Infection

At the same time, he could verify whether Lausen really had Strange Dream.

Lausen immediately grew interested. Leaning on his cane, he stepped forward and caught the silver medicine sealed inside a finger-thick glass bottle.

The medicine's color was dreamlike. Especially under the light, the liquid in the bottle constantly shifted through different shades of silver as the angle changed.

"Is this Silverlight Grass?"

Lausen recognized the main ingredient in the potion at a glance.

"Yes. Doctor Laisen left it behind." Lu Yuan nodded.

"How much do you have? I'll take it all!" Lausen clearly knew something. He immediately decided to buy everything.

But Lu Yuan would not agree to that.

"I'm sorry, but Silverlight Grass is scarce. I need to keep some for myself. I can give you two bottles at most."

"Three bottles. One Gold Shield."

Lausen directly took a gleaming gold coin from his pocket.

Lu Yuan did not immediately take the gleaming Imperial Gold Shield on the table.

He pushed three bottles of potion over but held down two of them. "This Gold Shield buys the medicine, but I need you to do something for me as well."

Lausen impatiently snatched up one bottle to inspect it. "What is it? As long as it lets me sleep soundly for once."

"These medicines were left behind by Laisen. Once they're used up, they're gone. If you want more later, you'll have to help me obtain the raw materials."

Lu Yuan took out a prepared list. (Mercury, Silverlight Grass...)

"No matter how you do it, I want to see these things at your next appointment."

At that, Lausen finally shifted his gaze away from the silver-glowing bottle. His somewhat cloudy eyes stared at Lu Yuan in the darkness for a long while.

"You've got far more nerve than Laisen did. Interesting. Deal."

"Deal."

A smile appeared at the corner of Lu Yuan's mouth as he pushed over the remaining Silverlight Grass Mixture.

This deal was guaranteed to turn a profit.

Because Laisen's purchase records were clearly documented in the notebook.

A single Silverlight Grass plant cost around ten silver shields, and none of the other herbs recorded alongside it cost more than Silverlight Grass.

So no matter what, one Gold Shield was worth far more than the potion itself.

Of course, Lu Yuan needed money too, because he needed to raise his skill levels as quickly as possible.

And that required money. A great deal of money.

Lausen left with the potion.

Lu Yuan closed the door, put away the Gold Shield, and reassessed Lausen's condition.

From the current signs, there was an extremely high chance that it was Strange Dream.

Strange Dream was contagious.

That much was basically confirmed.

But what Lu Yuan could not understand was why Lausen's infection timeline almost overlapped with Doctor Laisen's.

And why were Lausen's symptoms still stuck at the earliest stage?

And what exactly was the route of transmission for Strange Dream?

Could he have been infected too...

Lu Yuan could not figure it out. After all, he was only an ordinary person. If even a professional doctor could not solve it, could he really handle it so easily?

He helplessly shook his head and decided not to think about it any longer.

Instead, he picked up Basic Herbology and began flipping through it.

"Let's grind levels first."

As Lu Yuan thought this, he sat on the sofa and kept reading. More firewood had been added to the fireplace, spreading warmth through the room, but fatigue quietly crept over him as well.

Crash—

The sound of cold waves exploded beside his ears.

Lu Yuan abruptly opened his eyes.

He looked around. There was no clinic, no fireplace, no warm blanket.

When he looked up, an endless Black Sea appeared before him.

A ghastly pale moon hung in the gloomy sky, casting an eerie white light over the sea.

Lu Yuan tried to control his body, only to find that his feet were rooted to the beach as if nailed in place.

The tide was coming in.

Icy seawater washed over the tops of his feet. The bone-piercing chill burrowed from his skin into his bones, carrying a nauseating salty stench.

"This is... Strange Dream?"

Lu Yuan realized it too and struggled desperately, but his body gave him no response at all.

All he could do was stare helplessly at the sea before him.

Watch as waves gradually rose across its surface.

The frigid seawater struck Lu Yuan again and again, and the piercing cold made him shiver uncontrollably.

Until, at some unknown moment, the distant sea turned pitch-black.

"Something's wrong."

There was something beneath the water.

Boom!

A massive wave crashed down upon him, and suffocation instantly swallowed Lu Yuan.

"Ha—!" Lu Yuan sprang up from the sofa and gasped for breath. His clothes were drenched in cold sweat, as though he had just been dragged from the sea.

The fire in the fireplace had gone out at some point, and cold drafts occasionally swept through the room.

The clinic was still deathly quiet. He glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. It was just past midnight.

Lu Yuan looked around and, only after confirming that he had awakened, sat back down on the sofa with lingering fear.

In that dream, the suffocating sensation of seawater flooding into his nostrils had been terrifyingly real.

But before Lu Yuan could catch his breath, a gray experience bar appeared in his vision.

[Directly witnessed Deep Sea Nightmare. Sanity assessment in progress... Sanity II: +5.6/49 (experience)]

Sanity experience had increased by that much? But... something was wrong... Lu Yuan stared at the experience bar before him and suddenly noticed something.

"The total experience needed for Sanity to level up has decreased?"

Lu Yuan remembered clearly that it had taken 50 experience to level up before, but now it had decreased by one point.

What did that mean?

Lu Yuan fell silent because he did not know.

But it was definitely not good news. One more thing was certain: he had been infected.

The experience bar was proof. The last trace of luck he had been clinging to vanished completely.

Although he had known after reading the diary that this day might come, he had not expected it to arrive so soon.

With a sigh, he knew that the most urgent matter was to prepare in advance.

After giving it some thought, Lu Yuan took out his notebook and wrote down his plans.

1. Observe the changes in the dream while using it to raise his Sanity level, and determine why the total Sanity amount was decreasing and what effects it would have.

2. Stay in contact with Lausen and find a way to discover why his condition was progressing so slowly.

3. Go to the church to gather information and buy some holy water.

Lu Yuan paused his pen there. If none of the above worked, there was one final option: proactively contact the Night Watchers.

Although everyone seemed to know about the Night Watchers, neither the newspapers nor everyday life showed any trace of them.

Most importantly, Lu Yuan did not know how the Night Watchers treated the eerie.

Of course, the worst that could happen was simply being eliminated.

If Lu Yuan's later symptoms truly became like Doctor Laisen's, turning him into a dead fish, he would rather make a trip to the Night Watchers.

Tonight was destined to be sleepless.

Lu Yuan took out his book and began studying hard, hoping only that he could raise his experience as soon as possible.

The next day.

[Basic Herbology: 11.5/20]

Lu Yuan rubbed his sore, swollen eyes, then looked at the experience bar's progress and revealed a satisfied expression.

As his studies deepened, Lu Yuan discovered that both his learning speed and efficiency were accelerating in tandem.

Moreover, knowledge related to skills he had already mastered could be quickly picked up and then learned in subsequent study.

That counted as good news, at least.

After washing up briefly in the washroom, Lu Yuan straightened his clothes and prepared to head out for the church.

His main reason for going to the church was to find a way to get some holy water. Second, he wanted to see whether he could buy some medicinal herbs.