Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 240 All the way north

After traveling day and night for several days, the young men from the magic academy, led by Tarun and Lilith, were exhausted.

They had walked about a hundred miles north from the capital of Saint Valen, Jinhui City. At first, they were able to blend in with the group of civilians fleeing the plague, with Mr. Durt driving a covered carriage on the official road.

But just two days ago, two young children among the magic apprentices suddenly became infected. Mr. Durt immediately decided to split the team into two groups, replacing the original covered carriage with a light two-wheeled carriage. He continued to drive the infected apprentices in the front, leaving marks along the way, allowing Taren and Lilith, who were following closely behind, to follow on foot with the healthy apprentices.

"Mr. Duarte... Water, please give me some water, I'm so thirsty..."

The young magic apprentice stretched a slender arm out from the carriage, grasped in the air several times in vain, and let out a faint groan of pain.

Durt pulled the reins of the carriage and whispered, "Okay, I'll give you some water."

He took out the leather water bag from his waist, but did not open it and hand it to the sick child directly. Instead, he pulled out a white handkerchief from his sleeve, carefully soaked the handkerchief with water, then got into the carriage and gently placed the wet handkerchief on the boy's chapped lips.

During the journey, Durte has been closely observing the conditions of the infected patients around him, and keenly discovered the key to slightly delaying the onset of the epidemic - drinking water... After being infected, the patients will drink a lot of water, and then their abdomens will swell. It seems that the water they drink has become a catalyst for the rapid growth of the virus in the body, and will quickly produce a large number of dark green plague mold spots attached to the skin.

Therefore, after discovering that there were children who unfortunately fell ill among the magic apprentices, he began to strictly control their daily water intake. Even though the other party begged him, he was cruel and only provided a very small amount of clean water to meet their basic needs.

Another young man in the carriage took the wet handkerchief and urged, "Mr. Duarte, please get out now. Don't stay in the carriage. Be careful not to get infected by us... Just let me take care of her."

Durte nodded, got out of the carriage and jumped off. He pulled out a thin rope from his pocket and tied it to the trunk of a conspicuous tree beside the mountain road. He rubbed his fingers gently and attached a magic bell that condensed out of thin air to the thin rope - this was an extremely simple zero-ring spell, also known as a trick, which most magic apprentices could easily learn.

As long as the thin rope is pulled, the bell will automatically make a pleasant sound, prompting Tarun and Lilith who are lagging behind in the direction, so that they can catch up closely.

After tying the rope, Durte supported the tree trunk with one hand, only to feel a surge of blood in his chest. He couldn't help but bend his body and cough violently, and vomited a large pool of black and red semi-coagulated blood clots with a vomiting sound.

He covered his mouth with his sleeve, trying hard not to make any loud noise. He took out a pill from his pocket, put it in his mouth and chewed it. After swallowing it, he leaned against the tree trunk and closed his eyes to rest for a few minutes before slowly getting up. Before leaving, he did not forget to recite a spell in a low voice and buried the pool of vomited black blood with soil.

The problem must be among the fleeing civilians...

In order to avoid the church and aristocratic army checkpoints set up along the way, Durte had to take a dozen teenagers and disguise them as fleeing civilians, blending in with the large crowd and heading north. This allowed them to accidentally escape from the most strictly controlled area without being suspected or intercepted at all.

But not long after, some people in the fleeing team began to show symptoms of the epidemic. First, they had fever and cough, then abdominal swelling and vomiting blood, and then mold spots appeared on the skin. The symptoms would rapidly worsen after three or four days, and the infected patients would fall into a coma.

After discovering that some of the apprentices were also infected, Durte decisively took the children away from the main group and began to travel on remote and deserted mountain roads and trails. In order to avoid infecting more children, he divided the team into two groups, one in front and one behind, without contact with each other, and then he walked in front with the sick children.

If we continue walking north for another day and night, we will reach the place called Jackdaw Town mentioned by Mr. Fran McCaughlin. If we follow his instructions and contact the big man living in seclusion nearby, there will be hope of being rescued.

...Harvey finished his lunch and prepared to go back to his room to take a good nap before continuing his design work on the alchemical prosthesis in the afternoon.

Since he had already promised the two forum members who were still staying in Jackdaw Town and providing him with security protection at any time that he would provide their teacher Duncan with assistance in prosthetic limb transplant surgery, he could not go back on his word easily. The previously designed prosthetic limb models and styles were not specially made for spellcasters, but were more universal.

Later, with the unlucky Chris as the experimental recipient of the transplant surgery, Harvey obtained a lot of experimental feedback data on the caster, which allowed him to start designing new prosthetic models and improve some of the existing defects.

As soon as he changed into comfortable and soft pajamas and lay down on the bed, Asdalen hurried into his bedroom.

"Sir, two members of the Jackdaw Town forum have sent an urgent message!"

Harvey frowned and sat up again, muttering, "What's going on? They brought that disabled teacher to Jackdaw Town so quickly? I haven't even designed the prosthetic limb yet!"

Asdalen shook his head. "No, it's something else..."

He turned and walked into the living room, brought the magic brain device on the desk to Harvey's bedside, and explained, "Half an hour ago, as usual, I was checking the one-way communications from the forum for you, and I received this message from forum member Mr. Fadun..."

Recently, Harvey has been fully devoted to the prosthetic design experiment and has not been paying close attention to the forum's developments. Most of the time, it is Asdalen who goes online to handle some simple permission operations for him. After all, alchemical life only needs to recharge and does not need to sleep, so it is more suitable to be a forum administrator than Harvey's flesh and blood body.

[Magic Shield: Mr. Kel'Thuzad! Please contact me immediately. King Saint Valen is experiencing an emergency. The Church and the nobles are accusing the Union of harboring illegal spellcasters and spreading a plague in the city... They have suddenly attacked the Union branch in the city, arrested a large number of spellcasters, and blocked the continental teleportation array... Alayeh is currently unable to send assistance quickly. We request your help in accepting a group of mage apprentices from Jinhui City and provide as much shelter as possible to ensure their safety...]

Harvey's heart skipped a beat. He frowned and muttered to himself, "How could this happen? A spellcaster spreading the plague? The Church allied with the nobles to attack the Federation?"

He looked up at Asdaren and asked, "Is this the message that was just sent? What's going on with the two forum members from Jackdaw Town?"

Asdalen replied calmly, "The group of mage apprentices have arrived in Jackdaw Town. Using the method provided by Mr. Shield, they contacted our warehouse liaison in town. Two spellcasters monitored them and detected an anomaly... so they immediately sent you a warning."

These two forum members are quite responsible for his safety...

Mr. Fadun actually delayed sending the message until the apprentices were almost arriving. He seemed to have a vague sense that something was amiss. He seemed to be worried that spies and fence-sitters within the Union might leak the news and sell the apprentices out to the churches and nobles along the way...

"Reply to the two forum members and have them take the children to the foot of Jackdaw Ridge. We will immediately dispatch the defense forces stationed on the mountaintop to pick them up..."

"That's inappropriate!" Asdalen decisively intervened. "Sir, two forum members revealed that among these spellcasters seeking refuge, there are clearly some infected with the plague. We absolutely cannot allow them into our territory, and we absolutely cannot allow our soldiers to come into contact with them!"

(End of this chapter)