Book 2: Chapter 36: Meeting Up
“Chirp chirp, chu, aooooo~~~” In the dark forest, the strange sounds of all kinds of creatures could be heard, making Qin Lun and Tony very anxious.
If given a choice, Qin Lun would not have agreed to travel during such a dark night. When Otto’s team had found the witch’s cabin and began their fight, it was already nearing night. By the time Qin Lun had killed the witch and began his return journey, the sky was almost completely dark.
Qin Lun had placed a torch on all four corners of the carriage, but the forest was full of obstacles. The torchlight could only illuminate a short ten or so meters ahead. At certain time intervals, the doctor would send out a flare into the night. This was both for lighting and to scare off the predators lurking in the dark.
He had learned from searching the witch’s hut that, a day ago, she had already reported that a large amount of exorcists had invaded the forest. The news had already been sent to their headquarters. According to calculations, the Maize witch’s reinforcements would arrive in the forest as soon as tomorrow or the day after. This time, the exorcists really had to withdraw from the Maize Forest.
Through simple communication using the flares, Qin Lun had learned that Lady Nova’s group had already defeated the evil creatures and were, currently, also rushing through the night to meet up.
From the location of their camp, it had taken Qin Lun’s team half a day to find the witch’s cabin. Although the return trip should be a bit faster, it was currently the middle of the night. He didn’t dare advance at top speed. At minimum, it would take him 5 hours to return to the camp.
Perhaps it was because the battles between the Maize witch and the exorcists these past two days had frightened away the predators in the forest, until Qin Lun saw the fire of the camp, the carriage had never encountered any attacks.
Late at night, the group of exorcists, that had made immense sacrifices, finally managed to meet up with the lucky survivors at the crack of dawn.
“Doctor Stein, you’ve returned!”
The rumbling of the carriage roused the exorcists at the camp. The exorcists, headed by Lady Nova and a large man with sideburns named Meyer, walked up to greet the carriage.
“The others?” Seeing that only Qin Lun sat on the carriage, the crowd of exorcists turned silent.
“Tony’s in the back; he’s heavily injured. Right now, he’s still dizzy. As for the others… they’re also in the back.” Qin Lun hopped off the carriage, his face pale. He suddenly felt faint and couldn’t help but sway. He supported himself on the carriage.
Even though Qin Lun had withstood it till now, compared to the poisoned Tony, his injuries were actually more severe. The right side of his chest had been penetrated by a sharp blade, and blood had accumulated in his lung. His shoulder bones had been cracked by the Grand Devil, and a palm had been pierced by the witch’s nails.
He was still standing thanks to the slow self-healing ability provided by his law body and his own auto-hypnosis, which allowed him to ignore the pain. Any other person would not have made it back.
“Quickly help him into a tent. Bring a healer over!”
After seeing Qin Lun up close, even Lady Nova was given a big shock. She quickly called for the healer among the exorcists.
“No, I can hold on! Treat Tony first. He’s been poisoned by undead power. If treatment is delayed, he could become a corpse!” Qin Lun shook his head as if to shake out the dizziness.
The doctor raised his head and said solemnly, “Lady Nova, Sir Meyer, the situation is extremely grave! Please immediately gather everyone. Before I lie down to rest, I need to inform everyone of the information we gathered!”
Nova and Meyer exchanged a glance, then nodded with solemn expressions.
“Alright, we’ll deal with your injuries while listening to the report!”
“Doctor Stein, please drink this first!” An exorcist smiled and supported Qin Lun. He handed over a bottle of golden medicine.
“Notice: Apostle 70053, your law body has been nourished by some unknown medicine. Self-recovery speed increased by 500%. Body has received permanent upgrades. Updating body statistics in the Death Notice. Blood capacity increased by 15 points and energy increased by 10 points. Unable to display non-digitized body values.”
In total, there were three categories of data that were digitized by the Death Notice: soul vitality, blood capacity, and magic power. They all started at 100 points. After Qin Lun obtained his first summon skill, magic power had become energy.
Both blood capacity and energy had increased by 15 points. This was already a very big upgrade. Add to that the attributes that the Death Notice couldn’t digitize, this medicine could definitely be considered a treasure.
Qin Lun could only feel a warmth appear in his lower abdomen and warm his whole body from head to toe. His mind even seemed to tremble. He immediately looked at the golden medicine in his hand, amazed. Since entering this world, it wasn’t like he had never tried to use the medicine Wellington had on hand to increase his attributes, but the Death Notice never showed any reaction.
He had originally given up. He thought that besides the items exchanged from Shattered Starry Sky, the precious medicines from other worlds were unable to affect his law body. Now it seemed that he simply didn’t have access to precious enough medicine.
“This is…” Qin Lun turned and looked towards the healer.
“This is an imitation of the longevity medicine created by the ancient longevity believers. It is also called Holy Medicine.” The exorcist healer smiled and continued, “Anyone taking this type of medicine for the first time will have their body greatly improved. In the future, your body will have a certain resistance to its effect. It is a type of holy healing medicine. The only problem is that the ingredients needed to make it are too precious, and it requires many mission points to exchange for.”
“You’re truly too generous!” Qin Lun’s eyes brightened and he said respectfully.
“Haha, no need to thank me. Us healing exorcists lack in fighting strength. Our duty is to provide critical care for our exorcist companions. According to the importance of the mission, the organization will grant us some medicine.” The exorcist healer shook his head and said, “In fact, there aren’t many cases where Holy Medicine or exorcist medicines come in use. Instead, it is Doctor Stein’s medical expertise that can save the life of more comrades.”
“But medical expertise has its limits. It is powerless against certain injuries.” Qin Lun shrugged his shoulders helplessly. He faintly squinted his eyes, “After settling these events, I must definitely go to the Exorcist Headquarters and exchange for some more Holy Medicine. I’ll see if I can use my modern medical knowledge to figure out the medical composition and find more common ingredients to substitute.”
“Oh? If you can come up with a substitute for Holy Medicine, as long as it can have a third of the healing effect, it could save a large amount of exorcists’ lives!” The healer’s eyes shined. He hesitated for a moment then took out another bottle of golden liquid from his chest pocket. Gritting his teeth, he gave it to Qin Lun.
“Doctor Stein, I believe in your medical techniques, but exchanging for Holy Medicine not only requires points, but also a certain rank. With your current exorcist rank, I’m afraid you won’t be able to get any Holy Medicine for a long time. Consider this bottle of medicine my contribution for helping your research. If it is successful, I ask that you sell me some Holy Medicine substitute at a discount.”
“This… alright. I’m really unable to refuse.” Qin Lun sighed. He gently took the bottle and stowed it in his chest pocket. “You’re truly too generous!”
“Haha, as I’ve said, no need to thank me. This is for all of our exorcist comrades who fight against those evil creatures!” The healer smiled and said, “Let’s go. Once we enter the tent, I’ll treat your wound.”
Stooping to enter the big tent in the middle of camp, Qin Lun peeled off his worn-out outer clothing. His naked upper-body received the healer’s treatment.
Lady Nova and the other exorcists had very quickly dealt with their comrades’ bodies in the carriage and began to enter the tent.
“Lady Nova, are all our comrades here?” With the help of the bright light in the tent, Qin Lun swept his gaze over everyone and immediately understood the situation. He discovered that the exorcists were all sporting heavy injuries, but compared to when they set out, their numbers hadn’t diminished by much. It looks like the battle on their side was not as serious as it seemed, much better than Otto’s team.
“Mm, our judgment was correct. There was only one witch commanding the evil creatures. Not long after splitting off from you, the trailing group of creatures seemed to lose their unity and were very quickly defeated.” The man with sideburns, Meyer, said with a smile.
Even though, when they made the proposal, his opinion differed from the others, he now bore no ill-feelings since their ultimate goals were the same.
“Doctor Stein, what did you encounter at the witch’s cabin? Could it be that there were still many evil creatures there? Did you succeed in defeating the witch?” Lady Nova asked with a serious expression.
“Mm, the battle against the witch was very difficult. But compared to a mere battle, the information I saw…” Qin Lun said slowly in a single breath. He took out the witch’s notes and put it on the center table.
Qin Lun methodically arranged and recounted the battle against the witch. Compared to the intense battle, when the exorcists finished reading the witch’s notes and saw the two pieces of information that Qin Lun had specially marked, the tent sank into a deathly stillness.
“This notebook… could it be purposely fabricated by the Maize witch?” After a long time, an exorcist asked with difficulty.
“That’s impossible. From these two pieces of information, one is over 10 years old and the other just over a year!” Lady Nova gently closed her eyes, then said bitterly, “Also, from the handwriting, the Maize witch seemed to not attach any importance to these two entries. In fact, besides us people of Odia, how could a witch who never leaves the forest be able to make the connection? Even magic creatures with simple intelligence wouldn’t be able to pass on this information!”
“We need to report to the Exorcist Headquarters. The Albert family is Odia region’s exorcist leader. We can’t simply make a decision based on some witch’s notes!” Another young exorcist said.
“There’s not enough time! According to Doctor Stein’s judgment, the plague will break out in the next few days. The thousands of lives in Odia region are all in danger!” Meyer got up with an ashen face. “We need to immediately return to Albert Castle and confirm the information in the note. If Baron Albert is unable to provide a rational explanation, even if he is expelled from the organization, we need to save Odia.”