A Hospital in Another World? Chapter 1013: Necromancers, Are You Sure You're Not Causing Trouble?

"We can currently confirm that a pathogenic factor — let's temporarily call it a 'pathogen' — is causing this disease named 'yellow fever.'"

Garrett Nordmark stood on the podium with his hands behind his back, addressing the twenty necromancers who had traveled from afar. Oknjinn held a pen, and Skeleton No. 1 held the materials, standing straight on either side of the podium, giving him... well, a bit of the necromancer aura. Except for the deep green scrubs covered by a white lab coat, which seemed a bit out of place.

However, none of the necromancers on site thought the attire was out of place, including the Level 18 Archmage Haines. Everyone had their notebooks open, heads down, scribbling furiously:

"This pathogenic factor might be bacteria, or it might not be. We have not observed any bacteria yet. Of course, it could be because it is too small or we don't have the right staining method — this requires your future efforts."

Lecturing!

The Plague Lord himself was lecturing!

It is well known that what you absorb from a lecture can never compare to what you get from a research paper! Researchers who cherish their reputation only publish verified and repeatable results. By the time it is published, it is already outdated!

Moreover, papers only tell you the correct path; they never tell you how many detours the explorer took, how many dead ends they backed out from, or how many pitfalls they avoided or fell into while exploring the path;

Those thoughts, inferences, and guesses rarely appear in papers. Occasionally, they might show up in academic conferences, discussions, or letters among bigwigs, but often, they appear in lectures or when arranging research for subordinates!

"And now, we can confirm two points: First, the pathogen of yellow fever can proliferate in the patient's blood and be transmitted through mosquito bites. So, if you can thoroughly prevent mosquito bites, you can ensure you don't get yellow fever;"

"Second, the pathogenicity of this pathogen is not stable. When we infect animals with it generation after generation, its virulence sometimes increases and sometimes decreases."

"I have already found some relatively weak pathogens. Next, we need to weaken them to the point where they cannot cause symptoms but can still provide the human body with resistance. We will then stabilize and mass-produce them, find the appropriate dosage, and inject it into humans."

"This will be the direction of our work for the foreseeable future. Everyone, work hard!"

The necromancers closed their notebooks with a rustle and followed Garrett to work. They bathed, changed into work clothes, donned protective suits, entered the clean area, and began listening to Garrett explain the operating procedures:

"Put on your clean work clothes! Wear your masks, shoe covers, gloves, and hats! Before starting, disinfect your gloves, wrists, forearms, and chest area with 75% alcohol! Disinfect every 15 minutes!"

"Before opening reagent bottles, disinfect the surface with 75% alcohol! — Don’t pick up anything that falls on the floor! Hands should not go above the shoulders, below the waist, or beyond the sides of the body! Go out, change clothes, wash your hands, and come back!"

"Asepsis! Asepsis! You must follow aseptic procedures! — If you can't do it, don’t go in at all. Send your golden skeletons to do the work instead!"

The necromancers trembled with fear. The previously kind and amiable Plague Lord had suddenly transformed into a tyrant in the laboratory, scolding everyone until their heads were covered in a torrent of abuse.

Except for not physically hitting people or spitting at them in the sterile area, he was stricter than their mentors... At least, their mentors wouldn't be so meticulous, scolding them for the slightest mistake, or even tapping their wrists with a translucent clamp...

Sobbing, is it still possible to go back to Nevis now...

Clearly, it was not possible. Not to mention the five-year service contract, but even such meticulous and relentless scolding from a teacher was an invaluable opportunity. Who would bother to scold you if you weren't a personal disciple?

Every mistake in detail represents a decrease in success rate, sometimes a significant one. Generally, if a mage can't produce results after a few attempts, the next research would be self-funded. No money?

Work, or go adventuring, and strive to save money!

Garrett taught them once, watched them each do it twice — the first time they did it themselves, the second time the golden skeletons did it — and then went off to do his own work. He left a group of necromancers to diligently and meticulously work:

Feeding mice, injecting mice, observing mice, dissecting mice... While waiting for the mice to get sick, they dehydrated, embedded, sectioned, stained, mounted, and observed pathology specimens...

In their spare time, they practiced various spells to use in their research... It was said that the group raising animals next door even took out "The Pink Book" to study!

Wendell Demetri had not been assigned to mess with mice. He and four companions were given a more arduous task:

Cultivating pathogens.

Cultivating pathogens that could stably propagate without increasing or decreasing in virulence and that could proliferate in large quantities...

What do the pathogens look like?

Don't know.

What conditions do they need to survive?

Don't know.

How to stabilize their virulence?

Still don't know...

The Plague Lord tossed them a lab manual and wandered off. Wendell Demetri picked up the manual, and four heads gathered around to read:

Pathway 1: Cultivate in a culture medium.

(Attached are the methods for making various culture media, including agar, sucrose, beef extract, corn starch; temperature, pH, and other precautions;)

Pathway 2: Cultivate in blood.

(Mouse blood, rabbit blood, chicken blood. Whole blood, serum, blood cells, different dilution ratios)

Pathway 3: Cultivate in live animals.

(Mice, rabbits, chickens, unhatched eggs)

Pathway 4: Cultivate in animal tissues.

(Mouse brain cells, liver cells, kidney cells, rabbit brain cells, with possible preparation directions for culture solutions)

Pathway 5: Magic cultivation

(For each of the above pathways, use the plague spell to induce growth and test its pathogenicity)

The five mages turned pale as they read. What seemed like five pathways actually had multiple branches each, and you couldn't just try each branch once, right?

Turning another page, the second page after the directory clearly stated:

Each cultivation method is recommended to be repeated at least 5-10 times to avoid failures due to operational errors, preventing the identification of correct techniques...

"We only have five people, right..." A young mage with a face full of freckles said, trembling.

Five people, plus one golden skeleton each — oh, they're borrowed, not owned, and can be purchased at a low price after five years — that makes ten in total!

How long will it take us to complete these five pathways with just us five and five skeletons?

"Feels like we can't get it done in one or two years..."

"Not just one or two years, even three or five years might not be enough..."

"How much time will this take per day? Just making the culture media could take five or six hours a day, right?"

"No wonder they brought us all the way from Nevis... Hey, if we write back now and ask for another batch of people, would it still be possible?"

Wendell Demetri took a deep breath. Among these five, he was the oldest and highest in rank, so he naturally took on the responsibility of directing. He closed the manual and looked around:

"Daly, you're in charge of the culture medium pathway."

"Sharkas, you're in charge of the blood pathway."

"Hoover, you're in charge of the live animal pathway."

"Lansley, you're in charge of the animal tissue pathway."

"Everyone, distribute the culture medium, blood, animal tissue, or live animals you prepare to me. I'll handle the magic pathway. Submit your daily experiment reports to me, and I'll compile them and send them to Mage Nordmark—"

"Isn't this too much for you..."

"Can your spell reserves handle it..."

"Shouldn't we split the work a bit?"

The companions cautiously expressed their doubts. Demetri's face darkened:

"Stop dawdling, go now!"

A flurry of footsteps followed. The four mages, along with their skeletons, entered separate labs.

Soon, the clinking of glassware, the squeaking of animals, and the bubbling of heated solutions filled each room.

"Ahhh, the sea anemone is overcooked! It's overcooked!"

"If it's overcooked, don't throw it away, add it to the feed!"

"No... it's not just overcooked, I forgot to wash it before cooking..."

"Ahhhh! Nothing will grow in this blood!"

"The manual said not to use common blood preservation methods! Many necromancy preservation methods contain negative energy, making the cultivated pathogens unreliable! The specified preservation methods are on page five of the manual!"

"Ahhhh! The mouse cage flipped! Help me catch the mice!"

"Idiot! As a Level 5 Necromancer, you can't even catch a mouse?"

"I only know how to kill t_t"

"Who brought the flute to lure the mice, hurry and blow it..."

"Damn it! This egg broke again! Cleanse!"

"Why is it so hard to inject pathogens into the eggs... too little force and it doesn't penetrate, too much and the shell breaks..."

"Can't you use a spell to shave off a bit of the shell? — What, the egg explodes when you shave it? Your spell control is that poor? — Practice! What are you looking at me for!"

Wendell Demetri rushed around, checking and yelling. After a round of yelling, he found a seat and sighed deeply:

It feels like these people aren't here to help but to cause trouble... Constant problems, dragging everything down... With them around, the Plague Lord's vaccine might take an extra year or two to develop...

Right, what exactly is this pathogen?

With this question in mind, Mage Demetri took the day's experiment records and went to consult Garrett. To his surprise, the Plague Lord was not annoyed at all but happily answered:

"This? I haven't found it yet either! Here's a method for you: use gauze, thick paper, or ceramic filters — with progressively finer holes — to repeatedly filter the infected blood. Filter once, infect once, filter again, infect again..."

"Each time, use it to infect healthy animals. If they get infected, it means there are pathogens in there. Keep filtering until you can't filter anymore. Then, look at it under a microscope, use magic, use whatever you can — maybe you'll see it?"

"What if we can't see it?"

"If you can't see it, at least it can prove," Garrett spread his hands, shamelessly answering:

"That there is a pathogenic factor smaller than bacteria, invisible under a microscope?"

Go for it!

Brave young man!

I have high hopes for you!

Maybe you'll be the discoverer and namer of viruses! Although, this world has no Nobel Prize and no one has yet invented an electron microscope... Tsk, I need to write a letter to Senior Sister and find a way to hint at this...

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