Witch Troupe and the Undead

Chapter 143 Even Dragons Can Get Sick

"Ugh~" The blonde loli, curled up in a ball, let out a mournful cry and slowly opened her eyes. A few strands of messy hair clung to her forehead and cheeks, making her look dazed. Her emerald eyes were completely unfocused, staring blankly ahead, as if her mind had not yet fully cleared up.

Seeing her dazed expression, Leslie couldn't help but poke her cheek hard with her finger. It was soft, but the skin was still cold. "Looks like the side effects haven't completely worn off yet," Leslie said seriously. "So cold."

“That’s from being frozen.” Roach glanced sideways, then looked at Old Ma. “Is everything alright?”

"It's okay~" Old Ma said that there was no problem. Soon, Livia regained her senses and rubbed her temples. "My head... hurts a little."

"How is the magic pump?"

"It's operating normally and hasn't been affected. It's possible that it's just a simple magic conversion and transmission device. However, we can't rule out the possibility that Livia has taken special precautions and reinforcements."

Roach checked the status of the magic pump. As the magic tide receded, the sin demons also fell into a sluggish state again. Theoretically, now was the time to pass through the flooded city. However... the team's two main damage dealers had lost their combat ability. Not only could they not advance, but they also had to retreat.

Roch needs to go back to repair the rune disk and manufacture new weapons and ammunition. Livia's weak constitution is not suitable for being exposed to cold winds in the flooded area while she is in a weakened state. If she catches a cold again, she will have to endure it again.

“We’re preparing to evacuate. What about you?” Roach looked at the adventurers and knights, who nodded in agreement. “The danger level in the flooded area is too high. We’re also planning to evacuate, and our loot is almost full.” Those enchanted items that were of little use to Roach and the little witch were worth a lot of money to these adventurers.

Besides the fragments left behind by the demonization, there were also a considerable number of ancient coins, jewelry, and ancient artworks. After all, the flooded area was the former capital canal, which would be equivalent to the central business district of a city in modern times, so there would be a lot of coins and various trinkets.

Not to mention, this place is also a hub for various consumer goods. Even the brothels contain a number of valuable trinkets. However, due to the still high density of demons, everyone can only search a few ruins around the plateau. Even so, the pockets of adventurers and scholars are bulging.

For adventurers, a backpack full of loot is a more terrifying opponent than the enemy. Adventurers who don't know when to quit while they're ahead or that supplies are more important than loot won't survive to bring their loot back; they'll only end up as a skeleton by the roadside, clutching a bag full of valuable spoils.

The retreat was still fraught with danger. With the little witch unable to concentrate on using magic, the terrain of the Jealousy Domain, which had been pumped with a large amount of magic, had become completely different from when they entered. The revived black and red thorns had once again blocked part of the road and were constantly returning to their previous state of complete blockade.

Fortunately, in this area, the magic pump could be connected to the energy transmission line. After several stops to extract magic, a new path was finally safely opened up.

“General store…tavern…” As Roach walked, he sketched a simple map and a distribution diagram of the facilities in his notebook. This was an important process when studying ancient cities; from this map, one could glimpse a glimpse of the way people lived back then. “It’s somewhat similar to a market town system, but not quite…”

Roach discovered that the city structure of this ancient Luster Kingdom was similar to the market town structure of the Tang Dynasty. There were two large market areas outside the city and inside the city, which were used for market transactions by land and water respectively. The residential area was divided into blocks by crisscrossing roads, and each block had small shops to meet the needs of the residents.

However, compared to giant cities like Chang'an in China with a population of millions, this royal city did not reach that level in terms of population or size, and it did not have ward walls to divide the various "wards." Instead, the local area used water canals and fire warning towers to divide different blocks.

In a city with such a dense concentration of wooden buildings, fire prevention is of utmost importance. Therefore, there is a fire warning tower at regular intervals, which will sound an alarm when smoke is detected. At the same time, there are also a large number of canals and pools to store water for firefighting.

Unfortunately, with the collapse of the ancient water system, these canals and pools have been reduced to dried silt and weathered animal head-shaped spouts.

"Master Roach, what's the point of your research?"

"It is very useful to understand the living environment of the ancients, as city planning is usually similar and does not change easily," whether for economic and political needs or military needs.

This allows you to predict the structure of other urban areas to some extent, which is very useful when you're taking risks—at least when you're cornered, you know where the nearest manhole cover is.

After leaving the Domain of Envy, lies the Sloth Zone, which is both safe and dangerous. At least twenty or thirty people have died in the Sloth Zone in the past few days, all because they refused to believe in the dangers. However, it's not their fault; fortune favors the bold. The warning note posted by the Little Witch meant that while the route was safe, it also meant that there were no spoils to be found along the way.

Conversely, these notes became landmarks for those self-proclaimed skilled and daring adventurers to locate valuable loot, but they clearly underestimated the Sloth Demon's combat power and special abilities.

After passing through the Sloth Zone, the graveyard area of ​​the Greedy Sin Domain has become much more lively. Roach can visually detect at least seven or eight campsites with signs of smoke, indicating that at least ten adventurer teams are searching here and completing various commissions from the Imperial Investigation Team.

These commissions include information gathering, such as copying epitaphs from tombstones and inscriptions inside tombs; cleansing the evil spirit of greed; searching for specific relics and artifacts; and conservation scholars conducting on-site research.

Finally, most of this work was done by the Thunderbird Knights, but the rest was the adventurers' main business, such as mapping the environment of the underground tombs, etc. These are all necessary processes and procedures for exploring a remote area.

"Because in the past, a very serious problem occurred. Everyone thought the area ahead had been cleared, but then a high-level corpse demon emerged from a basement, causing the entire Imperial scholar squad to be wiped out."

"Therefore, now it is required that a region be thoroughly surveyed before it is considered completely safe, and the Thunderbird Knights are also required to provide complete procedural protection for scholars in addition to protecting the camp."

The rest of the journey was mostly uneventful. Livia remained in a semi-conscious state until she returned to the cabin. Once home, she collapsed onto the bed and fell fast asleep again.

Inside the workshop, "It's all damaged..." The patterns inside the disassembled rune disc showed obvious signs of burning. Roach had to replace almost all the spare parts to repair it. As for the crossbow, it was also disassembled and placed on the table for further upgrades and modifications, as well as to replenish new ammunition.

It took Roach an entire day to even begin to figure out how to repair the rune disc, whereas repairing the crossbow took only a few minutes. After replacing the burnt rune strings, the thing was repaired, or rather, the weapon itself didn't have many magical components that needed repair.

Purely mechanical structures are unaffected by the Little Witch's "hollowness," but things like rune discs are significantly more susceptible to damage.

Besides that, crafting the ammunition is the process that currently takes Roach the most time. Manufacturing the cartridge case is not difficult, but loading the bullet and energizing it is very time-consuming and can only be done by hand.

After resting for several days, Livia finally recovered. She remained silent about the ability she had used, not because she was unwilling to tell Roach and the others, but because she didn't know how to explain it to them.

Even if Livia recovers, the others are not in a good condition to start the second round of exploration immediately. Alessina's external injuries are not serious, but Vilandella has exhausted too much power and, as a dragon, fell into a deep sleep shortly after returning.

For dragons, sleep is the best way to restore physical strength, magic power, and injuries. No matter how great the injury, as long as it's not fatal, they can recover through sleep. However, the only problem that sleep cannot solve for dragons is: disease.

"Dragons can get sick too!?"

"Hmm~" Livia tiptoed and struggled to hook a book off the bookshelf, took it down and tossed it to Roach. The title on the cover clearly explained whether dragons could get sick: "Common Dragon Diseases and Cures". It recorded about twenty or thirty common dragon diseases and their cures, as well as alchemical solutions, including the disease that old man Vilandella suffered from.

"Cursed Scale Disease," the disease that Vilandera's father suffered from, is common among young and middle-aged dragons. It is a hereditary disease, and the symptom is that the magic in the dragon's blood vessels is uncontrollably transferred to the scales. Under normal circumstances, the blood vessels at the base of the dragon scales have a hook-shaped structure to sever the physical connection between the magic in the blood and the scales.

This structure allows dragons to freely control whether the magic of their dragon blood is released onto their scales and surface. When necessary, it enhances their resistance to attacks and magic. In normal times, it conserves their natural magic by doing so. Otherwise, where there are dragons, the environment will spontaneously become more like the magical properties of dragons.

"In other words, for dragons, this method is similar to controlling body temperature..." Roach stroked his chin, explaining that just as humans control the dissipation of heat from their body surface by contracting and dilating their pores and blood vessels, if someone cannot control their pores and blood vessels, they may indeed experience hypothermia due to the rapid loss of core temperature.

"When a dragon is sick, its scales will show a large number of runes and it will weaken uncontrollably until it dies from exhaustion of magic. It can be treated by combining the 'Magic Solidification' potion and the 'Silence' potion."

The former can slow down magic, thus reducing the rate at which magic is lost, while the latter can block the loss of magic, at the cost of losing most of the dragon's spellcasting ability and innate spell-like abilities, in order to ensure that the curse scale phenomenon will no longer appear.

Besides Cursed Scale Disease, there are several other scale-related diseases such as Gray Scale Disease and Cracked Scale Disease, which are all terminal illnesses. A significant portion of the symptoms of dragon diseases will be manifested on the scales. Usually, when obvious scale mutations occur, it is considered a "terminal illness" for dragons.

Gray scale disease is a sign of weakened vitality, roughly equivalent to organ failure. When the scales show signs of gray discoloration, this failure has almost entered an irreversible vicious cycle. Cracked scale disease refers to the phenomenon of cracking and splitting of newly formed scales. To put it bluntly, it is the cancer of the dragon race, which cannot inhibit the cancerous development of scales and bones.

The remaining half of the symptoms are related to dragon horns, claws, and teeth, but these are less fatal.

For example, the "spiral horn deformity disease" related to dragon horns means that the dragon horns form a disc-shaped spiral structure. It does not affect lifespan, but for dragons, it is probably similar to syphilis in humans. Not only is it contagious, but it also means that in the dragon's aesthetic sense, it is very ugly and almost disfigurement.

Claw-related conditions include glass claws, where the claws become extremely fragile and easily break, similar to a bone disease, but the claws are the most affected. It usually starts from the toes and claws and spreads to the phalanges connecting to the base of the claws, eventually causing necrosis of the entire limb's bones. If not treated in time, it will likely result in a disabled dinosaur.

"Is Vilandella alright?"

“Hmm…” Livia flipped through the book and then underlined a line with her pen, “Keratinic hemorrhage.” Roach glanced at Vivi, who was coiled up in her dragon form outside, and then checked her against the book, “Redness in the brow bone, slight bleeding at the tail of the dragon’s eyes, inflammation and swelling at the base of the claws and gums, and ulceration of the inner keratin membrane under the scales… Hmm, she is indeed sick.”

Although most inexperienced people would mistake their illness for a terminal one if they were just reading a medical book, Vivi's symptoms were very obvious.

Then Roach looked at the description below, "Oh, infection symptoms..." Dragons can heal most external injuries through sleep, so wounds heal rapidly without obvious ulceration. However, this rapid healing comes at the cost of sacrificing immune resistance.

This means that a significant portion of external bacteria or similar pathogens have entered the bloodstream, which is closer to bacteremia or sepsis in humans. Microorganisms multiply in the dragon's blood, and due to the high magical properties of the dragon's blood, they exhibit demonic characteristics, causing the inner keratin membrane, which is the smooth membrane formed by the keratin layer on the back of the dragon scales, to ulcerate and bleed.

Redness and swelling will appear at the base of the claws and gums, and symptoms will also appear at the corners of the eyes and the thinnest scales on the brow bone. However, this disease is one of the few diseases that dragons can overcome due to their physical constitution.

According to Livia's information, dragons rarely get sick, but once they do, it means that it is difficult to treat them through normal means, and they have almost no ability to self-regulate and heal themselves.

Therefore, among common dragon diseases, some can be cured on their own without medication, while others cannot be cured with medication and can only prolong life for a period of time. What's even more ridiculous is that the effectiveness of this life-extending cure is based on human standards.

For example, regarding the treatment for Cursed Scales mentioned earlier, if we apply a combination of magical potions and other treatments, the author confidently states that it could extend the life expectancy of afflicted dragons by more than twenty years, with many dragons living past ten years. However…

Think about it: a dragon's lifespan being extended by ten years is like a human going to the hospital and the doctor telling you: "After surgery and expensive drug treatment, your cancer has been well controlled, and your life expectancy has been extended by one month. At least you won't die until next month."

You either give up on treatment on the spot, or you kill the doctor. There's unlikely to be a third option. Most of the treatments in Livia's handbook on common dragon diseases are like this: either they're icing on the cake by speeding up the dragon's self-healing, or they're just a minor effect that allows a dragon that originally had at most a century to live another ten years.

As for keratotic hemorrhage, it just so happens to be the most common disease among dragons. There is no dragon that is frequently injured that has not had it. Once the injury heals and the magic used to heal external wounds is redirected to internal healing, the restored immune system will be able to kill all these invading bacteria.

However, not every dragon can successfully heal itself. Some cannot survive and will develop "red phosphorus disease" or "blood scale disease." The scales begin to turn red, the inner membrane under the scales bleeds severely, accompanied by symptoms similar to a high fever in humans. Ultimately, the dragon's blood necrosis causes cardiac arrest, and it dies.

If it develops to this stage, the mutated bacteria in the dragon's blood are no longer something that can be killed by ordinary magic potions. It is considered an incurable disease, with only the possibility of recovery and a very high relapse rate.

To prevent Vilandella from developing to this stage, Livia asked Roach to help collect materials and make corresponding healing potions for her. The potions for dragons and humans have completely different formulas and structural principles.

Generally, anything that humans can drink can be given to dragons, it's just a matter of how well it works. However, special potions for dragons cannot be given to humans—humans don't have iron stomachs, they would really die from them.

As for the materials that needed to be collected, Roach felt they were more like…

"A kind of poison?" It looks like poison no matter how you look at it, but because of the dragon's size, it's not easy to kill it directly. "Hmm... otherwise it won't be curable." Livia said in a muffled voice. She was wearing a thick mask and hat, obviously taking full precautions against the potion in the pot that emitted a terrifying smell and contained highly toxic fumes.

"...I can understand." Roach shrugged. There are also drugs like this in human medicine—either the virus or you, one of them must die! Putting aside other things, aren't all chemotherapy drugs for cancer the same thing? They just poison the cancer cells before poisoning you to death.

Chapter 144 Appraising the Spoils of War

"Give me a hand!" Roach used a crowbar to reach into Vilandella's mouth with one hand. Alessina helped hold down the unconscious dragon head and forcibly pried open her mouth. A smell similar to volcanic sulfide was released, which made Roach decisively put on his homemade gas mask.

The saliva of the Ash Dragon in its dragon form is poisonous. Their Ash Breath not only causes fire damage but also poison damage. However, for a young dragon like Vilandera, the toxicity is negligible.

Livia, wearing a thick mask and headscarf, carefully poured the potion from the test tube into Vilandela's mouth. Then, Alessina pulled upwards with force, lifting the dragon's head. With an instinctive swallowing sound, Vilandela swallowed the poisonous potion.

"How long will it take to see results?" Roach pulled out a crowbar and threw it into a bucket of water. The water visibly turned a strange gray and emitted a pungent smell.

Livia counted on her fingers for a while, then made a three-pointing gesture, meaning that it would take effect in three days. For humans, this potion was so toxic that it could be used as a kind of poison, but for a dragon's size and decomposition ability, it was only slightly toxic, and its toxicity was not much higher than that of aspirin for humans.

After dealing with Vilandella's matter, the remaining people's problems were easily solved. Old Ma, needless to say, was basically unharmed, except that the demon's power had been slightly depleted, but he recovered almost completely after resting in the stable for a while.

As a beast-human, Alessina's physical strength and wound recovery speed are faster than humans. With the added enhancement from the little witch's potion, she is now basically no different from a normal person, except that her arms and thighs are still a little sore from overexertion.

A few minutes later, inside the hut, Livia looked up at Roach, who was counting the coins on the table. "We're almost out of money too. We haven't finished appraising the things we picked up earlier. Looks like we'll have to make a trip to Tallinn when we have some free time."

After purchasing a new batch of materials to replenish ammunition and items, Roach didn't have much money left. He currently had about a dozen gold coins and less than 20 silver coins. If he included the ancient coins he picked up in the flooded city, his total funds were about 30 gold coins.

However, ancient coins are generally not calculated based on their face value alone. To find out the exact value of these ancient Luster Kingdom coins, you would have to inquire at the place that buys these antiquities and relics.

"We need to take some time to appraise the spoils of this trip." The little witch was in charge of appraising the magical items and enchanted samples. Then Leslie would make an appraisal based on the appraisal results. Originally, this job was for Vilandella, since dragons have an almost intuitive sense of judgment in this regard.

Some of these magical items will be kept by Livia for her research, while the rest will be sold to specialized magical item merchants. Generally, compared to antiques, these magical items and props with practical value are traded much faster.

Roach was responsible for appraising items that did not fall under the category of magical items and props, and making a rough judgment based on their condition and age. As for valuation, he was not qualified, as he did not know much about the local history, especially the collectibles market, and could only appraise the approximate age and composition.

This kind of appraisal mostly relies on experience and feel, and without the help of modern technology, the error is very large. At most, it can only prevent you from being fooled when you sell your wares. Most of these spoils came from what the barbarian warriors had divided up, and some came from what Old Ma and Roach had collected casually during the retreat, filling a small box with bits and pieces.

"Whoosh~" Alessina dumped the box onto the table, and all the odds and ends inside rolled out. Since most of the people were injured on the way back, it was impossible to conduct a detailed search of the battlefield. Therefore, the box mainly contained obviously valuable coins and jewelry, and the rest were things that Roach found with his "simple magic detector".

The items on the table included a total of 38 coins, 6 pieces of jewelry, 12 small gemstone fragments, an ivory-framed icon painting, some lightweight metal objects, and finally, seven or eight strangely shaped enchanted minerals in a special box.

The first thing to be identified was the enchanted minerals. Livia picked up a dark stone and examined it for a few seconds. "Hmm, useless stuff," she said, tossing it into the "For Sale (Low Price)" basket next to her. "What is this?" Leslie asked curiously, patting the stone in her hand.

Livia, nicknamed "Mao Ye Shi," pondered for a few seconds, then beckoned, and a huge book, roughly the size of an A8, landed beside Leslie. Her emerald eyes looked intently at her. "Look at this."

The book's cover featured handwritten text: "1000 Examples of Common Enchanted Substances (with Illustrations)." Faced with this book, which could serve as a heavy shield, Leslie fell silent.

This silence caused Livia's pale golden eyebrows to rise slightly, and she decided to give this mermaid a lot of extra lessons later. Of everyone, she was the one who needed extra help the most.

Don't let Alessina's self-proclaimed roughness fool you; she's just a professional with a different specialty. She's an expert in wilderness survival, herbal identification, and biological anatomy. She's the only one confident enough to collect almost all the high-value materials from monster corpses, and she even helps the little witch process herbs occasionally.

"Mao Yeshi, that thing is indeed worthless." Luo Qi also remembered this thing. This book was also something he needed to read and memorize when he was learning the inheritance of the Mystic Source Sorcerer. Of course, he didn't actually need to memorize it all. He only needed to remember the most commonly used ones, and he could refer to the book when the time came.

The only one who could remember everything was probably Livia herself. In a sense, the witch's memory was truly a supernatural ability.

"For making the Philosopher's Stone"

"That's worthless!?"

"The Philosopher's Stone that we alchemists talk about is a completely different thing from what you understand," Roach complained. "It's just a medium or catalyst used to gild items. Alchemists used to use it to deceive people, but now it's a material produced in huge quantities for gilding. Oh, and you have to bring your own gold."

This process is not the chemical or electroplating process that Roach understands, but an alchemical reaction ritual. The Philosopher's Stone is placed at the core of the magic circle, and gold and the items to be plated are placed in the outer ring. Activating the alchemical circle will produce the plated product.

"This... um, I'll keep it." Livia held a transparent crystal that looked like a bubble in her hand and put it into the pocket of her skirt. She didn't explain what it was, and Roach looked at it for a long time but couldn't remember what it was either.

“This…is somewhat useful.” A piece of coal-like material was tossed into the “For Sale (High Price)” basket.

"Oh, I know, this is coal!"

"Bullshit, this is demonized obsidian!"

"Isn't obsidian dark green and glassy?"

"This is enchanted obsidian." Normal obsidian is a material with high resistance to magic, but under specific environments and under the influence of magic, this unique enchanted obsidian may appear. It contains a large amount of chaotic magic inside, making it the best material for making enchanted weapons and equipment and for charging. Because of its large magic capacity, it can be reused, reducing manufacturing costs.

However, due to the chaotic nature of its internal magic, it is not suitable for crafting high-difficulty or enchanted equipment. Simply put, this item is only suitable for mass-producing "+1" equipment or weapons; it is completely unsuitable for enchanted equipment of +2 or higher or equivalent value.

Next, Livia accepted a piece of dark gray wood with silver patterns on its surface. The edges were very irregular, and it looked like a fragment left after some kind of furniture broke. It had been soaked in extremely high-intensity magic and was eventually formed. This time, she explained that this piece of wood was used to make potion ingredients.

By grinding and adding other medicinal materials, it can be made into a fragrant incense shaving similar to agarwood, which is an essential material for making incense-type potions. This material is usually found in ancient ruins in the Black Forest, similar to "coal" in the magical world.

However, the rest can only be sold. There are 3 items in the low-price zone and 2 items in the high-price zone. In addition to the previously identified enchanted obsidian, there is also a substance that can float on water like foam, which can be used to make water-walking props. It is estimated to be worth about 5 gold coins. Considering its condition, it should sell for no less than 7 gold coins.

As for those in the low-price section, they're really just junk sold by weight. The quantity isn't worth making a special trip for. Just leave them on the storage shelf in the basement and wait until you've accumulated enough before buying them.

As for the jewelry appraisal, whether it was due to bad luck or because they were just on the edge of the flooded city and there were no high-end jewelry stores, only two of these items were identified as magical jewelry.

One was a very beautiful teardrop-shaped ruby ​​earring. Livia was excited to put it on herself, but then she realized that she didn't have pierced ears and was a little afraid of the pain, so she ended up giving it to Leslie.

This earring contains approximately 12 units of fire magic. With a simple focus and channeling, it can summon a ball of fire. Whether it becomes a fireball, a rocket, or a wall of fire depends on the user's mindset.

Generally speaking, one unit of fire magic is roughly equivalent to the heat released by the complete combustion of 1 kilogram of coal. As a fireball, it can vary in size from a ping-pong ball to a car wheel—the power naturally decreases cubically as the volume increases.

Then there's a gold ring engraved with a bull's pattern. It can be used up to four times, automatically recharged daily, and releases a short-range, high-intensity shockwave that can knock down enemies or shatter thin shields or other obstacles. This was given to Alessina.

Of the last four pieces of jewelry, there was a pearl necklace. Roach thought it wasn't very old, but Livia said that was because the pearl had been enchanted—but that was all—it wasn't enchanted. Nevertheless, it was still a good piece for enchanting.

So, Livia took the necklace, intending to enchant it for herself.

"A brooch, made of copper, not handmade. It should be mass-produced using some kind of stamping equipment or alchemical array based on certain principles." Roach examined the golden brooch in his hand. He had carefully polished away the rust. For someone in his profession, this was both a livelihood and an elective skill.

After all, modern archaeology, apart from the Western group, is basically protective excavation. In other words, it involves excavating tombs that have been damaged by tomb robbers and rescuing the artifacts inside in a timely manner. Therefore, the restoration of these artifacts is also a necessary process.

Otherwise, those completely rusted, decayed, and fragile items simply cannot withstand rough repair and transportation, and the same applies to these antique jewelry items.