Chương 20

"We've gotta sort out a solution fer this blackrot shite." Illy said, holding Wade's phone light down at his arm. He'd unbuttoned his collared shirt so that the crew could take a better look at the infection. It had been somewhat easy to ignore that it was there, after all his arm felt perfectly fine, no throbbing or pain at all. Better than fine, it was outright part of the reason he was alive at all.

He hadn't yet dared to look at it in the full light, watching the ceiling instead, but Illy's comment finally made him look down. And what he saw freaked him out. The black lines had turned more spiderlike now that they were spreading out of the infection site, reaching tentative feelers down toward his elbow, while the ones on his forearm were reaching for his hand. That part didn't freak him out too much. It's the bicep bite, because they were moving up. Toward his shoulder. Toward his neck. His head.

He already knew logically that once it got to his head, he was basically dead. But actually seeing it with the LED phone making the black lines all the more stark finally got the situation to sink past his dissociation.

"Holy shit, fuck!" He turned to Selena, "Is a mithril collar really the only thing we can do to stop this?" She looked down at the slowly panicking human, and shook her hand.

"If there is a solution, only the gods may know." And Wade knew for a fact they did not. Leon had to crouch down to get a better look while Illy still held the light shining down on it. Her nose twitched.

"That gash be looking right manky, though at least it's not as rank as it looks. Small blessings." The Scot was right, for something that looked this sickly it… oddly didn't smell like anything more than slight copper and iron. Leon reached forward to grab and move Wade's hand, trying to get him to move his arm for a better view, but a spear jabbed in the air between them both.

"What did I just tell you humans? No. Touching." Selena hissed, with a mild amount of what Wade thought was… pain? She'd moved fast, but there was a half stumble when she put weight on her leg, the same leg that had been pickaxed clean through during the fight. Before he could ask, Leon raised both hands and backed off.

"Okey, I understanding. No touching blackrot." Then his eyes turned to Wade.

"You have quest, da? System say there is solution. We should run tests on arm, find out more about it."

"I… sure, yeah that's a good idea." Wade forced himself to take a deep breath. Leon was right. He had a quest. There were options. Even if the system wouldn't sell him a cure directly, it did imply there were ways to handle the blackrot besides mithril. Leon reached out and squeezed his left shoulder, the one free from blackrot. Selena seemed mostly okay with that movement, huffing instead.

"Remember what you telling me about neck pain?" Leon said.

"How you learn tricks to manage? Same thing, we find trick. We find way." They both stayed quiet until Wade had his feelings back under control. Wade swallowed, then looked back up at the group.

"Right, only a shitty game would give a quest that can't be possible to complete. I'll look over the quest and debuff text, see if there's anything there." The russian gave him one final nod, then patted the clean shoulder.

"Good. I am not great video game player, but I do know medicine well. Maybe we find something physical here too? Flex hand for me, please. Yes, like that. Illy, light here please." Wade followed Leon's orders, moving his hand and flexing where he was told to while Illy worked as an assistant.

"Hmm, puncture into bicep muscle, tricep look good. And you not feeling any pain when moving hand up?"

"I can, uh, still move my arm fine." Wade clenched his fist and rolled his shoulder in demonstration. Identify also didn't seem to do anything. Everytime he hit the arm, it would return a level 4 player.

"Muscle torn through all across forearm, bite goes very deep." Leon pointed at the clear marks.

"Range of motion with finger should not be possible. Is very interesting, from anatomy point of view." He held a hand out to Illy and she passed over the light, where he brought it real close to Wade's forearm, asking him to move his fingers while he studied it. It almost seemed like the Russian wanted to see the insides of the wound. To which the elf was very much opposed to his nose getting anywhere near that close to the infection site, and once more the spear went up the moment Leon got his face too close.

"Is so very strange. Extensor muscles all bit up, should see other muscles compensating when opening hand back up, instead it all move naturally. Can't see what is making the moving."

"Selena," Wade asked, looking from the spear constantly tapping the group to keep it's distance.

"Why can I still move my hand and arm so well even after all this damage? Why isn't it hurting at all? Is this normal to blackrot?" The elf's ears waggled slightly.

"That is how it normally is. Blackrot will improve your strength, counter venoms, mend broken bones, or heal failing organs, even those far past the ability of healing spells or tonics. Those facing death have been known to intentionally expose themselves to gain additional years of life, though it comes with the heavy cost. And before you claim my treatment of you is too paranoid, you should be aware that some cities will kill blackrotten on sight should you even approach their walls."

He relayed it back to the group and Leon finally stopped with his examination.

"So, elf knows no other option then mithril collar?"

"That or I'd need to cut off my arm." Wade said, looking at it with a critical eye.

"And I'd rather not lose my fucking arm. I'll get fired." His boss was an asshole and he'd absolutely get canned for it.

"Like ye've got nothing worse to fret about after getting your arm lopped off than a wee bit less on that paycheck." Illy let out a laugh, but it died in her throat when she saw Wade sincerely nod back at her.

"… Oh for feck's sake Wade, never met a man as obsessed over money as you are."

"What are you talking about? Wouldn't you worry about it?" Leon and Illy stared back at him. Then shared a look between each other. Leon shrugged.

"Cutting off arm at shoulder not possible anyhow. First aid you have in that sack not good enough. He die. Is moot topic. No one cutting any hand or arm off."

"Glad to know that's one less option I have to worry about." Wade said, somewhat feeling less worried.

"Enough points into vitality might unlock something." Illy said.

"Could also come across some healing potion that can do that. We seen stranger." He did have stat points to work with for an emergency exactly like this, but he already knew vitality wouldn't fix the blackrot. It wasn't hurting him, rather the opposite. But on that train of logic…

"Hold on, might have a possible last resort option." Wade pulled out his phone, then stared down at the screen.

"Play, when I get back to earth, would I be teleported with my arm back? If it got cut off right before transport." It could be one of those things where going to earth sent him back exactly as he was sent in. That'd solve the problem. Your guess is as good as mine, but I wouldn't chance it personally (˘▽˘)っ♨"Fuck, fine. Do you have any idea on how I could fix it without these mithril collars?" I'd start with the system, that's the first I've ever heard of handling blackrot besides a mithril collar.

That's about the only direction Wade had left. The System categorized it as a debuff. It might be solved with something that removes debuffs? He had to think in terms of game mechanics, and how a system would treat a debuff. Except he didn't know at all how blackrot actually worked or any real detail about it and Leon's attempt hadn't found anything besides how weird it behaved. He turned to Selena, "Do you know how it works? I mean mechanically how it works, what's actually powering me up.

Maybe getting some info from that could tell us other ways to handle it." She shook her head.

"It cannot be studied. The only well documented fact we know of is that all blackrotten ultimately turn into feral creatures."

"Hold on, can't it be studied?"

"As I mentioned prior, Blackrot consumes mana, eliminating any analysis mages could cast. It behaves similar to how an anchor or mithril tab would, only that the mana is destroyed completely instead of simply stored within. And Blackrot withers away rapidly if it's outside a living host, mana seems to destroy it outside a host. That is as much as I know about the inner workings of the blackrot." Ah. That made more sense on why Selena had told him it was pointless to learn magic when he had blackrot.

The invader in his arm would just eat all the fuel before he could do anything with it. Well, so long as he could get a healing artifact, that would be fine too. More than one way to cross a bridge. Wade had no idea what an anchor was or how mithril acted, Market's blessing was whispering that it had to do with spellcasting, but there was still two other things here he could pull on: First, that it could be killed if exposed outside a host body.

And second, the way blackrot behaved around mana made him remember something from the debuff text. Anti-mana. Selena hadn't known a thing about that, it wasn't even a word in her language. But they did have one more source of advice.

"Play might know what an anti-mana entity is?" The phone had a message waiting for him when he brought it out. tbh no idea why the system named it 'anti-mana entities' either lol Instead of feeling upset at this, Wade felt there was something… off. A string to pull on.

"Anything else you can tell me about blackrot I don't yet know? What it's origins are, or how it's born into the world? Anything?" It pops out of rifts all over the world, usually wherever there is no ambient mana anymore. General idea was that it's an invader of some kind from another dimension. But the system calling it anti-mana it does make some kind of sense? idk ┐(￣ヮ￣)┌"How so?" Leon asked, looking over Wade's shoulder at the phone.

You can control mana easily, and blackrot can control you easily lol Illy gave a shrug, "That menace said the System's somethin' far bigger than any gods. Could know something they don't?" The quest said eliminate, purge... or dominate. What did dominate really mean in this case? If it were just a battle of willpower, did he just need enough points into intelligence or something? The intelligence stat just said it would make control over mana better, but mana was clearly linked to blackrot.

"Come to think of it, how intelligent is this thing? Will it be a second me, or just make me act feral?" How about you ask the native instead? I'm not the god of science and medicine Selena had the answer to that, and it turned out to make less sense.

"As far as I am aware, you will behave as a feral beast, seeking only food, shelter and territory. Blackrotten attack one another, even those of the same host species, I would describe them as solitary predators." The weasel had certainly acted like that. But... Remy the little rat hadn't. It had skirted past Wade and tried running for the hills instead, acting more like a rat than anything.

"And if they take some species that only eats vegetables or isn't known to fight?" This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. She considered for a moment.

"Herbivores maintain their nature of grazing and evading hunters... however I am not entirely sure."

"All right, and you mentioned blackrot works like mithril somehow? What's that mean?"

"Similar, but not exact." She gave another short shrug in her armor.

"Mithril captures mana and retains it. The only way to release mana once it's trapped is by melting the metal down, however the mana still exists in the world. Blackrot is different as it consumes mana completely. In the same way a spell would burn through the power and leave nothing behind." There was something to all this. Wade had a feeling it was centered around the goal that this blackrot was after. What if he could figure that out, and bargain with the thing?

It had some kind of connection with mithril, and that metal also had something to do with mana.

"Come to think of it, why are you wearing mithril for? You have both a ring and a necklace on you, is it just decoration or does it serve something?"

"Mithril is basic equipment." Selena said, proving his suspicions correct.

"All travelers carry at least a mithril necklace. Moving through the land would be far too dangerous without protection against the environment. Rogue mana events like storms, rains, or winds could all be fatal without mithril."

"Uh, still don't understand what mithril's used for?" Wade asked, and felt his phone buzz in his hand. It's like activated charcoal. People swallow it to draw mana out of their body and then barf it out after the job's done. Rinse and reuse the next time you're in trouble. It's a rough world out there buddy.

"Fuck, so we need to prepare equipment for when we leave this city?" He swore a few more times, just his luck in all this. Of course finding a way out wouldn't be enough.

"What do we need?" Selena drew back her cloak and showed a belt filled with smaller pouches, "Mithril, salt, water, a soulnet, and climbing gear are the minimums. After that, it depends on the region or the realm, many have their own dangers. A few caged crickets or lizards at the end of a long stick will help you navigate through the spirit realm for example, but it would be useless everywhere else." Wade had no idea what any of this meant, but it looked like Selena knew what to do.

She tapped her pouches with a firm nod.

"I have enough of the basic supplies to keep us safe, for a shorter journey. However, I lack climbing gear I could offer, which will be an issue."

"Too heavy to carry on top of your armor?" She waved her hand with a huff.

"Nonsense, I can carry far more weight than you can. The reason I don't carry climbing equipment is because it would be unbefitting of a paladin of my station."

"Unbefitting? What?"

"Moonwing elves are all somewhat capable of flight due to our strong connection with the goddess Nox. Among my kind, only children use climbing gear until they're more capable." She did fly earlier. Wade could see how a race of half-elves with the word 'wing' in their name would venerate flying around so much.

He didn't like what climbing gear implied about the world outside this city, or the rest of the equipment requirements, and neither did the group when he told them, but they'd all need to deal with this after they'd found the exit key. And he'd need to get this blackrot thing under control way earlier than that. Selena's… weirdness could wait until after the literal mind-parasite in his body was collared up. So the group started swapping ideas.

A few more minutes of idle discussion and terrible plans that wouldn't work later, Wade was out of conventional ideas. The last one he'd had was to chop his arm off, wait until the blackrot within would die off, and then reattach it with mana. Which Selena informed him would not work, as it takes some time for living tissue to officially die. Possibly hours of waiting, in which time he'd probably die.

"Play, I can't think of any other way to handle the blackrot besides getting my hands on mithril. Is there any hint you can tell us on where to find it here? Selena doesn't know. Best we got so far is that we rush leaving the city and she helps us find it out in the world, where it's more familiar to her." He looked down at his right shoulder, where small black veins were already reaching. They weren't moving, but he could swear they'd gotten a little thicker since five minutes ago.

"Don't think I'm going to last that long. And there goes all your entertainment for the day, right?" Might find some in the golem outside. The giant golem that squashed a small army of skeletons as if they were bugs. Right.

"Fat chance." Wade said. And looking at the shaking heads of Illy and Leon, he knew the group vote here was not to be idiots. … But it wasn't impossible either. If he had a smart enough plan with Illy's daggers, he could possibly do something with the skyviper boon. Hit it a bunch, and then keep hiding among all the buildings until it died. Might take a long time, but it could be done. Seems to me you got three options left.

"I'm listening." Those were more options than he thought he'd had. Option 1: Chop chop ✖╭╮✖ He shook his head. No, he'd rather just die. Fine fine, option 2: Kill the golem and hope it has some mithril hoops the size of your neck. Good luck lol"That ain't an option." Illy said, tapping the screen with one angry finger.

"We'd have better luck finding mithril outside this city somewhere than tryin' to take down that golem. Selena did say it's pretty common, she'd know where to look once we're outside." But think of the XP you'd all get! Wade sighed, "Not happening Play. What's the third option?" Fiiiineee.... The lootbox might have something you could use. Who knows? The lootbox. That might be his only solution. He looked down at the compass in his hand. The tiny needle kept pointing behind him.

Out the door and past the street and the level 122 golem. Wade wracked his head for any other option, and he realized there was one he hadn't considered: "Hold on, why would a golem have mithril in it?" Something as high tech as the golem's probably got some inside it. Wade looked up to Illy and Leon, but both shrugged, equally baffled.

"Can you tell us why you're even guessing that?" It's used in all expensive mana crafting for something, idk what for. I'm not the god of tech and magic Michael. Wade looked across the room where he knew the golem would be standing just outside. Play seemed to know some things about mana crafting, and he had to pry that out. Especially if killing the golem was going to be his next mission.

"All right fine, what do you know about golems in general? Or this one in specific?" it's way smaller than the war golems still kicking on the surface, so you got that going for you (b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b Two fingers rubbed the bridge of his nose as Wade despaired.

"'No' is a complete sentence Play, you could have just said that." And I just said I'm not the god of tech or magic, but here you are asking me insane questions. (≖､≖╬) Wade stayed in the darkness, thinking. And a spark of inspiration hit him, a fourth option to dealing with the blackrot.

"Hold on, if you say mithril is found in magical tech, could I find it in other places beside the golem?" Maybe? Sure, why not.

"You have idea?" Leon asked.

"Yeah. One thing identify keeps showing me is that the Nathir have high quality everything, so maybe even their tiny little slave-housing lightbulbs could have mithril in them? It's still tech right?" Wade got up, looking down the dark corridor.

"Which door did you throw this unit's light in?" The four of them slowly creeped their way down until they reached the first door Leon had shoved open and tossed the Nathir light into. The moment it was opened up, light creeped out from within, and the group slipped inside as fast as they could. It was cramped. Four beds, two on both sides embedded into the walls.

"Almost feels like a prison." Wade muttered, grabbing the tiny little mechanical light off the ground. It glowed in his hand, the same kind of crystal that first lantern used.

"Why have we moved here?" Selena asked.

"My wards show no sign of change on the golem thus far."

"I learned that mithril's used in technology. Could be some inside the golem, but also just about anything that's complex." He lifted the little light.

"Might find some inside here."

"Perhaps. I am not a crafter. Do you know how to take it apart?"

"Not yet, but worse case we could crack it open with your spear or Leon's hammer." Despite being ancient magic-tech from a race that were clearly way bigger than humans, the construction was small even for his size. And there were things he could recognize: Screws. They looked different than what he was used to, with six intersecting lines instead of the four, but the angle downwards was the same, and the sides had ribs that made it easy to grab and move.

Wade could recognize the end-game product of an industrial society - parts that were high quality, interchangeable and easy to use by anyone with or without tools. Seems all tech converged over a few simple design patterns in the end. The kind of universal engineering that transcended species - everything that needed to be maintained had to be easily taken apart. And the humble screw was one such idea that made the cut.

He could also see metal bands clasped around crystal edges, and he could tell the crystal itself was something non-standard considering the clasp looked more like a metal belt-zip tie hybrid of some kind, complete with a little bit extra metal sticking out where it wasn't needed. His fingers worked methodically, muscle memory from years of fiddling with electronics taking over. One screw, then another. They did unscrew in the same direction human screws would, but that was likely more by luck.

Either counterclockwise or clockwise, fifty-fifty and it happened to end on the same one modern screws used. He did note that everything was easily done by hand so far, likely intentionally. The outer casing came away first, revealing intricate metalwork on the inside. Thin strands of silvery reflective metal - possibly mithril - wound through the assembly like veins. No moving parts or even wires, it was all a solid block of metal.

"Can't break this apart more." Wade hissed, lifting it up so the others could see where he'd ended his dismantling at. The crystal itself was about the size of his palm, held in place by metal prongs. As he disconnected the base plate and lifted the crystal off of it, the golden glow dimmed and faded, leaving them all in near pitch darkness. Wade handed his phone over to Illy, who turned on the light and shined it back down on the half-deconstructed Nathir light. Eventually he hit a wall.

The inner nest that had held the crystal refused to budge no matter how he tapped around, twisted or pried. The metal seemed to flow seamlessly into itself, with no visible seams or fasteners. Either it was welded shut, made to be just replaced wholesale, or the Nathir had manufacturing techniques beyond his understanding. Wade was left with a pile of outer components and a few screws, along with the stubborn core that wouldn't break down further. He spread the pieces out before him in the dark.

Four main components in total.

"How're we supposed to know if any of this is made from mithril?" Illy asked.

"Can't make heads or tails of what these bits do."

"Same, I've got zero idea what any of these pieces are." Wade said, "But we do have one thing going for us that could figure it out. Identify." Nathir Light Fixture (High quality) Nathir Small Light Crystal (High Quality) Nathir Command Core (High quality) Nathir Mithril Capacitor Disk (High quality)