Pandora Unchained - B1C67: Lab Rat

On the sixth day since the start of the demon tide, Sorin received a letter from Stephan informing him that he should prepare to return to the team. The demons were becoming increasingly aggressive, and there was no telling how long it would be before intense fighting broke out.

The ninth poison had reached a critical point, so Sorin spent the entire night nurturing it. At dawn, the poison finally broke through to become a substance that could melt one-star enchanted stone with little effort.

Sorin placed several drops of the poison on his skin to test it out. He felt his bones soften as the poison attacked the minerals in his body. Still, he recovered when the eight other poisons in his body subdued the intruder.

He then continued dripping the poison until he finished off three 10 mL vials of it. His body reached its saturation limit, and the amount he could absorb per day sharply decreased.

Sorin spent the 7th day practicing his stent technique and creating one last batch of poison. He also took the time to concoct a few poisons for Marcus since they were quite lucrative. They also gave Sorin some insight into Marcus's progress in deciphering the meridian opening formula.

By the looks of it, he's deduced about 70% of the formula for opening extraordinary meridians, thought Sorin as he reviewed the potential poison combinations. I also haven't heard anything about excess casualties. Is he testing the concoction on demons before moving on to human trials?

It was eight in the evening when he finally finished the last mandatory batch of poisons. He tidied up his things before heading over to Mr. Primrose's office. The pale man was taking a break between batches of two-star poison. Like Sorin, he was required to concoct a minimum amount every day.

"I see you've finished up with your experiment," said Mr. Primrose. "Judging by the change in your aura, it was a conditioning poison? Something to change the nature of your mana?"

"Something like that," said Sorin. He'd never heard of people cultivating by ingesting poisons before, so he chose to keep this information under wraps. "Pardon me for saying this, but you look exhausted, Mr. Primrose. "Even if you can concoct more poison than required, it doesn't mean you have to."

Mr. Primrose shook his head. "The more poison I concoct, the easier repelling the most intense waves of the demon tide will be. You've never experienced a tide firsthand, Sorin, so you naturally can't imagine how it feels like to lose your closest companions."

"It's something I hope to never experience," said Sorin. "Which is why I'll be reporting for adventuring duty first thing in the morning.

Mr. Primrose nodded. "I was wondering when you would. After all, you're not really an apothecary. You're an adventurer who happens to concoct poisons on the side."

"Do you need any last-minute help with anything?" asked Sorin.

"No," said Mr. Primrose. "If I need assistance, I'll make a request to the guild leader to assign me a few reluctant alchemists."

"Then I wish you all the best," said Sorin. "Please don't hesitate to see a physician if your health deteriorates. It's dangerous to keep your mana in a constant state of overdraft."

"I didn't become a two-star apothecary through sheer dumb luck," said Mr. Primrose.

"I apologize," said Sorin. "Old habits die hard."

Though it was late in the evening, Sorin didn't immediately return home. He instead traveled to the Holt residence in the north end of town.

A handsome middle-aged man with blond hair opened the door when Sorin knocked. "Hello there. How can I help you?" The years had not been kind to the mind, as evidenced by his missing leg. A metallic prosthesis from the Mages Guild had been installed on the limb, restoring part of his mobility.

"Hello, Mr. Holt," said Sorin. "I'm Sorin Kepler, a friend of Lawrence's. I was working late, so I missed his return to the Adventurers Guild. Is he in?"

"Lawrence!" Mr. Holt yelled over his shoulder. "Get your butt down here. Your friend is waiting. And heat up some water on your way down, or else he'll think we're uncivilized barbarians!" He then waved Sorin in. "Make yourself at home, dear. He'll be right down."

Indeed, Sorin caught a human-shaped blur whipping about the house, picking things up. A kettle landed on the stove in the kitchen just before a chair was pulled out from beneath the table. A few seconds later, the human-shaped blur transformed into Lawrence, whose hair was still waiting after taking a bath.

"Sorin," said Lawrence, a little out of breath. "You should have told me you were coming."

"I wasn't sure when I'd finish working today," said Sorin, handing over his coat. "I hope I'm not causing you too much trouble."

"Not at all," said Lawrence. "I just got back an hour ago. Had dinner and washed up. It's going to be another early start tomorrow, but I imagine it'll be corpse cleanup again. Never gets old."

"Corpse cleanup?" asked Sorin, taking a seat in the living room. Lawrence zipped into the kitchen and poured him a cup of hot water before zipping back. Then, realizing he'd forgotten tea leaves, he zipped back into the kitchen and brought over a tin. "Wait, is this green tea? It's not easy to find leaves out here."

Lawrence shrugged. "It's what my family drinks. It's a bit more expensive than usual, but me and dad think it's well worth it. So? What do you think of the place? It's different than you expected, isn't it?"

"It's a cleaner than I expected, given your behavior," Sorin admitted. The place had a homely feel to it, as though a housewife had spent the past 10 years adding small decorations to the place to liven it up. "Isn't it just you and your father here?"

"My father has some interesting hobbies," said Lawrence. "Painting, for example. He paints all sorts of things he saw back during his adventuring days."

"I'll bet," said Sorin, peeling his eyes away from a picture of three half-naked women bathing. Their clothes were tastefully covering critical parts of their body, barely dragging the painting's category from offensive to nearly modest. "You said something about corpse duty?" Sorin added a small pinch of tea leaves into his cup and waited for them to steep.

"Right. Corpse duty," said Lawrence. "Most of the demons get killed by mortal archers on the walls. The rest get killed by cultivators on those same walls or by its enchantments.

"If no one clears them out, the corpses will corrupt the land. Their cores will also disintegrate and transform into demonic energy, which would strengthen their brethren.

"It's up to the adventuring teams to clean up the corpses, pick up cores and arrows, and other useful demon parts. It'll be up to farmers and mages to perform a proper cleanup after the demon tide is over."

"I imagine this is just a warm-up activity before the real fighting starts," said Sorin.

"That's right," said Lawrence. "According to my old man, it won't be long before they stop sending out adventuring teams and assign everyone to certain walls in rotation."

"Seems like I chose the best time to join in," said Sorin.

"A good thing, too," said Lawrence. "Gareth and Stephan have been getting on my nerves. Only Daphne will give me the time of day – but only when she's not distracted by her spell book or her stories."

"I'll be joining Gareth and Stephan's faction if you don't mind," said Sorin. "Lorimer is with me on this one." The small rat poked his head out of Sorin's pocket, nodded, then squeaked. "He's asking if you have coffee, by the way."

"My dad hates the stuff," said Lawrence. "So that's a hard no. Does he… does he like cookies?"

"Is that what I've been smelling?" said Sorin. As if to answer his question, the door to the kitchen burst open, revealing Lawrence's father. The man had a heart-pattern apron on and was holding a plate of cookies in each hand.

"Here you go, Sorin," said Mr. Holt. "Eat 'em while they're hot. Your rat can have a few, but if he dares gnaw on my furniture, there'll be rat cakes on the menu this time tomorrow."

To Sorin's surprise, Lorimer nodded politely and hopped onto the table to help himself to a cookie. He nodded to Sorin and gestured to the plate, forcing Sorin to pick out three cookies and place them on a smaller plate.

The rat then nibbled at a cookie and nodded before giving a claw up to Mr. Holt. "Not bad, right?" said Mr. Holt. "Let me know if you need anything else, Sorin. My son doesn't have the best of manners, as much as I've tried to teach him proper etiquette."

Lawrence chuckled awkwardly as his father retreated. "Please pretend you didn't see that. Men baking with such enthusiasm… it isn't a common sight."

Sorin shrugged. "Percival bakes all the time. Though not with as much flare as your father does, I'll admit. By the way, these cookies are delicious."

"He's seduced a fair number of ladies over the years with this recipe," said Lawrence, nodding. "If it wasn't for his insistence on not remarrying, there'd be people lining down the street to propose."

Sorin was highly suspicious of this statement because, as far as he'd gathered, Mr. Holt had as bad a reputation as Lawrence. Then again, these cookies are amazing, thought Sorin. I wonder how the rest of his cooking is. Should I find a way to invite myself for dinner?

Lawrence cleared his throat. "Anyway, that's the situation outside the walls. We're going to loot bodies and burn them. You can dissect some as long as it doesn't affect our schedule."

"Very good," said Sorin, grabbing another cookie. "Then that brings me to the reason for my visit. I just finished researching a technique. It's a work of art if I do say so myself. I came here to show it off – and test it, of course. For science."

"For science?" said Lawrence. At first, he was confused, but then, realization dawned on him. "No, no, no!" he said, standing up. "I am not a lab rat. Besides, you have Lorimer. Use him!"

"Come on," said Sorin. "I've already experimented on a medical mannequin and on demon corpses. This is a perfectly safe procedure. Mostly."

"Absolutely not," said Lawrence. "This is unethical. A breach of your sacred oath as a physician."

"Don't overexaggerate," said Sorin. "This is a perfectly safe test. Worst case, you'll have sore meridians for the next few days."

Lawrence groaned. "I hate being a lab rat. And why is it always me? Why not Gareth?"

"My preferred choice is actually Stephan because physical capabilities are higher," said Sorin. "Unfortunately, I probably can't open his last blocked meridian. That only leaves you, Gareth, and Daphne. Daphne's body is weakest, and Gareth is too much of a coward. Not the kind of person willing to take one for the team."

Lawrence nodded and slowly sat down. "That's right. Gareth would never dare take one for the team. Plus, his pain tolerance is terrible. We can't have him fainting mid-procedure, can we?"

"According to what I can tell, there's just mild discomfort," said Sorin. "But yes, it would be far too much for Gareth until I've fine-tuned the procedure."

"Fine," said Lawrence. "You have my permission."

Relieved at not having to detain his friend and forcefully experiment on him, Sorin retrieved his paralysis poison from Lawrence's teacup and activated Ophidian Eye. The mana in Lawrence's body lit up in Sorin's eyes. It superimposed with the many anatomical maps he'd memorized over the years.

"First, I'll assess your condition," said Sorin, placing his hand on his chest. "You're a little exhausted and not at your peak, but I believe it's safe to begin the experimental treatment." Inwardly, he noted that Lawrence had unsealed 10 out of 24 of the silver seals on his Conception Vessel.

"You were born with naturally unlocked Yin Hell Vessel and Yang Heel Vessel," Sorin said as he finished his inspection. "This has given you higher movement speed compared to your peers.

"You, therefore, have four remaining options for your next meridian opening. There's the Yin Linking Vessel and Yang Linking Vessel, which will increase your coordination and control. There's the Thrust Vessel, which will increase the rate at which you can expel and circulate mana. Finally, there's the Belt Vessel, which will let you better leverage your mana and strength."

"Thrust, then belt," replied Lawrence without any hesitation. "I'm lacking in offense. It's hard for me to finish off enemies before I disengage these days."

"I'll do my best," said Sorin. He placed his finger on Lawrence's chest and poured a stream of poison mana into two neighboring meridian pathways. He then shaped that mana and had it form a complex stent. The supporting structure snugged up against the meridians, all save a single bare point where the meridians would eventually connect.

He then formed a mana needle and drilled it into the connecting wall. Lawrence's face contorted in pain, but thanks to a paralytic he'd injected in his body as a precaution, he was unable to utter a sound. A combination of flesh, crystalized mana, and corruption rapidly melted away, establishing a connection between the two meridians.

Lawrence trembled as his mana flow abruptly changed and sped up. Sorin had expected this, however, and pre-emptively stabilized his needle and stent as Lawrence's blood thickened slightly and his mana flow adjusted.

Ten minutes later, Lawrence's condition stabilized, enabling Sorin to continue the meridian opening procedure. He widened the poison needle and continued drilling until, finally, there were no obstructions to mana flow.

"There," said Sorin, retracting the stent. "That wasn't that bad, was it?"

"That hurt," snapped Lawrence. "And how could you paralyze me without my consent?"

"I was afraid I'd alarm your father," said Sorin.

"Darn right, you were afraid," said Lawrence. "If he'd heard what I wanted to shout while paralyzed, he would have come here and shoved a rolling pin up your –"

"Language!" hollered Mr. Holt from another room.

"It wasn't that bad," said Sorin. "Trust me, I've done this kind of thing before. On myself." Of course, he didn't mention that his meridians naturally opened as he cultivated and that no piercing was required during this process.

"So we're done?" said Lawrence. "You can go ahead and do your thing on the others?"

"Almost," said Sorin. "But first, I think I can unblock your Belt Vessel. Assuming you're brave enough to risk it."

Lawrence hesitated but ultimately nodded. "Fine. If it'll increase my strength before the demon tide intensifies, I'm game."

Sorin nodded. "Prepare yourself, then. "This one will be a lot more painful than the last since opening a blockage stiffens the other meridian openings."

"You know what, on second thought, I'm good," said Lawrence, standing up. He took two steps before falling down to the ground. Lorimer blinked and looked from Lawrence to Sorin uneasily.

"What?" said Sorin. "He chickened out, but he's still willing. Deep down inside."

"Everything alright in there?" said Mr. Holt, poking his head out of the kitchen.

"Everything's fine," Sorin assured. "He might look paralyzed and unable to respond, but that's because he's putting on a strong front. This is good for him. Trust me – I was a doctor once."

"Heh," said Mr. Holt, limping into the room and turning Lawrence over. "That'll teach him to let his guard down. More cookies?" He didn't wait for Sorin's answer before placing another plate on the table. Lorimer immediately grabbed one and retreated to his spot at the table, taking extra care not to drop any crumbs in the process.

"Sure, why not," said Sorin. "Unblocking meridians is hungry work."

"I'll make sure no one bothers you," said Mr. Holt. "Just make sure you don't injure him too badly, alright?"