Mage Manual

Chapter 141: Chapter 129 Trial Chairperson Ash Heath

Red Mist Research Institute, Laboratory 13.

Lorenz pushed open the door with a cart, placing three body bags on the long table as he exhaled, “Teacher, the new materials have all been delivered!”

“Come in.”

Lorenz emerged from the inner room, his fish-like eyes glancing at the ten body bags on the table. He sniffed lightly, catching the scent of decay filled with the stench of death, and nodded. “What about the dolphin?”

“The female dolphin you specifically requested has been brought over in a tank, but because the tank is too large, it wasn’t easy to bring it up here. Teacher, did you want to study a freshly dead dolphin? When will you need it?”

“Not for now, you take care of her.”

“Alright. Teacher, did you want to study the live dolphin? Should I bring the tank up here?”

“No need to bring it up.”

Not for research material, nor to bring to the laboratory?

Lorenz blinked, “Teacher, are you really studying dolphins?”

“Yes, of course,” Lorenz said lightly. “But remember to send her to my house later.”

Damn!

As an academically excellent human graduate student, Lorenz felt his core values shaken—the rumors that Fishmen prefer dolphins were actually true!

“Come and open the crate.” Lorenz said, “You’re lucky. When I was an intern, there weren’t so many research materials. Watch closely and learn well.”

“Yes!”

Lorenz opened the first body bag, “Human, male, overweight adolescent, non-mage, level 1 standard material. You practice with this.”

“Beastman, male, sturdy young adult, non-mage, level 3 standard material, you practice with this.”

“Human, female, average young adult, non-mage, level 3 standard material, you practice with this.”

“Elf, male, strong middle-aged, non-mage, level 7 rare material, mine.”

“What’s going on with the hospital…never mind. Dog, male, robust mature, non-mage, level 2 standard material, you take it.”

After opening the last body bag, Lorenz couldn’t help but shake his head, “Eight standard, two rare, and not even a single mage corpse, luck isn’t good this time.”

“Professor Teutonic, this is already quite good,” Lorenz couldn’t help but say. “Usually, the hospital sends about twenty corpses a day to the research institute, mostly due to severe illnesses or aging, level 1 standard corpses. Even then, they’re evenly distributed across the entire institute. When I studied with Professor Osram, sometimes there wouldn’t even be new materials for a whole week.”

“It’s only these past few days that we’ve had an increase in materials, and even with the ‘Seven-Day Dispersion of Death,’ we can’t keep up with overtime.”

“Yes, argh.” Lorenz actually felt quite good, even his speech carried some distinctive Fishman bubble sounds, “Thanks to those Foreign Domain mages, they should come to Kaimon City once every year… no, every month.”

“Teacher!” Lorenz startled, “Be careful with your words! The Extreme Lord wouldn’t be pleased!”

“Relax, we are beloved by the Extreme Lord’s favored Blood Saint Clan, we wouldn’t lose his favor just because of idle talk.”

“But still, if someone hears and reports—”

“Alright, alright. So, you think what I said is wrong?”

“Of course, it’s wrong. Having them every month would be too damaging economically. Kaimon City couldn’t withstand such frequent devastation.” Lorenz stated seriously, “If they went to Feimeng City next door every month, it would be more reasonable. A third of the new materials generated in Kaimon City are sent to the research institutes in Feimeng City.”

Lorenz glanced at his new student, truly a former human whose cunning surpassed that of Fishmen.

A light screen suddenly popped up, notifying Lorenz that his reserved time had arrived. He said to his student, “Now, Lorenz, you start pre-processing the materials; I have to step out for a bit.”

“Yes, Teacher.”

Shedding his robe and spritzing perfume to dispel the stench of corpses, Lorenz left the laboratory with a spring in his step.

Passing the water tank downstairs, he gazed in fascination at the dolphin’s graceful form and exceedingly lustful eyes, wiping the drool from the corner of his mouth as he stepped onto the Blood Moon-lit campus path.

Having returned to the research institute just a few days ago, Lorenz was quickly assigned a laboratory.

Despite feeling weak and incompetent, his source blood qualifications ranked within the top five in the entire institute. Thus, even though he had offended some ‘reserve big shots’ from the four major research institutes, the institute still spared no effort to allocate resources to him.

Lorenz too was assigned to him by the institute. Though he was reluctant, on one hand, it was a strict rule for young researchers to mentor graduate students; on the other, as there were many miscellaneous tasks in experimental research, he indeed needed a graduate student to help him with the work.

Lorenz had also once been someone else’s graduate student, a necessary step before ‘changing blood,’ akin to a ‘probation’ period or ‘internship’ before changing races.

Since preparatory blood descendants had passed their graduate exams and their qualifications were guaranteed, many of the projects within the institute conflicted with universal values. The institute needed to ensure that newcomers could integrate into their ‘smart people’ and not just be model citizens indoctrinated by propaganda.

Naturally, the ‘probation period’ was nominally to expose graduate students to mage research earlier and to advance their faction realms to the Silver Level rapidly. But if a newcomer could not integrate into the ‘big family’ of the institute, their fate usually wasn’t very pleasant—there was a joke within the institute, ‘Today you are my student, tomorrow you are my material’.

The institute wouldn’t intentionally break the law, but the law also couldn’t reach the research institute.

Incidentally, the main research projects of the Red Mist Research Institute were the ‘Blood Magic Faction’ and the ‘Necromancy Faction,’ both of which required a large number of corpses as research material. Lorenz, majoring in the Necromancy Faction and thanks to ample materials, made rapid experimental progress during these days, even summoning a new Technique Spirit, and was on the verge of touching the Silver Realm limit of the Necromancy Faction.

If he had remained in prison, grinding away at source blood, he wouldn’t have caught such good times. Fate, indeed, was very strange.

Reaching the café bar, Lorenz greeted the Snake owner, who smiled, “Hiss, here again? We’ve recently got some good blood, want to try ‘Elf Song’?”

“Elf blood too? What’s the ratio?”

“60%!” The Snake owner scanned the surroundings and lowered his voice, “Hiss, besides ‘Elf Song,’ I also sell ‘Wolf Kiss.'”

Lorenz’s fish eyes bulged, “I didn’t hear about the Church being attacked!”

“There was a Moon Shadow Priest who happened just then to be in the suburbs and encountered the attacker’s main force. May the Extreme Lord have mercy on that unfortunate soul… Want it? 10% ratio.”

“One Elf Song, one Wolf Kiss!”

“Shh, you sure know how to drink.”

Lorenz sat back in the same spot as last time, quietly waiting for the Blood Moon Judgement to begin. For some reason, after watching the Blood Moon Judgement once, he had suddenly taken a liking to the program, even though he had never bothered to watch it while in prison.

Perhaps it was because he had been kicked out of prison.

Perhaps it was because he knew he would be stepped on for the rest of his life by [222], and the other party wouldn’t even notice his existence.

Perhaps it was because he had accepted his own mediocrity.

During his school days, his internship, and the ritual period in prison, Lorenz had always kept his spirit high, contenting himself with merely self-motivation, without needing any entertainment shows to enrich his spiritual life.

But now he had put his sexual needs, which he had always disregarded, back on the table, going out to drink every night and even starting to enjoy watching the Blood Moon Judgement… The reason, after all, was that he could no longer derive joy from ‘struggling.’

For Lorenz, studying, researching, cultivating, and exploring the Void Realm had all become ‘must-do’ chores.

Because he saw his own limit, he knew that no matter how hard he tried, it was futile.

Faced with an insurmountable wall, he just wanted to lie down and idle away his days.

Ironically, when he first arrived at the research institute, Lorenz often looked down on those researchers who just idled away their days, thinking they were no different from the corpses in coffins, always thinking he would never become one of them.

‘Maybe the night I was thrown into Shattered Lake, I was already dead.’ Lorenz calmly reflected on himself: ‘Without ambition, all I have left is a heart that doesn’t beat.’

Suddenly, a noisy commotion erupted outside the café, and someone ran in excitedly shouting, “Something happened at Shattered Lake Prison! A death row inmate has escaped!”

“Really? How did they escape? And what about the prison guards?”

“It seems like the guards were locked up. The convicts stole the transport ship that arrived at the prison today and took the chance to escape. It was discovered at the port that the transport ship never returned, and after it was reported up the chain, it was discovered that something had gone wrong at the prison!”

“Shattered Lake is going to be disgraced nationally this time; isn’t this the first death row inmate escape incident?”

“Wait, isn’t there a medical team in the prison? Could they also…”

“Pfft, hahaha, this is hilarious! Come on, let’s toast to the escapees, wishing they bring some entertainment to the Blood Frenzy Hunters!”

“Cheers!”

Another person shouted, “A toast to the new materials we’ve gotten! These last few days of materials will keep us going for months!”

“Cheers!”

“A toast to the Foreign Domain mages…”

“Hey hey hey, we better not toast to that carelessly.”

“Then let’s drink to the deceased!”

“Cheers! Huu~”

Lorenz also cheerfully raised his glass and downed his Elf Song.

Although it had nothing to do with him, the medical practitioners were surely still inside Shattered Lake Prison. This escape incident greatly implicated the prison’s medical team, whose responsibility was even greater than that of the guards—they were the targets in the open, while the medical practitioners were bats hidden in the shadows.

Lorenz even secretly felt fortunate that he had been kicked out early—he couldn’t bear the disgrace of a Blood Saint Clan mage being controlled by death-row convicts.

“So, no Blood Moon Judgement to watch tonight, huh? How boring.”

“Boss Snake, how about we start a betting pool on the escapees? Bet on when they’ll get caught or if they’ll be killed during the escape. I have a friend in the Crime Hunting Hall, he can send the news over right away!”

“Hiss hiss…” Boss Snake said, “Let me think about it…”

Just then, eight light screens suddenly appeared in the middle of the café!

Everyone was stunned and looked towards Boss Snake, who was quite calm: “I set it to automatically turn on the light screens at eight o’clock to watch Blood Moon Judgement, but the show’s off now—”

“If hurt enough, use a pair of hands, joyfully sever, yesterday’s curse…”

There was even opening music!?

Amid the crowd’s bewildered, astonished, and anticipatory gazes, a uniformed prison guard appeared on the light screens. He held the ‘Sinners’ Catalogue’ in his hand, covering his mouth, only revealing a pair of cold eyes.

“Good evening, I am Ash Heath, the host of this Blood Moon Judgement.”

Ash Heath?

Ash Heath!

No one would forget this name within just a few days, especially since many were eagerly anticipating his performance in this installment of Blood Moon Judgement!

“Since this judgement could end at any time, let’s not delay and introduce the list of redeemers.”

The scene shifted, and the camera focused on the exterior of the prison at Shattered Lake. On the lake, eight slender redstone pillars appeared, each with a stone seat on top, each occupied by a prisoner.

“This is Edmond Manken, former executive secretary of the Tax Bureau.”

“This is Bernard Ledor, former director of projects in the Government Affairs Hall.”

“This is Ernest Andrey, former councilman.”

When the camera focused on the last contestant, everyone in the café, the research institute, the church, the foster home, and the Crime Hunting Hall, all watching the Blood Moon Judgement, stood up in shock.

“This is Alandor Fernand,” Ash said: “the current mayor of Kaimon City.”