NOVEL WEB Ch. 93
Chapter 93
Reverse-Life Marrow Fluid
An hourglass later.
The Abyss of Nightmares.
The largest of the Emerald Salamanders had finally stopped struggling under the effect of the neuroparalytic toxin. Only its pair of eyes, about the size of mung beans, still turned about.
Lucy put on the intestine-skin gloves and deftly cut open its body.
The pale golden spinal cord was exposed to the air, surrounded by a dense tangle of nerve strands and a network of magical veins.
As magical energy flowed, the salamander’s sliced-open flesh began to regenerate at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"So that’s how it is..." Lucy’s pupils contracted in excitement.
She used forceps to lift a segment of the translucent nerve strand.
"The spinal stem cells can actually complete the reconstruction of flesh and blood independently. No wonder it was said in legend that even if its head was chopped off, it could recover in a short time."
She carefully peeled off the entire spinal cord and extracted a small vial of clear marrow fluid from it.
Then she grabbed a Rotten Fang Wolf from the cage.
This kind of enchanted beast possessed strong vitality and high resistance. It could be found everywhere in this decaying swamp forest, making it the perfect choice for experiments.
Amid the Rotten Fang Wolf’s howls, Lucy injected the extracted marrow fluid into its spinal cord.
She then began the second live dissection of the Rotten Fang Wolf.
"Come on, try swinging that iron tail of yours..."
Experiment Record: Living Specimen No. 1 Rotten Fang Wolf
Capture Time: Noon, 26th day of the 7th month, Year 3040 of the Wizard’s Calendar
Capture Location: Rotting Swamp Jungle
Description: Pack-dwelling, hunts cooperatively, matriarchal. A wolf-like creature about three meters long, the head retained the Rotten Fang Wolf’s signature fangs.
Attack Methods:
1. Pus Jet
2. Rotting Bite
Enchanted Organs:
1. Decaying Fangs
2. High-Pressure Throat
3. Iron Tail
(Live Magical Vein Diagram)
Application Direction: To improve and upgrade the Venomous Fang.
When the first live dissection notes were completed, the system notification sounded immediately.
[Living Specimen No. 1 Rotten Fang Wolf]
[Comment: A nearly perfect live dissection experiment]
[Academic Points Gained: 36 → 46 points]
As Lucy’s wizard rank had risen, the dissection gains from such Tier-1 life forms had already diminished significantly.
But even so, this ‘perfect dissection’ still brought Lucy 10 academic points.
That Rotten Fang Wolf which had received the marrow fluid implantation, after more than an hourglass of dissection and analysis, had miraculously survived.
When Lucy finished stitching up the wounds and applied the [Life Potion],
though the creature looked at her as if it were staring at a humanoid demon, it was already able to weakly scratch at the edge of the dissection table, trying to escape.
After ordering the eerie servant to lock the thoroughly tormented Rotten Fang Wolf into the cage, Lucy recorded every detail of the procedure into her notes and named the Emerald Salamander’s spinal fluid “Reverse-Life Marrow Fluid.”
"The Reverse-Life Marrow Fluid’s effects are even better than I expected, but each salamander yields too little. I must capture more Emerald Salamanders and breed them to expand their numbers and create a sustainable cycle."
In the following half month, Lucy captured over a hundred Emerald Salamanders in this gorge. However, she did not wipe them out completely and left several intact colonies behind.
If breeding them in the Abyss of Nightmares failed, at least this habitat could continue to supply live specimens someday in the future.
Afterward, Lucy began experimenting with enhancing the fluid using potions.
Unfortunately, even after trying dozens of materials brought from the Tower of the Four Sages, the Reverse-Life Marrow Fluid showed no significant improvements, nor did it form any skill in the system.
Half a month later.
When she finally decided to leave the Rotting Swamp Forest, her anatomical notes had gained two more live dissection records.
[Living Specimen No. 2 Dragon-Lion] [A nearly perfect live dissection experiment] [Academic Points: 46 → 51]
[Living Specimen No. 3 Two-Headed Vulture] [A nearly perfect live dissection experiment] [Academic Points: 46 → 58]
...
Five days later, Ryan City.
The free market beneath the Thousand-Eyed Tower was thick with the stench of sulfur and beast pelts.
One robed wizard apprentice after another moved between the stalls, and nearly every apprentice was accompanied by a fearsome enchanted beast.
This was the largest city in the northern Sofit Kingdom and home to the Thousand-Eyed Tower.
The tower housed five official wizards, of whom the most powerful belonged to the School of Summoning.
It was also the Sofit Kingdom’s largest free wizard trading market. Vast quantities of tamed magical beasts, witchcraft tools, and potions circulated here.
Of course, trading here was not free of charge. Every magic stone exchanged required the payment of a steep transaction tax to the Thousand-Eyed Tower.
In the wind and snow, a figure wrapped in a worn robe walked toward the market entrance.
A slightly hoarse female voice came from beneath the cloak.
"Hello, I would like to enter the market."
The Tier-3 apprentice in charge of the trading area didn’t even look up. "Tower wizard or..."
"Free wizard."
After speaking, she reached up and lifted the hood from her head, revealing the face of a black-haired young woman.
Though she had a pair of beautiful large eyes, her appearance could only be described as delicate.
Sensing the Tier-2 apprentice-level mental fluctuations from her, a trace of disdain flashed in the watchman wizard’s eyes.
"Name."
"Olivia Bell, from Scar City, Tier-2 apprentice, potion scholar."
After a brief registration, the Tier-3 apprentice opened a parchment scroll on which dozens of wanted individuals’ faces were recorded.
Once he had checked it carefully, he finally spread his hands. "One magic stone."
"It is forbidden to use offensive witchcraft in the trading grounds. All transactions are your own responsibility..."
After handing over the entrance fee, ‘Olivia’ finally stepped into the market.
She murmured to herself, "Fortunately, I had the sense to prepare the transformation witchcraft in advance."
Just now, she had clearly seen the silver-haired figure flash across the parchment scroll.
Her activities at the outpost had already been discovered by the Thousand-Eyed Tower, and a wanted poster had been issued.
"Still, wearing Olivia’s face really does feel a little strange."
Indeed, this girl who looked about sixty percent similar to Olivia was Lucy in disguise.
After leaving the Rotting Swamp Forest, she had used the face of the Thousand-Faced Cursed Crow, recorded in her anatomical notes as Specimen No. 12, to construct the transformation witchcraft.
This Zero-Ring witchcraft, which she named [Thousand Faces], could record five different human faces at the same time. After upgrading it through the system, it could even alter hair color and pupils.
By using the Nightwalker robe to conceal her magical energy fluctuations, unless a peak apprentice examined her very closely, it was impossible to see through this self-created disguise spell.
The free trading market of the Thousand-Eyed Tower was vast in scale. Most of it consisted of apprentices from towers within the Sofit Kingdom, with a smaller portion occupied by independent scholars.
On one side of the road were the official shops operated by the Thousand-Eyed Tower, with rows of neatly displayed witchcraft implements.
The other side held privately run stalls offering all kinds of oddities, somewhat similar to the plaza markets of the Tower of the Four Sages.
After circling the market twice to make sure no one was paying her any attention, she walked straight toward an herb shop she had already picked out, with an eye-shaped sign hanging over the entrance.
"I want to sell a few bottles of apprentice-level resistance potions, and also buy some low-grade herbs." She deliberately made her voice deeper than usual.
When Lucy set five bottles of ‘Anti-Contamination Potion’ on the counter, the potion apprentice who had been half distracted instantly perked up.
Anti-Contamination Potions were highly sought-after hard currency no matter where one went.