s right. Using this vial of blood as a casting unit, the crystal density can be roughly determined based on the energy intensity of the spell,” Dr. Kent snapped his fingers and said. “I don’t need to explain the principle to you, do I?”

Adele nodded.

The energy within a warlock is hidden in their blood, or more precisely, in the Originium crystals contained within the blood, and the properties of these Originium crystals are not significantly different from one another.

Theoretically speaking, a warlock's blood can also be used as a casting unit.

“I need to get ready.” With that, Adele closed her eyes and began to familiarize herself with the simple device in her hands.

There are many reasons why the method of making spellcasting units from blood did not become popular. For example, it was difficult to preserve, and the spellcasting unit would be useless once the blood deteriorated. Also, it was extremely inefficient and could not compare to a finely crafted staff.

Furthermore, the requirements for using these inferior spellcasting units are very high; even an excellent sorceress like Adele would need some time to become familiar with them.

This situation was completely changed when the 'Witch King' invented a certain technology.

During this time, Li Ang asked Dr. Kent, "What is the Witch King?"

"Huh? You haven't heard of the Witch King? Oh right, your memory is faulty."

Dr. Kent glanced at Leon and then explained, “The Witch King was the previous ruler of Letania. He was one of the most powerful sorcerers in the history of this world, but he was overthrown by the current Twin Queens decades ago because his rule was too brutal.”

"He left behind a lot of messy legacies after his death, such as the technology of using infected people as treatment units."

"After the Witch King died, no one dared to openly research these things. The one I have is a technology that has been degraded and leaked out. It can barely be used in an emergency, but it is completely useless in normal times. It is even difficult to light a cigarette with it."

Although Dr. Kent's tone was very calm, Li Ang still felt a deep chill.

Li Ang now understands Adele's feelings from earlier. Treating infected people as treatment units? Just how much malice was hidden in that short sentence?

The more Li Ang understood this world, the more he realized how terrible and chaotic it was. The infected were like livestock waiting to be slaughtered, becoming 'spellcasting units' in the hands of that witch king.

What became of those infected who were used as treatment units...? Death was probably a relief for them.

"Phew... I'm ready." Adele exhaled and slowly opened her eyes.

During the time that Dr. Kent was explaining to Leon what the 'Witch King' was, Adele had become completely familiar with the device in her hand.

"Dr. Kent, is all we need to do now to release the energy inside?"

"good."

Seeing that Adele was ready, Dr. Kent walked to her side to observe the energy reaction up close.

Adele gripped the metal structure at both ends of the glass bottle tightly, and Li Ang could sense that the Originium particles near the device had become active.

With a soft "pop," a tiny spark suddenly burst out not far in front of Adele, just as Dr. Kent had said earlier—not even worthy of lighting a cigarette.

“This is…” Dr. Kent’s eyes widened immediately.

Adele's spell was successfully cast, but the intensity of the energy reaction... was hard to describe. Picking up a random rock from the ground would probably have had a better effect.

The blood in the bottle, having released all its energy, had now become murky and tinged with a hint of black.