Plague Doctor

Gu Jun had already arrived at his own understanding of the foreign spells on his own. This note written by Landon was one of them. The obvious example was the spell on the high wall inside the abnormal space. While Phecda was still scouting out the place, they failed to photograph, draw, print, or even memorize the spell because it was imbued with power when it was written down. But if Gu Jun, Xue Ba, Uncle Dan, or anyone else was asked to write down the same Mad Arab’s poem, their creation would not pose the same problem.

“It is because we do not possess the ability to turn those words into actual spells,” Gu Jun concluded. “Just like what Landon said, without their inherent power, they are just some ugly wiggles.”

In the same manner, for the spell that Mr. Chandler had gifted the watcher, it was more than just a scrap of the zombie language. For those who did not understand the power of the spell, even if they got their hands on the scroll and photocopied it a gazillion times, they would have only ended up wasting paper because none would be effective other than the original one.

Landon’s note also provided this little nugget of knowledge. “One needs power not only when writing down the spell but also when casting it.” That would explain why only Gu Jun could trigger the spell because he was the only one who could sense the power within the spell.

With this note in mind, Gu Jun read through the spell page from start to finish. He was hungry for information, but he also realized how ludicrous it was. Magic and spells were the antithesis of science, the foundation of modern medicine, but in the foreign world, it appeared like one had to be a master of both to be a good doctor. That was such a great contradiction. At any rate, after finishing the whole page, Gu Jun could surmise that this was taken from the starting pages of the book. It was a summary of the foreign civilization’s knowledge of spells.

“Mental state…” Gu Jun focused on a particular section, the relationship between spells and the caster’s mental state. One’s mental state had a huge influence on spells. The sharper and more focused the user was, the greater the effect of their spell. Therefore, the training of one’s mind, through cleansing and meditation, was extremely important. Unfortunately, the page did not go into details of the training, but it went straight onto the next section, which was headed by ‘Sacrifice’. One particular paragraph stood out:

‘Humanity is built on the foundation of common power, so when a common individual obtains uncommon powers, they will become something else, moving further and further from the beauty and ugliness that comprise humanity. Anyone who comes into contact with spells will be forever changed by it.’

“Hmm.” Gu Jun allowed this ominous-sounding paragraph to percolate in his mind. It appeared to have a much deeper implication behind it… ‘Humanity and divinity… The various concepts and perspectives that make up humanity, are they derived from common, everyday sources?’

Gu Jun read on to find more clarification. He realized the people of the foreign civilization held this perception.

‘Interacting with any kind of spell, even the ones that were to draw from the power of the Goddess of Life, would damage one’s mental state because one would be utilizing power that did not belong to humanity. It was a deviation from human nature. It was one of the main reasons Carlot Doctors were so respected by the people. Yes, they were life savers, but they were also technically sacrificing themselves to save others. This was because using spells would change and sometimes corrupt the user’s mental state. To put it through Phecda’s review system, utilization of spells would manifest in the dropping of one’s S Value and personality change.

‘Using abnormal power comes with its price. It is imperative for Carlot Doctors to understand that they are sacrificing themselves for the betterment of others.’

“Sacrifice…” Gu Jun grumbled. He had almost died in the few times he had forced himself to use spells, so that was not a coincidence at all. It was not something that was unique to him. It appeared like the spell exhaustion would affect everyone, be it Gu Jun, the people from Lai Sheng Company, the R’yleh Cult, and even zombies like Chen Defa. Every time they utilized these spells, regardless of the spell’s effect or intention, it would be considered a ‘sacrifice’ because they were calling upon power beyond their capability. The normal sacrifice was the caster’s own mental and physical health, but there were occasions where other things could be used as sacrifice.

Therefore, it was stressed again and again that one should not use spells pointlessly after learning them, thinking that the aftereffect could be cured with a good sleep. The idea that a spell could cure all types of illness was also a myth. Such a powerful spell did not exist. A Carlot Doctor should not believe in such hogwash and understand that every instance of spell casting was something momentous. However, the most important belief that every Carlot Doctor should follow was to not use others as sacrifices; the sacrifice should come from themself.

At this part, Landon added a note. ‘How I wish I could serve Mr. Orlem as a sacrifice, but knowing how cantankerous the man is, probably even the Goddess of Life will not claim him as a sacrifice.’

Gu Jun believed that when Landon wrote this, the epidemic that threatened their world had not exploded. The Son of Steel was still a student at Carlot Academy, a troublemaker from the sound of it…

But there were several other lines beneath this inferential one. Each line was written at a different time based on the difference in handwriting. In other words, Landon did not write down the following in one go but kept returning to add to it.

‘How many more sacrifices do we need? Have we not sacrificed enough?

‘Sacrifice, sacrifice.

‘If I could take back everything…

‘I have no idea whether this has meaning to it or not.’

The closer it got to the end, the more haphazard the handwriting became and the deeper the emotion of darkness. They had likely been written after the advent of hemoptysis…

What was ‘this’ in the last sentence? Gu Jun could feel the struggle between the lines, the struggle that came from a brief moment of hope. What had happened to Landon after his encounter with the Necro-skins? Was his suicide a form of sacrifice as well?

Gu Jun took a step back and read through Landon’s notes in the margin again. The change between them was startling. From the initial jokey tone to the words that sounded like they would come right out of the mind of a doomsday prophet. It was clear that something instrumental had changed within Landon.

“Landon, have you forgotten that increased interaction with power of the beyond will drag you further away from humanity?” Gu Jun sighed.

The page did not appear to be that short, but it ended after the section on sacrifice. Even though there were still many questions, this basic understanding of spells did clear up Gu Jun’s mind somewhat. It felt like he had gone through another session of rejuvenation; he felt quite refreshed. He reminded himself to share this information with Elder Tong and the others when they met up next time. Now, when he cast the spell from R’yleh, it should have a stronger effect, but did that also mean that it would cause a greater backlash to him?

“Looks like I need to focus on training Strong Heart, or else I might really die from this. By expanding my maximum mental power, I will have a greater store of energy to sacrifice.” With that in mind, Gu Jun made a decision. “I still need to figure out a way to trigger the illusion within the parchment of the zombie spell, it should provide me with more information.”

But there was something else that needed his greater attention now. Gu Jun stood up from the ground and headed back to the Autopsy Building. On his way there, he took out his phone to call Commander Yao. By revealing part of the information within the watcher’s diary, Gu Jun requested the patients of Nightmare Illness to be sequestered from each other.

“Ah Jun, are you sure about this?” Hesitation was clear in Yao Sinian’s reply. There were hundreds of patients at Eastern State’s Phecda Division. Practically every Phecda member would have to be mobilized if the patients were to be moved into isolated rooms.

“Commander Yao, I cannot be surer. This is something that we need to do to curb the spread of the illness,” Gu Jun said seriously. He knew they were horribly understaffed at this division, and things were spiraling out of control fast, but he needed to do everything he could to prevent that ‘unimaginable tragedy’ from occurring.

The lobotomies did not really solve the problem. From Gu Jun’s point of view, the only way to do that was to target the Nightmare Illness at its source. And to accomplish that, one had to enter the other world so that all the mysteries surrounding it could be resolved.

“Send me over to the Arctic Sea,” Gu Jun added. “There might be a door there that is connected to another world. I might be able to find and open it.”

Gu Jun could not travel there through the dream, so his only hope was that parchment of zombie spell.

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