A Hospital in Another World? Chapter 1005: The Necromancers on the Verge of Madness

When Garrett was busy conducting his experiments, Archmage Haines was in another experimental area with his students, their students, two young necromancers temporarily brought in, and two other willing mages working at the research institute. They were all staring at dozens of cages of monkeys.

"Why are we raising monkeys?"

"Yeah, why are we the ones raising monkeys? Isn’t this the job of a nature priest? Why should we necromancers be doing it?"

"Exactly, and there are so many monkeys in the jungle... When we need them, can't we just catch a bunch? Why do we have to raise them?"

Archmage Haines also had many complaints about this. However, when his students were confused and complaining, he had to cough and try to maintain order:

"Everyone, quiet!"

He swept his gaze around, seeing everyone fall silent and bow their heads. Satisfied, he coughed again and scolded:

"Don't want to raise monkeys? If you don't want to raise monkeys, you can go next door! — Raise rabbits, dogs, chickens, mice, whatever! You don't necessarily have to raise monkeys here!"

A chorus of very faint groans followed. Outside the monkey zone, there were indeed several other animal zones — but who was raising those animals?

All local women and children!

Cutting grass for rabbits, feeding corn to chickens, giving corn and pumpkin to dogs with occasional meat scraps — these were their daily chores! Except for raising mice, which was less common, but mice would eat anything!

How could they, noble mages, do the same work as those local women and children!

"Besides, raising monkeys is for experiments! Many spells have reactions on monkeys similar to those on humans, which is different from dogs or pigs! So, let's work hard to raise these monkeys! We have so many here!"

Anyway, this research institute was already designated as the property of Black Crow Swamp! Raising more monkeys could be used for other research, drug experiments, or magic experiments, or to study other plagues in the future!

Most mages bowed their heads in compliance and gradually dispersed to work. Only Archmage Haines’ disciple, the 15th-level mage Wendell Jennings, who had been brought in to fill the quota, mumbled softly, taking advantage of his teacher’s favor:

"Even so, why can't we just catch them? Why do we have to raise them..."

"Because Garrett said he needs monkeys," Archmage Haines sighed.

"These monkeys were all caught from the jungle. Who knows how many bacteria they carry? If you inject something and the monkey gets a fever — is it because of your injection or because it’s dirty itself?"

In fact, Garrett had said more than this. When Archmage Haines went to a meeting with him, he saw Garrett bent over a table, drawing and muttering with a troubled expression:

"Monkeys by the Eternal River... crab-eating monkeys... none of these... who knows what species of monkeys are in the nearby jungle... they must not have specific pathogens... even if not, at least give me clean-grade monkeys..."

"Where is the Eternal River?" Archmage Haines suddenly asked.

"You want crab-eating monkeys? I can post a task at the mage tower for the locals to find crab-eating monkeys for you? Or feed them crabs to see which kind eats?"

Garrett turned and gave him a "I'm about to cry" look.

"I want rhesus monkeys... rhesus monkeys and crab-eating monkeys... not just any kind of monkey..."

It wasn't that there were no experimental rhesus monkeys, so we could go catch a nest from Mount Emei... those mischievous monkeys are not suitable!

Even disregarding that they are Tibetan macaques, not rhesus monkeys; and disregarding that Tibetan macaques are a nationally protected species; wild monkeys have countless bacteria and viruses...

Shaving them and washing them with disinfectant doesn’t make them "clean" monkeys!

Even if they have nothing on the outside, they still carry bacteria inside!

Even the cheapest standard-grade monkeys are required not to carry zoonotic pathogens... not to carry animal virulent infectious pathogens...

One level up, "clean-grade" monkeys must not carry pathogens harmful to animals or interfere with research...

And the monkeys he wanted, without yellow fever virus, malaria virus, dengue virus, Zika virus, and any strange viruses... needed to be at least Specific Pathogen-Free (SPF) grade...

SPF grade, germ-free (GF) grade, and animals with specific diseases or knocked-out specific genes, each grade is higher than the last. The price is not a simple doubling but increases geometrically!

A rhesus monkey costing 100,000 isn't a joke?

However, no matter how expensive... they were available in the past... you only needed to design the experiment, fill out the report, apply for the budget, and buy them... unlike in this broken world where you have to start from scratch!

At his Oak Grove Research Institute, those diligent necromancers spent years raising a batch of clean-grade mice, wearing protective suits daily to enter and leave the animal house. As for monkeys?

Sorry, he couldn’t afford to raise monkeys!

"In short, let's keep these monkeys alive first. If they survive and breed, and the offspring are raised in a clean environment for several generations... maybe they can be used..."

Archmage Haines recalled the operation manual Garrett had given him — regarding clean animal rooms, entry and exit requirements, operational standards, etc., and continued to order his subordinates:

"Stop dawdling! First, clean these monkeys! Clean them thoroughly! — There’s a big barrel of disinfectant over there!"

"Ah! This monkey won't get in the water!" a young necromancer screamed. He quickly raised his hand to cover his face, with a clang, his mage armor sparked a flash of fire:

"It scratched me!"

"Petrification!" Before Archmage Haines could respond, his disciple’s disciple, the head of this group, scolded:

"Charm! There are so many ready-made spells; can’t you use one? — Don’t use your hands! Where are your skeletons? Why aren’t you using skeletons to work?"

"I’m not a control type... If I use Petrification, how do we shave them..."

Chaos ensued. Eventually, all the monkeys were forcibly washed, shaved, had their nails clipped, and even their teeth brushed.

After a round of major cleaning, every low-level mage collapsed outside the iron cages, staring at the monkeys lying inside, not wanting to move...

"I feel like we forgot to do something?"

"What else could there be? — I'm hungry, let's eat first!"

"Right, we need to feed the monkeys first!"

Clang, clang, clang, large buckets of corn, pumpkins, fruits, and chopped chicken were carried into the animal house by pairs of skeletons. They scooped a spoonful into each monkey’s food bowl. The necromancers finally breathed a sigh of relief and went to eat:

"Cornbread... a bit overcooked..."

"Pumpkin mush..."

"Prickly pear..."

"Avocado..."

"Roast chicken meatballs..."

"Corn tortillas wrapped with pumpkin, peas, and chicken strips... chili sauce on the side, take as much as you want..."

"Feels like we’re eating the same as the monkeys? At most, we eat cooked food, and they eat raw?"

"No, monkeys don’t have to eat spicy, we do." A necromancer who could never get used to spicy food took a bite of a chicken meatball and was brought to tears by the chili flakes inside:

"Forcing people to eat spicy food is heresy... Who's cooking in the kitchen? I want to thrash the cook!"

"Calm down, no one is cooking here, it's all done by the tower spirit with invisible servants. You should be asking who taught the tower spirit these local recipes..."

"..."

"..."

Young mages who had no say in the menu or even the right to order food looked at each other. Although there was no mage tower built in the research institute, it was still under the control of the tower spirit —

And the tower spirit’s control currently belonged to Archmage Haines.

"Even if his tongue is dull enough to be close to the undead, wanting to eat heavy flavors, he should leave us some edible dishes... t_t..."

The necromancer who got spicy continued to complain tearfully. With a smack, he received a slap on the back of his head, and the group leader, with an expressionless face, dispersed the mage hand:

"Stop complaining. Finish eating quickly and go check on the monkeys — I feel these monkeys will cause us endless trouble."

Indeed, trouble. The necromancers quickly finished lunch and returned to the animal house, each frowning:

"Ahh — why aren’t these monkeys eating!"

If Garrett were here, he would tell them: the monkeys are stressed.

Not just animals, even humans, if suddenly caught, petrified, immersed in water with a strange smell, and then shaved all over, would huddle against the wall, trembling for three to five days.

Not eating is actually good, at least they aren’t screaming, banging against the cage, scratching themselves bloody, or inexplicably vomiting blood and dying.

And the necromancers' way of dealing with this was also very straightforward:

Not eating, huh?

Hunger spell!

I’ll make you feel hungry, so hungry that you’ll go crazy, let’s see if you eat!

What, still not eating?

Dominate Animal!

"Phew, phew... Raising monkeys is really hard... We control them to eat; will we have to control them to defecate in the future..."

"Can we apply for a nature priest to do this job... Raising animals is their specialty... Why throw it

to the necromancers..."

"Shh!"

That tenth-level nature priest, someone, if he was willing to raise animals, he wouldn’t have had to catch others to do it! The problem is, he buried himself in the core of the research institute and refused to come out!

"By the way, who knows a calming spell? Cast a calming spell on the monkeys!"

Stumbling, with countless difficulties. In short, the necromancer-led animal husbandry team finally succeeded in keeping the monkeys alive — and then they faced the next difficulty:

"Why aren’t these monkeys giving birth to baby monkeys?"

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