A Hospital in Another World? Chapter 1012: The Plague Mage Reports to the Plague Lord!

The Nevis Merchant Guild, Kent Kingdom Merchant Guild, and the New World Development Guild eagerly awaited the Plague Lord's creation of a vaccine, as desperately as parched lands long for rain.

There was no other choice. Anti-mosquito equipment was too expensive, costing 50 gold coins for just three months of use. The Plague Lord's products reportedly cost only 1 gold coin per unit for the Eagle Kingdom… even factoring in shipping costs, it would be 10 gold coins per unit here.

Garrett Nordmark eagerly awaited the arrival of the plague branch mages, as desperately as parched lands long for rain.

There was no other choice. Producing attenuated vaccines seemed prestigious, but in reality, it was like all other biological, basic medical, and materials science research—an endless labor-intensive task.

It was like tirelessly striving to get into the best university, studying for a master's and doctorate, but spending days in the lab sampling, adding samples, resampling, re-adding, filling up a 48 or 96-well plate, and setting it aside…

Or continuously extracting, distilling, purifying, and then repeating the extraction, distillation, and purification; or running electrophoresis, and running it again and again; or passing columns repeatedly…

Experimenting, observing, measuring to see if the desired results were achieved. If lucky, one could publish a good paper; if not, it might result in extended studies.

A doctoral student's prime years passed by in such monotonous and repetitive work, year after year.

It was not much better for Garrett. Infecting a mouse, observing the illness, and handing it to Oknjinn:

A group of skeletons clattered into action. Oknjinn drew the blood and killed the mouse; Skeleton 1 decapitated it and removed the brain; Skeleton 2 extracted the liver, Skeleton 3 the kidneys…

Each skeleton produced a pathological slice, presenting them to Garrett. The advantage of skeletons was their ability to complete tasks diligently after being taught once, without slacking off due to boredom.

Garrett's task was to observe. He compared the pathological slices to normal cells—yes, changes were evident in the brain, liver, and kidneys, with the brain showing more significant changes.

This indicated that the brain, liver, and kidneys were the main target organs of the yellow fever virus, with the brain being the most affected in mice—

Another round!

Another round!

After three rounds, the results confirmed that the yellow fever virus attacked the mouse brain most severely. Thus, it was decided to use the mouse brain for repeated passages!

The Oak Grove Clinic produced an attenuated rabies vaccine after fifty or sixty passages;

In reality, creating an attenuated vaccine might involve over a hundred passages;

With divine magic for attenuation, aiming for virus mutations toward weakening, it might only take twenty or thirty passages, or even a dozen, to screen for a sufficiently weakened strain to create the attenuated vaccine?

Garrett thought happily. But thoughts were one thing, and doing it was another:

Using extracts from the brains of infected mice, he injected them into mouse brains, subcutaneously, intraperitoneally, and infected them using the Plague Spell;

He observed their weight, temperature, respiration, and food intake over 1-3 days. Although Garrett was a Level 10 Druid and could directly sense the mice's health with effort, objective observation, measurement, and recording were still necessary!

Oknjinn, Skeletons 1234, don’t even think about slacking off!

After observing, he selected the mice with the mildest symptoms, extracted their brain cells, crushed, dissolved, filtered, centrifuged, and reinfected more mice, observing them again;

One mouse brain could infect dozens of mice; from these, he selected the mildest cases and infected ten more mice per group…

This cycle continued day after day, leading to a terrifying outcome!

Even if Garrett pushed the skeletons to their limits, the number of mice to observe and brains to crush increased exponentially!

He needed manpower!

He needed necromancers to work, and skeletons to assist!

“Ah—when will someone come to help me—”

Garrett sprawled on the laboratory floor, wailing. Archmage Haines carefully walked over, lifting his robe and nudging Garrett’s foot with his toe:

“Lacking skeletons? Should I send you a batch of zombies?”

“Absolutely not!”

Garrett sprang up.

Skeletons were clean! Smooth bones could be disinfected after each injection, and they could bathe in a vat of disinfectant after a day’s work!

Other undead creatures—zombies, abominations, death knights—were troublesome to disinfect! Some even shed rotting flesh!

He didn't want them!

“Then there’s no help,” Archmage Haines sighed. Even as an 18th-level Archmage, he had few undead with self-will capable of fine work—

And they couldn’t all be skeletons due to combat needs. Garrett only wanted skeletons, nothing else, making it difficult.

“Maybe I could go to the Serpent God's temple or dig up a grave nearby to summon some undead? The Serpent God's necromancy is quite interesting; their mummies and crystal skeletons have peculiar power laws. Want to study them together?”

Garrett looked at him warily. I am an Evocation Mage, not a Necromancer! I'm not interested in your necromantic laws!

Don’t try to tempt me!

“Though I can’t stop you from summoning skeletons from local native bones—are you sure they’ll understand us and learn to do fine work? They might only understand the native language.”

“That’s where you lack knowledge of necromantic rules… Let me explain…”

“I have to check on the mice! Another round today!—by the way, when will the plague branch mages arrive!”

Garrett fled.

The plague branch necromancers Garrett awaited were swaying on a ship bound for the New World.

When news of the Plague Lord recruiting spread, the plague branch was abuzz, with everyone scrambling for a chance. But when returning mages conveyed the requirements, more than half withdrew:

“What? At the research facility, we must swear an oath to use all our knowledge to cure and save lives? Not for harm or killing?”

Eighth-level Mage Brenda Knapp quickly retracted her application. Beside her, ninth-level Mage Holden Durant shook his head repeatedly:

“Doesn’t that nullify most of our abilities? No, all of them!”

“If we can't use the plague to kill or harm, what's the point? Might as well switch to the medical branch!”

Eleventh-level Archmage Sumant Toth couldn’t help but criticize. He tore up his application as he returned to his lab. He was greeted by a group of eager eyes at the door:

“Teacher, can we go?”

“Yes, teacher, can we apply?”

“You want to go?” Archmage Toth frowned deeply. He was met with enthusiastic nodding:

“Yes, yes!”

“Nordmark's place is great! No killing! No fighting! Just research!”

“Look at those from Oak Grove Clinic! They entered and now the lowest rank is Level 3, some almost Level 7! They advance so fast!”

“The key is the opportunity! If we succeed, we can sell vaccines! Yellow fever vaccine, malaria vaccine, so many vaccines, that’s a huge profit!”

“It benefits the council too! Not worse than fighting! Our warriors have vaccines, the Radiant Church’s don’t—we’ll crush them!”

“There’s no shortage of killing aura! They say over there, dozens of mice, rabbits, chickens, pigs, and monkeys are killed daily… plenty of dissections!”

“Who wants to fight if they can work well!”

This…

Archmage Toth sighed deeply. He saw his disciples, apprentices, and lab staff—most were eager—

Especially those assigned to the necromancy branch in magic school. Necromancers were notoriously hard to find jobs for!

If Transmutation could enter production, Divination might try accounting, Enchantment could go into performing arts, Necromancers almost had to venture into the wild if not accepted by the Mage Tower:

Otherwise?

Hoping some minor noble, driven mad by the death of a loved one, would hire a necromancer to attempt resurrection?

If there was such a demand, why not directly order from the council? Legendary necromancers could do it, and if they couldn’t, neither could low-level mages…

Not all necromancers were bitter and vengeful!

Not all necromancers delighted in killing!

Many mages were normal people, wanting normal jobs, normal family lives, normal marriages…

“Fine, if you want to apply, go ahead… wait!” He pulled out a form from his space bag:

“They only recruit mages Level 5 and above! Minimum Level 5, maximum Level 9! Must be proficient in summoning the Phantom Steed, Mage’s Hut, and…”

Most low-level mages retreated dejectedly. Archmage Toth relaxed slightly and continued reading:

“Must accept long-term research, first term not less than 5 years… daily work not less than 10 hours… salary? Paid by the Black Crow Swamp, initially 50% above the current level’s average as an overseas allowance…”

“Recruited plague mages will each receive a golden skeleton as a tool—available for half-price purchase after five years of service…”

These detailed and complex requirements, along with the relatively low salary and arduous work, deterred another group of mages.

Finally, 20 plague branch mages boarded the ship, swaying towards the New World. Upon

landing, they took the council's map and rode Phantom Steeds straight west—

“We’re here! Respected Plague Lord, the plague branch mages should be twenty, all present, reporting for duty!”

“Great, you’re here!” Garrett was overjoyed:

“Come in—take a bath, change clothes, and start injecting the mice!”

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