Returning from the abyss

Chapter 1454 Vanessa's Vigilance
Hey, over here!

Two energetic young women ran through the streets of Violet City. People hadn't seen them before, but they weren't surprised at all that newcomers had arrived. This place always attracted many outsiders, and to settle here, money, power, or influence were all necessary.

Vanessa dragged Veronica into a restaurant that catered to the general public and sold mostly common, everyday food; at first glance, it didn't seem particularly special. But since Vanessa had come here specifically, she must have had a purpose.

"Boss, give me a... ale!" Vanessa's eyes quickly scanned the old-fashioned wooden menu board, and then she excitedly ordered something she had never tried before.

The shopkeeper merely glanced at her and said, "Three copper coins."

"Two glasses! One for each of us!" Vanessa immediately pulled out her money and slammed it on the table. She wasn't short of money, but she had never really had the chance to spend it.

The shopkeeper swiped the copper coins away, then took two cups, filled them with wine from the barrel, placed them directly on the table, and asked, "Would you like something else to eat? It's past breakfast time now, so we only have some snacks."

"no need!"

Vanessa excitedly picked up two glasses of wine, found a place to sit down, then smelled the aroma in her glass and frowned slightly.

“You’re not an adult yet, Vanessa,” Veronica said softly as she sat down opposite her. “And the priest…”

“Veronica, you’re curious too, aren’t you? Father Thorne doesn’t allow us to drink, but he drinks quite a bit when he presides over baptisms and services! Don’t worry, I’ve asked around, and nobody cares about drinking here. Look, the owner doesn’t even ask.”

Vanessa then picked up her glass, took a sip, her expression changed slightly, and then she smacked her lips.

"How about it?"

"Hmm...it has a malty aroma and a rather sweet aftertaste, but it's a little strange at first sip. It's not bad, is it?" She urged Veronica, "You should have some too!"

Veronica also curiously picked up the cup and took a sip, revealing a bitter expression on her face.

"Hahaha, isn't that right? Isn't that right?"

"Yes, but I don't think it tastes good."

"It's nothing, our tastes have always been a bit different." Vanessa had already started sipping her drink, clearly accepting it well.

“You learn so quickly, Vanessa. I still don’t know how ordinary people should live…”

“Veronica, to be honest, the lives of ordinary people are not much different from ours. It’s all about eating, sleeping, studying, and having fun. You should relax a bit. After all, we don’t have any special missions. We’re just out for a stroll as the apothecary suggested. Speaking of which, why aren’t the apothecary and Father Thorne back? I haven’t seen them at all these past two days. Oh, and Lorda is missing too.”

"That's beyond our knowledge."

"Don't worry, Veronica, we can't control everything, right? Now—"

Before Vanessa could finish speaking, a commotion suddenly broke out outside. Excited, she went to the door and saw someone arguing with another shop owner.

"What's going on? What's going on?" Vanessa muttered softly, but the owner still heard her. He just sighed and said, "It's probably another argument about that 'can't taste anything' thing. Lately, there have been these kinds of people causing trouble around here. I don't know who started it. We small restaurants don't have anyone to protect us, so when they come in and make a scene, business gets tough."

"What can't be tasted?" Vanessa asked.

"Saying that the drinks are just water and the dishes don't have any seasoning... That's nonsense! I've already served the dishes, why would I skimp on seasonings? It's just salt and pepper anyway, what precious seasonings could we possibly be reluctant to use?"

"Have there been many things like this lately? When?" Vanessa pressed.

"It's only been a day or two, I don't know for sure. Anyway, this has happened a few times here, and now everyone just kicks people out when they encounter this kind of thing. After all, so many people haven't had any problems with the food, so why are only a few people having problems?"

“Oh, thank you!” Vanessa said, then returned to the table, drinking her wine as she whispered to Veronica, “Veronica, this is probably a bit strange.”

"What's weird?"

“I just used my internal vision to look at the person who was arguing. There is nothing wrong with his body, but in contrast, his mental state is just normal anger, without any emotion of deliberately trying to cause trouble. This is a bit strange.”

"Your teacher said that introspection isn't a cure-all, you should know that, right?"

“This is just a deduction based on the results of introspection,” Vanessa laughed. “Besides, my intuition tells me that there must be a story behind the repeated occurrence of the same thing.”

"We can wait for the teacher or Father Thorne to return..."

"Let's not wait any longer, let's go investigate right now!" Vanessa finished her drink in one gulp, then grabbed Veronica and ran out.

How to investigate? Veronica still had some doubts. Vanessa, however, went straight to the person making a fuss at the door, patted him on the shoulder: "Sir, arguing here won't get you anywhere. Would you like to come with me? If you don't have anything else to do, I'll hire you for a day."

A silver coin twirled between her fingers. The man paused for a moment, then grinned and said, "Alright, what do you need me for?"

"Don't worry, it's just... a test."

Vanessa led the man away from the store entrance, and the store owner who had been arguing with him didn't care, as long as the man was gone.

Then, Vanessa selected more than twenty different foods from a food street, and this alone cost her more than she had paid for the man. She found a lawn, spread everything out, and had the man sit down.

“What you need to do is very simple: eat. The portions I bought aren’t large, you can definitely finish them. But you have to eat them in the order I tell you, and tell me how you feel after you’re done,” Vanessa said. Hearing that such a good thing was possible, the man nodded repeatedly.

Veronica, of course, understood what Vanessa was about to do. She vaguely sensed something was amiss, but couldn't quite put her finger on it. Vanessa, meanwhile, had already begun selecting the first item of food.

There was fruit, desserts, food, and even two small bottles of wine. Vanessa never let him finish it all, but rather cut it into pieces. Although the man felt that this wasn't enough, he accepted all the free food.

At first, he ate very happily, but after Vanessa gave him a piece of candied fruit and then, after a while, he went to eat the remaining half of the apple. He smacked his lips twice and said, "This... young lady, I just ate something so sweet, and now I can't taste any sweetness in this."

“I let you eat a piece of roast meat, a hawthorn, and even a small glass of liquor in between. The taste of that candied fruit should have been masked long ago. Rather, other flavors in your mouth, even the faintest sweetness, should have been amplified.” Vanessa stared at him and said, “But since you insist, wait a little while before eating the apple. You can try this tomato.”

The man took the tomato and took a bite. It was quite juicy, but his expression was rather strange.

"How about it?"

"Uh... I can't taste it. It seems like it's just very juicy, but it doesn't have the sweet and sour flavor it should have."

“Drink this glass of wine and tell me how it tastes.” Vanessa immediately offered another glass, but the result was still, “It’s like water, tasteless.”

After this happened repeatedly, the man started to panic. He realized that the argument that happened that morning might have been his own fault, but he wasn't quite sure what the problem was.

“Cover downwards,” Vanessa said after a moment of silence.

During the morning's testing, she fed the person different levels of food based on the intensity of their flavor. After about twenty minutes, any food of the same type with a flavor lower than that of the previous type became tasteless and bland. Even the food itself would lose its flavor.

“This is not good, sir.” Vanessa had done all the necessary tests before looking at the man, who was sweating profusely, and said with a smile.

"What... what should I do? Should I go to church?"

“I suggest you don’t think that way yet.” Vanessa clapped her hands. “This is a symptom we’ve never seen before, you understand? Generally, common illnesses don’t manifest in such a unique way. It only affects your sense of taste without affecting other senses, and it’s in this permanent, downward-covering form. Naturally occurring pathogens are usually not this targeted.”

She was well-versed in the "Records of Natural Disasters" and had a deep memory of many cases of plague outbreaks. Some minor anomalies would not attract much attention until they broke out in large numbers, at which point people realized that disaster was coming.

This was likely a plague, a discovery that greatly excited Vanessa. After learning about plagues, she had always wanted an opportunity to try and solve them herself, and she hadn't expected Violet City to discover a case so quickly.

It seems to only cause loss of taste, but the damage from the plague is certainly more than that; it just hasn't reached its peak yet. Vanessa asked the man for his address and if there were any similar cases in the area before letting him leave, also reminding him not to talk about it.

To deal with the plague, the utmost caution must be exercised. The plague apostle has not yet appeared; she cannot alert it.

"Veronica, can you do me a favor?"

“You want to deal with the plague? Vanessa, the two of us probably won’t be enough,” Veronica said. “If you want to do this, then we’ll have to find a way to gather more manpower, like finding some knights or servants from the church…”

“Veronica, you need to think about this: if we want to definitively prove this is a plague, we need to find these key elements—the source of infection, the route of transmission, and methods for identifying those infected. How many people will find themselves losing their sense of taste in just one or two days? And what level of loss of taste qualifies? If we're going to contact the church, we need to figure these things out and tell them so they can take action; otherwise, we'll just be busy doing nothing to solve the problem,” Vanessa said.

"But how can the two of us solve these problems?"

“Isn’t this the kind of magic we learn meant to be used in situations like this? You’ve mastered it better than I have, so I want you to help me,” Vanessa said.

The apothecary also taught them the model of the "purification" spell after the last spell class.

Unlike the magic system of the Secret Visionary used for cleaning up debris, this system focuses on protection, isolation, and even directly enhancing the body's immune system. The first-tier spell "Dust Removal" and the second-tier spell "Cleansing" both aim to protect the caster, but at the third tier, "Bloodletting" becomes a direct medical treatment. Vanessa hadn't actually used this spell, and when facing the plague, she preferred to leave it to Veronica, who had a better grasp of the fundamentals.

"Then why didn't you go find that person from earlier?"

"Apostle of Plague".

Vanessa wasn't sure if the Plague Apostles were continuously monitoring all the infected; some plagues did indeed possess this power. The previous test had been obvious enough; a secret test would have to follow.

“But if we can’t do it openly…” Veronica asked, somewhat puzzled, “how do you plan to get me to use ‘bloodletting’?”

"Be a bad guy," Vanessa had clearly been planning this for a while.

That evening, the two quickly changed their clothes, covering themselves completely, even their faces. They stealthily made their way to the alley where the argument had taken place. After a short while, they heard a commotion coming from inside a restaurant. The two exchanged a glance and approached. Soon, two people were shoved out, cursing and turning back. Just as they passed a quiet alley, two more people suddenly appeared and covered their mouths with a cloth.

"You successfully prepared your potent sleeping potion?" Veronica asked in surprise, glancing at the two burly men who had collapsed in less than three seconds.

“Of course, I’ve wanted to make this for a long time. Don’t worry, I specially increased the dosage. Unless you bang their heads against the wall, they won’t wake up from even a small wound,” Vanessa said proudly.

“You must use this with caution…” Veronica took out a small knife, made a small cut on the fingertips of the two people who had been drugged, and then began to cast a spell.

"Bloodletting" is a divine art that examines and tracks an individual's physical condition through blood testing. It can not only determine if a person has any illness, but also trace the source, using the blood as a "pointer" to indicate objects with the same pathogenic factors. This effect clearly indicates a divine art devised by the Saviorate to combat plagues.

Veronica's intervention was naturally effective; two clumps of blood floated from her fingertips and quickly condensed into the shape of pointers. Veronica also gained a general understanding of the two people's physical conditions.

"Unfortunately, the divine magic level may still be insufficient to detect the plague in their bodies, but the pointer effect was triggered."