Chapter 707: Berserk Human Therapy I
CH707 Berserk Human Therapy I
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The current of the River of Time was unceasing, waiting for no one. One either seized the opportunities flowing within it... or was left behind by its relentless tide.
Another month passed in what felt like the blink of an eye.
During this period, the Fortuna Company managed to settle many of its affairs within BloodIron.
The assembly of the crossbows, overseen personally by Sugud, was finally completed. Once the new weapons were deployed, they became like a powerful wind filling the sails of the joint BattleBaneâFortuna task force.
From that point onward, the subjugation missions progressed at a far swifter pace.
The task force was now capable of eliminating vast numbers of hostile monsters and beasts from a distance, allowing the combined force to focus their strength on the remaining powerful opponents as a cohesive unit.
The introduction of the weapon not only increased the speed at which monster nests were cleared, but more importantly, it drastically reduced the number of lives lost during such operations.
Within this same period, Udara and the scouting party also completed their âinternshipâ within the Black Scar Syndicate.
Through the experience, Udara gained a far deeper understanding of the syndicateâs operations, as well as the way Verdantisâ underworld functionedâknowledge that would undoubtedly prove invaluable in the future.
Zora and Kron Belloc likewise concluded their negotiations with the administrative building, securing several important assurances and concessions for Fortuna-aligned businesses operating within the city.
They also managed to obtain a vital trade licence that granted the group and its affiliates a certain degree of free-trade protectionâlargely exempting them from excessive scrutiny by the administrative buildingâs enforcement forces.
Of course, such agreements were only worth the paper upon which they were writtenâperhaps even less. The moment the administrative building chose to disregard the arrangement, every agreed term would become meaningless.
However, more important than the agreements themselvesâmuch like Udaraâs experienceâwas the process of securing them in the first place.
As for Alex, he remained stalled in his efforts to derive the degraded coordinates of the Pangean plane. Nevertheless, that setback did not prevent him from achieving success in other areas.
During this period, he successfully crafted six additional sets of the Guardian of Happenstance rune set, bringing the total number in his possession to seven.
The six sets of rune tattoosâcomprising a total of thirty individual rune inscriptions of varying complexityârequired an immense amount of work to create. Even so, Alex managed to complete them within a remarkably short period of time.
For now, Alex decided against unveiling the Guardian of Happenstance sets to the rest of the party, choosing instead to wait until he had accumulated a sufficiently large number of them first.
The reason he crafted exactly seven sets was simple, the number corresponded directly to the Fury Knights currently under his command.
Of the original fifteen Fury soldiers who had accompanied him on the expedition, three had perished, leaving only twelve remaining within his party. Of those twelve, five had transitioned into crossbowmen, while the remaining seven became Alexâs personal knights.
The Guardian of Happenstance was an exceptionally suitable rune tattoo set for a knightly unit.
However, to properly implement his plans, Alex intended to restructure the Fortuna Company once the subjugation contract came to an end.
Until then, he kept his intentions close to his chest.
The most significant developments during this period came from Eleanore, who had finally begun work on her Berserk Human treatment project.
Raven Horn discreetly managed to acquire a former fort outpost once used by BloodIron City during its earliest years of establishment.
Though the outpost had largely fallen into ruin after years of exposure to the elements, a swift round of rehabilitation was enough to render the location usable once more.
Making the best of the limited resources available to her, Eleanore transformed the old fort into a makeshift medical centre.
The Fortuna task force had just returned from yet another raid operation. While the main force headed back towards BloodIron amidst celebration and fanfare, a smaller squad quietly split away from the group, escorting three carriages in secret.
The squad, led personally by Kavakan, delivered both the carriages and their concealed cargo to the fort outpost where Eleanore was currently stationed.
"Lady Boss," the brute called out, "weâve brought the cargo."
"Take them to the cellar," Eleanore responded calmly. "And remember to keep them sedated."
"Oh, and Kavakan..." she suddenly called out just as the group was about to carry out her instructions.
"Yes?" Kavakan turned back towards her.
"They are patients, not cargo," she corrected calmly.
Kavakan scratched the side of his cheek sheepishly.
Without arguing further, he waved his hand and motioned for the squad to move quickly and deliver the âpatientsâ as ordered.
Naturally, the so-called cargo consisted of a group of berserk humans captured by the Fortuna task force for Eleanoreâs experimentsâone specimen each from the weakest Class 2 rank of the three known berserk human variants.
The cages containing the berserk humans were transported carefully before being aligned with a series of holding cells that had been repurposed specifically to contain them.
Once the berserk humans were lured into their respective cells, Kavakan hurled potion bottles into the chambers. The instant the glass shattered, thick grey fumes burst forth as the liquid reacted violently upon exposure to the air.
The moment this occurred, one of the squad members immediately pulled a nearby lever, sealing the cells into airtight chambers from which the fumes could not escape, forcing the berserk humans to inhale the sedative in full.
The sedative itself was one of Eleanoreâs own creations. It was an extremely fast-acting formula, though depending on the berserk human variant, complete sedation could still require up to ten minutesâa conclusion drawn from previous field experiments.
Once the ten-minute mark passed, Kavakan signalled for the cell containing the most stubborn variantâthe vitality variantâto be opened.
The sedative possessed an additional effect that caused the bloated vitality berserkerâs pus-secreting pores to close shut.
As a result, the grotesquely swollen berserk human now resembled some sort of malformed crustacean, its hardened secretions forming a shell-like layer around its body.
[Call of the Wild]!
Standing at the entrance of the cell, Kavakan listened carefully to the berserk humanâs heartbeat.
After confirming through the rhythm of its pulse that the creature had indeed been fully sedated, he walked into the chamber without ceremony, grabbed the massive body, and dragged it across the floor towards a reinforced wooden medical restraint bed, where he firmly strapped it down.
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