It’s so enjoyable to go out with the big shots...
Garrett Nordmark sat on the back of a Shadow Steed, looking around happily. Archmage Sam summoned three Shadow Steeds in one breath— one for himself, one for Garrett, and one for Aurora Worton. They headed straight to the capture point. It seems the Death Mage’s bone horse was still shunned...
These Shadow Steeds, they run faster than regular horses and more steadily. Treading water is like treading flat ground, treading swamps is like treading flat ground, treading air is like treading flat ground. Without needing to take detours and with few turns required, even Garrett’s mediocre horsemanship didn’t feel strained while riding the Shadow Steed.
Oh, the only regret was that the barbarian was left behind in the laboratory to guard. He didn’t get to come along.
The advantage of the fast horse speed and straight path was that they arrived at the teleportation array location in just about an hour. The small island was bustling with people, with at least two to three dozen cavalry crowded together, and a circle of people on the lakeshore. As soon as Garrett landed, he rushed to the shore:
"Where did that guy enter the water? Where did he come ashore? Make way, make way!"
The leading knight glanced at him, then at the high-level mage behind him, and silently pointed to a location. Garrett immediately got to work, digging soil, preparing dilution solutions, and doing bacterial cultures; taking water samples, diluting them, and doing bacterial cultures...
After a flurry of rapid operations, spellcasting, staining, and microscopy, Garrett looked at the image under the microscope with tears in his eyes.
"Vibrio cholerae, Bacillus anthracis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Clostridium tetani, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa... This guy carries everything!"
"Aurora! Disinfect the ground! Everywhere on the island, by the lake, give it all a wash! Throw bleach in the lake! How much? 2.5 grams per cubic meter of lake water, calculate it yourself! Master, please immediately issue orders for everyone to wash their hands and change clothes as soon as possible, no drinking raw water from the lake, boil it before drinking!"
"Is it that serious?" Old Sam furrowed his brow slightly. On the other side, Aurora Worton was already shouting:
"Boss!—We don’t have enough bleach!"
"Start by sprinkling a layer! Everywhere that guy swam past! Use it sparingly, we need to disinfect the entire path he escaped from!"
"How much bleach is needed for that..."
Aurora cried out in dismay.
Anyway, Garrett’s orders were quickly passed down.
The cavalrymen, being of the lowest status, obediently followed the orders despite finding it troublesome, all lining up one by one to wash their hands; the magic apprentices who came to work were not as obedient. Two grand mages were deeply engrossed in studying the patterns on the stone slab and directly ignored Garrett’s requests. Wash hands? What’s that!
With a teacher leading, their disciples were even more indifferent to Garrett. A seventh-level mage from the curse school, who came with the teacher to assist, even complained to his companion in front of Garrett:
"Isn’t this too annoying! We’re in the middle of work, and we’re being dragged away to wash hands? No time, no time, no time! And they’re telling us not to drink lake water, joking, which mage drinks lake water?—Who can’t conjure some water!"
Garrett pretended not to hear. As a doctor, being scolded by patients, their relatives, superiors, and leaders had become a habit, so these complaints couldn’t break his defense. He just kept sampling, sampling, sampling, sampling, and soon, the bacterial cultures on the island also yielded results:
Widespread bacterial contamination.
Almost all the bacteria found on the outskirts of the lake were detected!
...These people can really move. They stepped on bacteria-contaminated shoes and walked all over the island?
"Make way! Make way! Spraying disinfectant!"
Aurora carried a bucket of disinfectant—held up by a floating disc—and used magic to create a mist of water vapor, stepping through the tall grass step by step. The mage from the curse school simply erected a force field wall:
"Go further away! Don’t disturb us while we work!"
The other party was seventh-level. Aurora was fifth level. Garrett... Garrett, a third-level priest and second-level mage. Although a fourth-circle arcanist was roughly equivalent to a seventh or eighth-level mage, at the moment, there was no advantage to be gained...
Garrett turned to look at Archmage Sam. The Archmage was frowning:
"Is it necessary? Making such a fuss? Do we need to disinfect everywhere the person passed through? Little Garrett, have you considered the cost of all this?"
Dozens of high-level and mid-level mages had been working on this day and night.
On the 375th floor of the Tower, four laboratories were lined up in a row, all occupied.
It was correct that it was a legendary mage who nodded. Those laboratories belonged to the legendary mage. But they were also resources of the council! Compared to that, refined salt, lime, distilled water, and the like were not even worth mentioning...
Garrett sighed. If this were in his previous life, there wouldn’t be a need for him to argue "Is it really necessary?" The CDC would have been fully mobilized, disinfecting, isolating, and conducting comprehensive epidemiological investigations. But in this place, he had to come up with a way to prove it...
"Master, it’s really necessary." He sighed helplessly:
"If we had time, I could do animal experiments to demonstrate the danger of epidemic spread. But what we lack now is time—"
Cholera has a minimum incubation period of only a few hours, anthrax also only a few hours, and diphtheria has a minimum incubation period of 1 day. That thief has been out for 36 hours already; if unlucky, it may have already started spreading in some places!
Even a short animal experiment would take a day or two, but they couldn’t afford to wait!
"Master, please, one more time." Garrett bowed deeply:
"Take me along the escape route of that guy. Villages, towns, places where people gather, all need to be disinfected as a priority. Hopefully, there’s still time—"
Archmage Sam’s dark eyebrows furrowed. Thinking of the excited look of the Death Mage and the horrified expressions of the prophecy committee members, he sighed:
"Fine, I’ll trust you once more. - Get someone to guide us! Someone from the prophecy department, someone who knows tracking magic, guide us along the way!"
The Archmage, a member of the review committee, at least had some authority. Soon, four Shadow Steeds lined up in a row, with the prophecy mage leading the way, casting a green light and pointing
"Follow the stream! That guy came down along the creek—"
The Shadow Steeds followed the creek upstream. Before long, they arrived at a village at the foot of the mountain. Old Sam dismounted first, jumped off the horse, and looked around:
"How’s the situation?"
Garrett’s face had already changed. He rushed into the first farmhouse, sniffing hard. There was a foul smell permeating the room; rushing to the second farmhouse, the stench persisted; after circling twice, he found himself near the village’s corner, next to the cesspool, and even before he got close, he saw patches of watery feces on the ground—
"Signal immediately!" He turned around like a gust of wind, rushing over, and urgently braking three steps in front of Old Sam:
"Gather the priests! Block the village! The epidemic has broken out! It’s cholera!!!"