Rosaline's group trekked through the darkness, their footsteps silent despite the burden of two critically injured comrades on their backs.
After administering basic first aid, they found that the hemostatic spray still worked to close the wounds. However, a growing concern haunted them: the blue blood within the injured men was darkening rapidly during treatment. Their condition appeared far more dire than that of Amalin or Eugene.
It seemed that being physically attacked by the "something" in the dark accelerated a specific reaction within the body. Though they didn't know what would happen next, abandoning their teammates wasn't an option they were willing to take just yet.
"Rosaline, how are you holding up?" Edgar whispered, leaning back slightly as he carried one of the injured men. Amalin carried the other.
"...I'm fine," the Hunter girl replied. She walked at the rear, acting as the eyes and ears for the group.
"You're still... normal, aren't you?" Edgar, in Adrian's form, whispered while glancing at Amalin and Eugene ahead.
"I don't know," Rosaline told him.
Edgar raised a skeptical eyebrow, his eyes narrowing as if lost in thought.
"Whether it's red or blue right now doesn't matter," Rosaline added. "What matters is the will to struggle and the desire to get out of this situation."
"True..." Edgar agreed. Aside from the fatigue caused by using the Aeternum system, Rosaline appeared perfectly fine.
Eugene continued to use his skill to track Charlwind. In an environment where everything was deteriorating—and no one knew if it could get any worse—the hope of returning to the outside world felt slim. Yet, finding Professor Charlwind was the only thing he could focus on.
"Rosa—no, Grey Hood. What is it?" Edgar asked when he noticed the Hunter girl had stopped. Hearing this, both Amalin and Eugene halted.
"It's nothing... keep walking," Rosaline said in a flat tone.
As the others turned back and resumed walking, the Hunter girl's hand moved with lightning speed toward the head of the man Edgar was carrying.
'So, it's beginning...' Rosaline stared at the iridescent blue-black insect crushed in her palm, her thoughts grim. She could feel something watching them silently from the shadows.
In the makeshift operating room, Charlwind continued to dissect Malloch, searching for deeper answers. Though he knew the cause and the catalyst of the blue blood, there were still questions that required a definitive answer.
"I see... so this is how it affects the nervous system," Charlwind muttered as he performed surgery on Malloch's head. The brain cells pulsed visibly under the light; thanks to the ice-constructed tools, the cells remained alive. "With blood possessing magnetic-like properties, it's no surprise it affects the nervous system. The impaired electrical conductivity leads to hallucinations and auditory distortions."
Alka, standing at the foot of the table, felt a wave of nausea but folded his arms and endured the sight. He wondered how Grey Hood, the Professor's former assistant, could have ever tolerated this environment.
"Alka... this time, I need a blade as thin as a strand of hair. You must maintain the temperature balance at exactly 0°C," Charlwind whispered, staring at the exposed skull. He could see a pale blue film of connective tissue covering the fissures of Malloch's brain. "I am entering a forbidden zone... if my hand shakes even slightly, what remains on this table will no longer be human, but merely a soulless lump of protein. I cannot lose such a perfect specimen."
"What are you planning to do?" Alka asked, holding his breath.
"What am I doing?" Charlwind repeated. "I have to surgically remove some of the parasites; otherwise, this body will undergo a complete mutation. It would be a waste of a valuable subject to let the mutation take over the brain before I can research it."
Alka struggled to keep his face neutral.
"...Will it really be alright?" Even though Alka didn't care much for Malloch, he couldn't help but feel a sense of dread. Given the Professor's current instability, he didn't want to risk anything and refused to get closer to the incision site unless absolutely necessary.
"I am an expert," Charlwind said, his golden eyes opening slightly. The reptilian grin returned. "Before I was a Dungeon Gate expert, I performed no small number of experiments involving living organisms on living organisms."
The look in his eyes and the atmosphere emanating from him made Alka feel suffocated. He wanted to leave as soon as possible, unsure of when Charlwind might finally lose his mind. If the time came when the Professor became an enemy, Alka knew he would have to kill him without hesitation.
But for now, he had to remain the assistant.
"Don't worry, it's not exactly what you think..." Charlwind said, reaching out to take the newly formed ice blade. He began to cut through the blue film, using an ice container to catch the larval parasites that spilled out. Because blue blood was mixed with them, the larvae were still writhing. "What a pity... that inventory space has such a lethal effect on living humans. Otherwise, I'd wonder what Malloch would become if I put him inside."
Many studies had shown that humans and animals from this world cannot survive within an inventory. Once a living being is placed inside, they emerge breathless.
One theory, compared to 'Schrödinger's Cat,' was often debated regarding inventory space: that the organism might not be dead as long as they aren't removed. However, due to the high mortality rate in these experiments, they were declared a forbidden practice by the Hunter Association.
"I wonder... if a mutated human is placed in the inventory, would they survive?" Charlwind mused as he pulled a parasite from the pulsing brain. "If we consider that a mutated human is no longer entirely of this world, it's an intriguing hypothesis. I wonder if it would accelerate the rate of mutation further? It could be a new step for humanity!"
"I wouldn't know, sir," Alka replied reluctantly. Suddenly, his eyes widened.
Malloch's body began to jerk violently on the metal table. Blue blood erupted from the open incision as the parasites scurried frantically back into Malloch's body.
"This is...! A rejection reaction?!" Charlwind exclaimed, his voice filled with excitement rather than fear.
Charlwind flinched and stepped back as he watched the wound he had opened begin to heal itself—even with the surgical retractors still in place. The parasites remaining in the brain wriggled beneath the blue film as the incision on the skull began to fuse shut.
Blackish-blue blood and vomit sprayed from Malloch's mouth, creating a horrific mess. Both Alka and Charlwind scrambled to get out of the radius. Malloch's body continued to thrash so violently that the metal table shook as if he were having a grand mal seizure.
Alka conjured a ball of water in his palm, his stance guarded.
"Professor... get back," Alka said, his voice deep with tension, his eyes fixed on Malloch's now-still body.
The Hunter watched as something emerged from the giant's nose. A dark, deep-blue leg, almost black, poked out of the nostril. It slowly crawled out, its hairy limb resembling that of a spider.
A black head emerged next, stretching the nostril wide. The creature was nearly as long as an index finger, with four visible legs and antennae that twitched as they sampled the air. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, it retreated back inside.