A Core Ship From The Start-Chapter 877 - 617: Shadow of the Plague

The entire warehouse looked very neat; as a "hospital," it barely sufficed. There were several beds placed outside, along with tables and washbasins, though, of course, these had not been used for some time.

Duanmu Huai entered the warehouse, Ogis leapt down from his shoulder, and then the two of them started rummaging inside.

"Excuse me, Mr. Duanmu, what are you doing?"

Watching Duanmu Huai and Ogis turning things upside down, Amelia and Luganis, who followed them in, were completely bewildered.

"Looking for clues. You all look around too, maybe you can find something useful."

"Look around...?"

As a Sacred Knight, Amelia had never done such things before; she just stood there, stunned, and Luganis was equally clueless. Duanmu Huai didn’t mind at all. After all, it was routine for players to enter a house and rummage through things when bored, just randomly opening a cabinet to see what’s inside, maybe finding something good... Oh, here are some Gold Coins, let’s take them.

It would be a waste to leave them here, right?

"Master."

Just then, Ogis seemed to have found something, as she opened a drawer and took out a journal, handing it to Duanmu Huai.

"Oh, perfect, I love these kinds of people."

Duanmu Huai reached out, took the journal from Ogis, and opened it; sure enough, it was filled with Dussel’s records. However, the master seemed very casual about his journaling, often mixing in his treatment plans and experiences.

It was mostly content like this.

"...The Wailing Death, this disease is completely different from any I’ve seen before and even the Divine Arts of Priests and other clergy hardly have any effect on its treatment. No, not just treatment, based on my observations, using Divine Arts might soothe the pain temporarily but worsens the condition. Really strange, could there be diseases in this world that even a Deity’s power can’t heal? Perhaps, I can try using..........(the rest includes some alchemy materials and formula lists)........"

"The three hundred twenty-fifth experiment failed, this disease is utterly beyond imagination, though it appears just a simple plague on the surface, I know it’s no ordinary disease. The situation in Beggar’s Nest is worsening, people falling in the streets, dying before they could crawl back home, the stench of the decaying corpses almost covering the entire area. I’ve tried all the formulas and elixirs I know, yet nothing works, and people continue to die, bodies accumulating..."

At least from the contents of the journal, Master Dussel certainly seemed a compassionate man, diligently trying to save patients and pouring his heart into it. However, Duanmu Huai felt completely unmoved, for the more compassionate people are, the faster they fall.

Kindness sometimes is a shortcut to evil.

"...I’ve heard some strange rumors that leave me uneasy, maybe they’re just hearsays, but if they’re true, there might be a ray of hope for curing this disease... But I am anxious, my time is running out, and I feel I might have caught that plague too... I hope......."

The journal ended abruptly there, yep, typical rambling but cuts off right at the crucial point.

Just like those NPCs in movies who start rambling right before they die, and just before they reveal important clues, they croak.

Fortunately, that wasn’t a problem for Duanmu Huai; he reached out and gently pressed on the journal’s cover, then—Duanmu Huai’s gaze began to deepen.

This was precisely the ability he had acquired from the Old God—observing the past.

The next moment, the scene before Duanmu Huai’s eyes drastically changed.

Under the dim candlelight, a gaunt old man sat at a table, his face thin, beard withered, with large blisters appearing on his skin. He coughed softly, his fingers trembling as he took out a feather pen and began writing something in the journal, then after a moment, suddenly, the door behind the old man opened, startling him, and he turned around, surprised at the figure behind him.

"Is it you? What are you doing here?"

"I came to see you, my old friend," said a figure standing in the shadows.

"To see this pitiful state of yours. Your kindness and goodness have not managed to alleviate those people’s sufferings... not even your own; you too are deeply mired in it."

"You... what do you want to do?"

"Don’t be so tense, old friend, I just want to help you."

The dark figure spread his hands, staring at the old man.

"Look, just as I prepared this warehouse for you to shelter patients, I only wish to aid you. Now it’s the same; I have found a way to cure the plague, but I need your help."

"Really? You found it?"

Upon hearing this, the old man stood up excitedly, then he frowned.

"But, haven’t you told Eribeth or Lord Nasher?"

"Without proof, I do not want to cause panic unnecessarily, and as for that young girl Eribeth, she focuses solely on curing the plague and doesn’t trust others’ suggestions. She’s been charmed by Kelben Black Wand’s sweet words, solely hoping to obtain that Elixir from Deepwater City. Look, my old friend, even though you struggle here in Beggar’s Nest like a dog stuck in the mud, she trusts that Mage thousands of miles away more than you. Do you want to end it like this? Don’t you think, that you are the most deserving person to get the antidote?"