NOVEL NEXT Chapter 157: Inappropriate request
The moment they slandered the good name of their Savior, was the moment they got on the dwarves' bad side. Their expressive faces clearly showed their intense dislike of the new Saviors.
Tarish immediately apologized to Atlan and the dwarves for her team's behavior. She gestured for her team to go away and do something else.
"Sorry. They've been on edge ever since stories about the anomalies in the mission popped up around the City.
We are never sure if the Quills messed up again and prescribed us the wrong Canzer Report.
We don't know if there is going to be a different Canzer popping up in our mission. We don't know if a Specialist behemoth would appear like in that Pocket Remedium disaster. We'll never know if we end up returning alive from the mission or be recovered as a vial of blood.
That's the reason why I wanted to ask questions about the symptoms from the witnesses themselves.
It's necessary to know if the symptom is accurate down to the exact details to make sure that the Canzer Report we have is accurate."
Atlan understood their concerns. In every case that Atlan entered the Remedium, things always went wrong.
That's why Atlan was curious about how Operators worked. He wanted to know how they knew which Canzer was plaguing the Remedium. He wanted to know which symptom referred to which Canzer. He wanted to know everything there was to know about Canzers so that he wouldn't get caught unprepared ever again.
"I understand. I'll tell you everything I saw."
Tarish was extremely grateful to Atlan. And because he deemed it okay, the dwarves decided to share what they saw too.
"It was extremely hot inside. It's like the whole thing turned into an oven with the heat turned up to the maximum!" one of the dwarves recalled.
"Yes. It was instant, not gradual," the other dwarf said.
Tarish looked at the Canzer Report and referenced it with the dwarves' experience. For now, everything was as indicated in the stone tablet.
"Was the heat uniform? Or were there hot spots?" she asked.
"Everything was hot! No amount of hiding from the sun stopped the air from burning my skin. And my skin is hard enough to touch lava!"
Tarish nodded while double-checking the stone tablet.
She looked at the boundary between the infected Masamune district and the residential district.
"The infected place hasn't spread, right?"
This time, the soldiers answered. "No, it hasn't spread. We've been monitoring it, and thankfully, it stayed locked in the Masamune district."
When Atlan looked back, it was as if he stared at a sepia screen that turned everything into an orangish tint. There was a clear distinction between the normal air of the unaffected region and the hot scorching space in the Masamune district.
It divided the street perfectly in half. Atlan would have thought that powerful phenomena such as a symptom wouldn't follow district boundaries, but it did—perfectly.
"Lastly, did any of you see explosions that seemingly come out of nowhere?"
Most of the dwarves already passed out when Atlan saved them, so they didn't see any explosions.
But Atlan did.
"Yes. Buildings spontaneously blew up without any reason. Is that part of the symptom?"
Tarish nodded. "Yes. It's written in the Canzer Report as the main symptom. Heat Wave with random structural detonation. If you didn't see any explosions, then that would mean that the Canzer is different from what we expected, so it's good that you saw it."
Tarish compiled everything she heard from the witnesses.
"So it's localized…and since this is the first time this symptom appears, we can assume that it's acute…" Tarish muttered under her breath.
So far, everything looked the same as indicated in the Canzer Report. Even though the Operators assured them that this was correct, she couldn't help but doubt their words. There had been too many incidents these past few weeks where too many Saviors lost their SoulTime.
"Miss Tarish! The portal is finished." One of the soldiers reported to her.
She gestured for her teammates to come near her as they finished their final preparations.
"It's time, boys. Carry her in." She pointed towards the truck where the Operator construct was stored in a black box. The container was big enough to fit 3 people inside comfortably.
Three of the buffest men in her team, along with a couple of soldiers, worked together to carry the black box near the finished portal.
Tarish opened the locks on the black box and revealed an ornately golden oil lamp with a bulbous body and a gradually tapered narrow spout. Its surface was inundated with curvy lines that seemed random and useless to the naked eye. Discover hidden tales at M-V-L
But Atlan was different. As soon as the black box opened, he knew that whatever was inside it was filled with Angel power. There was something else mixed into it, but he couldn't deny the Angel power seeped into the very object itself.
"We can handle this," one of the men said to Tarish.
Even though the oil lamp was small and fit snugly into one palm, it took three 6th stage Students to barely lift the construct up and out of the box. Their faces were contorted and their cheeks flushed as they used their mutations to the fullest.
They hadn't even entered the Remedium, but they were already dead tired from carrying the construct.
Tarish looked at her teammates and knew she had to make a decision.
Even though the construct would be used immediately when they entered the Remedium, missions were always full of surprises. Trouble could welcome them as soon as they stepped foot inside the portal. At that point, the three people carrying the construct would be left vulnerable to any attacks.
They need a porter.
She looked at Atlan and had an insane idea.
"Star Porter. We need your help. Can you be our porter?"
The rest of her teammates immediately complained.
"Are you crazy?! We're dealing with a 6th stage Student difficulty Canzer. We can't have a 2nd stage Student burden us with our mission!"
"This is inappropriate. He's only going to hurt himself."
"He'll lose our SoulTime!"