Before leaving, Durin glanced at the clock hanging on the wall of the general store; it was already one o'clock in the morning.
However, Durin still didn't choose to go home. Instead, he walked towards the elevator, needing to go to the Boundary Markets to find the Toad Witch Doctor to treat his injuries.
The pain was indescribable.
This pain, from being forcefully squeezed by hard stones, was an unparalleled torment that almost every muscle endured. With every step, the friction between bone and bone brought an even more intense pain, both agonizing and unbearable, making one utterly miserable.
Before, he was in a hurry to cash in the crystals, so he endured it, but now that he had the money, he naturally had to treat his injuries.
Durin stumbled to the elevator, and after paying one copper circle coin, he silently waited for the elevator to stop at the Boundary Markets.
Then, gritting his teeth, he endured the soreness in his calf muscles and limped into a dark alley, heading all the way to the deepest part of the alley.
He finally stopped in front of the familiar house, then pressed the doorbell, leaned against the wall, and waited quietly.
After a while, the rolling shutter slowly lifted, revealing an enormous toad, two and a half meters tall, with deep blue skin covered in many wart-like bumps.
He poked his head out from behind the door with an impatient look, and after confirming the visitor was Durin, he said in an annoyed tone, "Durin, don't you know what time it is? Unless you're telling me you've decided to donate your body for my research."
"Hmm? How did you get so injured? It's fine, I happen to have a good jar of formalin here, which will definitely preserve your body well."
"Shut up!"
Durin staggered into the house, but his legs were so weak that he slipped and fell directly onto the sofa.
"I'm not dead yet, just help me heal first."
"Tsk tsk tsk, don't be in such a hurry, you Ionia man. You have to wait for me to prepare the materials first. Let me tell you, corpse preservation also requires a process... First, you need to be laid flat, face up. If you're face down like this, the blood will flow to your face, your face will deform, and your face won't be preserved."
The Toad Witch Doctor casually closed the door, and his two disproportionately small hands began to gesticulate wildly as he talked incessantly.
Durin didn't respond. After lying down on the hospital bed, he lost consciousness.
...
Durin had a hazy dream. In this dream, he became a distinguished Piltover Ninth Councilor, dressed in a beautiful, neat suit, sitting in a luxurious car admiring the scenery of Piltover, drinking afternoon tea with other councilors, and even chatting and laughing with Lady Gray. In the evening, he would take his beautiful and charming wives to watch plays and attend concerts.
In this dream, Durin was so spirited, enjoying endless honor and wealth. In his dream, whether it was beautiful wives, power, or wealth, he had it all!
But when he slowly opened his eyes, all that greeted him was the Toad Witch Doctor's enormous face, with its wart-like bumps clearly visible, and his pair of black, pea-sized eyes rolled around.
"You're awake?"
The Toad Witch Doctor watched Durin wake up, a humanized look of regret on his face. He shook his head, turned his back, sat on the sofa, picked up his pipe, put it in his mouth, and silently began to smoke, saying through clouds of smoke, "One less specimen, that's bad news."
Durin managed to prop himself up from the bed. His body was thoroughly bandaged, with wounds on his chest and limbs all wrapped. There was a strong smell of herbal medicine on him.
A line of text appeared in Durin's vision:
[Medical Skill proficiency +1, current proficiency: 10/25]
"Durin, your injuries this time are not light! Your previous internal injuries hadn't fully healed yet, and now you've added new ones. Tsk tsk, I think you should consider getting an Augment! It's convenient, won't cause you trouble, and can prevent you from getting injured."
In Zaun, body modification had become a trend. For the people here, installing weapons in their forearms for self-defense was common, but for Durin, Augment modification was simply too terrifying.
He had never considered relying on mechanical ascension for self-preservation, and he also knew that many modifications involved cutting open human flesh, then extracting the original bones and replacing them with harder metal, not to mention advanced eye and head modifications.