Pandora Unchained - B1C72: Toxicology Assessment

The next day was an off-shift day for Team We Don't Need a Life Mage. After verifying that his companions were fine and that they'd all unlocked a few additional silver meridians as he had, Sorin returned to the poison workshop in the Alchemists Association, where Mr. Primrose was hard at work.

The older man greeted Sorin briefly before turning back to a large cauldron of poison he was busy concocting for the defense effort. Sorin recognized the poison as scorching bramble ash, a one-star poison with unlimited demand on the mission board. As a two-star apothecary, Mr. Primrose could concoct a hundred times as much scorching bramble ash as Sorin could, though his time was normally spent crafting rarer poisons.

"Are you here to fulfill missions or to craft personal poisons?" Mr. Primrose asked after a time.

"I'm here for personal poisons and cultivation," replied Sorin. "Do we have any dream butterfly wings and asphyxiating sage root in stock?"

"We've got a limited quantity of both," answered Mr. Primrose. "I'll pull them aside so that no one nabs them to make sleeping medicine or other similarly useless things. By the way, do you have a few hours to spare?"

"What do you need?" asked Sorin.

"There's a toxicology assessment request that came in from Physician Lim's clinic," said Mr. Primrose. "A patient is experiencing severe diarrhea. No blood in the stool. Dr. Lim and a life mage he sent the sample to have detected no disease, so they wanted to see if poisons were responsible."

"How's the patient?" asked Sorin.

"Recovering," said Mr. Primrose. "It's just a routine procedure. No need to bother yourself if you have something better to do."

"I'm a little busy right now," said Sorin. "And can't any alchemist do this?"

"They always pass these requests on to us for priority since they're higher risk than concoction requests," said Mr. Primrose. "Since you're not free, I'll let them know to assign this to a junior alchemist."

Sorin went to the back of the workshop where a small cultivation chamber lay, and retrieved the seven vials of stone melt poison that remained. He directly drank one and felt it dissipate throughout his body, weakening his bones temporarily as the other eight poisons in his body confronted and consumed the invading poison.

Thanks to the intense combat the previous day, it took Sorin only a few hours to completely digest four vials of stone melt poison. He kept the remaining three vials for later, as absorbing them would take too much time.

Sorin now had a considerable amount of wealth to throw around and had seen the shortcomings of his personal poisons. While they grew with his cultivation realm and the potency of his blood, they were somewhat lacking compared to stronger prepared poisons that could be applied mid-battle.

Three poisons stood out to Sorin as particularly useful – dream butterfly powder, blisterlung powder, and dream blade ointment. The first of these poisons was ideal for knocking crowds of lesser demons unconscious. The second could kill said demons within ten seconds, while the third could be applied to bladed weapons in order to achieve a more potent sleeping effect.

Sorin spent eight hours preparing multiple batches of said poisons before he was forced to stop by a splitting headache. In total, he'd managed to produce two pouches of dream butterfly powder, four pouches of blisterlung powder, and three vials of dream blade ointment.

While Sorin had not chosen any overly complex features for his armor, Mr. Sanderson had worked in several useful pockets where pouches could be stored. Sorin carefully arranged the poison pouches in easy-to-remember locations. As for ointment, he placed the tubes on his belt for quick breaking and application.

Sorin wanted to continue crafting but was ultimately forced to stop. Not because of fatigue but because of funding – whatever gains he'd experienced in battle had been completely used up on raw ingredients.

Since further concocting was impossible, Sorin spent his time letting out blood for weapon application by his teammates. Since the blood was thin and would pit most steel arrows, he had Lorimer heat the blood until it congealed. The resulting jelly was mixed with compatible oils, which he poured into application vials for Lawrence and a small cylinder that Gareth could dump a handful of arrows into.

It was late at night when Sorin finished his work, so he decided to sleep in one of the workshop's two cots. The Alchemists Guild was relatively quiet at nighttime, except for the occasional explosion, so he quickly drifted off to sleep.

It felt like only an hour had passed when Sorin was abruptly awakened by fierce knocking on the workshop's door. Tired but functional, Sorin walked over to the door and opened it to see a frantic alchemist.

"Thank goodness you're here!" said the alchemist, who looked to be barely older than 17 years old. "Quick, take a look at this." He barged past Sorin and lay down a test kit on the table. "It's poison, all right. Some kind of condensed corruption. But it's unlike anything I've ever seen."

Sighing, Sorin made his way over to the test tubes in question. He took the original sample and sniffed it. "This is the patient's blood? The one with the diarrhea?"

"Yes," said the alchemist. "Though I can scarcely believe it after finishing the tests. Did you know it's closer to –"

"Demon blood," said Sorin, cutting him off. "This blood is so corrupt it's bordering on mutation. Is this a new sample? And how exactly did the doctors not spot this? And what's the patient's status?"

"He's dead," said the alchemist with a gulp. "I received word ten minutes ago. Moreover, there are a hundred additional toxicology report requests, all with the same symptoms."

Sorin massaged his brow and pieced together what little information he had. This can't be an epidemic since corruption doesn't spread like a disease except in specific cases. To affect so many people, it must be environmental.  He quickly ran through the many options for possible contamination sources. "Are all the cases from the same address?"

"No, they're from all across the city," said the alchemist.

"Then it must come from the water," said Sorin, returning the vial of blood to the panicking alchemist. "Go downstairs and have the receptionist alert the guild master."

"But the receptionist has already gone home," said the alchemist.

"Then activate the fire alarm," Sorin snapped. "Anything to grab his attention. After that, arrange for someone to send this vial of blood to Mr. Primrose. I'll run over to the Mages Guild and let them know about the situation." Then, remembering that they had a very important ally to draw on, he amended his statement. "Once you send word to Mr. Primrose, find a way to deliver a message to Physician Marcus Kepler. This situation is going to spiral out of control quickly."

"Right away!" said the alchemist, breaking into a run. He returned a few seconds later to grab the test results he'd forgotten on the table.

Sorin left the Alchemists Guild and broke into a run. He didn't stop until he arrived at the Mages Guild. "Can I help you?" asked a sleepy receptionist. Fortunately, the Mages Guild never really shut down and had staff available at all hours.

"I need either the guild master or vice guild master here right now," said Sorin. "This is an emergency. Do it, and I'll take responsibility for the fallout."

"What's all this ruckus?" said an aged voice. A blurry figure walked from the library at an impossible speed and arrived before Sorin. "Well? You said it was an emergency, didn't you? Speak up!"

Sorin immediately explained the issue with the test tube, the hundred toxicology requests, as well as his speculations about aqueduct contamination. "I realize I'm cutting through a lot of red tape, but if it's corruption of the water supply, we don't have much time to waste."

"Indeed," said the elder. "I'll apprise the guild master and vice guild master of the situation and send word to the Adventurers Guild. "You've already sent word to key members of the Alchemists Guild, correct?"

"Yes," said Sorin. "I plan to head to the northwest, where the river enters the outpost next."

"Very well," said the elder. "But if the matter is beyond your ability to handle, be sure to wait until reinforcements arrive."

Sorin ran out the door and rushed over to the northwest guard house. He thanked his lucky stars when he saw a crowd of senior cultivators there, along with Mr. Primrose, who'd evidently gotten his message.

"How bad is it?" asked Sorin.

"I've never seen such heavy contamination in a river," said Mr. Primrose. "I'm also uncertain as to the source of the contamination. I sent a message to the Mages Guild, and they've informed me that they're divining potential solutions."

"Has Marcus been informed?" asked Sorin.

"He's currently being awoken from seclusion, or so I'm told," said Mr. Primrose. "As for the governor, he's at a critical moment in his cultivation. Waking him will be harmful to the defense efforts, so we won't do so unless we have no choice. Ah, there you are, Derrek."

"I came as soon as I heard what was going on, Alexis," said Vice Guild Master Thomas to Mr. Primrose. "The guild master has gone to the eastern wall where the aqueduct leaves the outpost to get a better picture of the problem. Meanwhile, the Elder Book will analyze the soil for contamination."

Sorin groaned when he heard this. "You're saying this isn't just limited to the water itself, but the soil as well?"

"That appears to be the case," said Vice Guild Master Thomas. "But we'll confirm the extent soon enough. Ah, here's Elder Book's familiar. Let's see what he has to say."

A bird swooped down from the sky and deposited a small scroll in Vice Guild Master Thomas's outstretched palm. The man opened the scroll and scanned its contents. "Soil corruption is confirmed. That can only mean that the corruption in the water is extremely high."

"Did either of them pinpoint the source?" asked Mr. Primrose.

"Negative," said Vice Guild Master Thomas. "Also, the number of afflicted villagers has increased to 300. It appears that the corruption snuck into the water supply, and anyone who drank any water in the past 12 hours is slowly succumbing.

"I'll trust you to inform the outpost residents to refrain from drinking any water unless it's confirmed to be pure," said Mr. Primrose. "As for you, Sorin, I have a very important task for you."

"Anything," said Sorin.

"Think," said Mr. Primrose, his expression turning serious. "Because if we don't discover the nature of this poison very shortly, there will be no saving this entire outpost."