infodatos Chapter 10 Pipe Leakage and Magic Tattoo
Chapter 10 Pipe Leakage and Magic Tattoo
A few days later, at noon.
Suen pushed the cart full of waste liquid tanks back from the direction of the garbage transfer station.
This week it was his turn to deliver the pollutants discharged from the recycling room to the transfer station, a round trip that takes an hour.
The midday sun peeked through the latticework of the high windows in the corridor, casting streaks of light and shadow on the ground.
The moment he pushed open the door to the recycling room, a pungent odor hit him.
It was like rotten herbs mixed with burnt metal, and mixed with some indescribable bitterness.
Suen instinctively held his breath, his pupils suddenly contracting in the eerie green light of the fluorite.
The recycling room was a complete mess.
At the interface connecting the main waste liquid pipe above the conveyor belt, there was a gap about half a palm's width wide.
Dark green waste liquid was gushing out from the gap, flowing down the outer wall of the pipe and pooling on the ground to form a shallow sewage pool.
The air was filled with a strong, pungent odor that made people's eyes sting.
Several storage tanks had been submerged in sewage, their bases overflowing, and the labels were blurred and illegible.
There's a pipe leak!
The instructor, Maurice, was repairing the sewage system, his hands flashing with bright yellow magical light, surrounded by an inconspicuous pale blue aura.
Meanwhile, Deitz and Rackham were using their bare hands to stop the waste liquid from spilling out.
Suen's gaze sharpened. He took a half step back, carefully waded through the sewage on the ground, and took out gloves and a crow mask from the box and put them on.
The inside of the mask is engraved with a simple basic protective rune that can block most volatile pollutants.
The moment it was fastened, the pungent smell was finally shut out.
After doing all this, he strode towards the leaking pipe.
"You do know how to protect yourself."
Morris glanced at the crow mask on Suen's face and the thick gloves on his hands, his lips twitched, but he didn't say anything more.
Suen squatted down next to Deitz and took the area that Deitz was pressing on.
"Go and put on your protective gear first, I'll handle things here."
Detz withdrew his hand with a sigh of relief, swayed slightly, and then stood up by bracing himself against the ground.
His arms were covered in rotten green stains from his fingertips to his elbows, and water was still dripping from his cuffs.
About fifteen minutes later, the flow rate of the waste liquid decreased significantly.
Morris stopped casting the spell and straightened up: "The workshop has stopped emissions, and the engineering department is on its way."
No sooner had he finished speaking than three people from the engineering department arrived. The one in charge was a mid-level apprentice wearing brass-rimmed glasses. He was so startled by the smell that he took two steps back, muttered a few words, and then told his two assistants to get to work.
Their protection was clearly more comprehensive; a simple twist at the waist activated the protective barrier of the magical artifact.
The repair work lasted all afternoon.
Morris chatted casually with the craftsman, occasionally pointing out that a certain pipe should be replaced during this opportunity. The craftsman replied without turning his head, "The budget is not enough," and Morris shrugged and did not insist.
As evening fell, the glow of the fluorite gradually replaced the sunlight streaming through the skylight, and the pipes were finally repaired.
The three of them worked together to stuff the contaminated rags, waste cotton yarn, and broken old gaskets into a sealed bag and affixed contaminant labels.
Morris used some kind of water magic to rinse the ground with water several times, and the pungent smell finally subsided a bit.
Suen removed the crow-man mask and took a deep breath.
There was still a faint odor in the air, but it was barely tolerable.
Perhaps Maurice's mental energy was also exhausted, for he let out a weary sigh: "Today's work hours will be recorded as usual. Everyone should go home and rest early."
Deitz and Rackham exchanged a glance, their faces showing relief.
The next morning, inside the recycling room.
The chaos caused by yesterday's leak has been cleaned up, and the recycling room is bustling with activity again.
Su En had just brought back a stack of labels from the warehouse when he suddenly stopped in his tracks as he passed the two people.
From the perspective of the psychic vision, Detz and Rackham were covered in tiny black spots, like splattered ink or mold.
The dark spots were not evenly distributed, but were mainly concentrated on the hands and forearms of both people.
And at the edge of those black spots, there was a faint, almost imperceptible dark green thread that was spreading toward the two people's brains.
Suen's pupils contracted slightly.
Immediately afterwards, his spiritual vision slowly receded, and his gaze returned to the real world.
Deitz turned his head, and Suen's gaze fell on his face.
The whites of his eyes had an unnatural dark green tinge!
This is not an illusion.
Suen's gaze shifted to Rackham, and the situation was the same.
Deitz's smile froze on his face. When he saw Suen's serious expression, he had a bad feeling.
He abruptly turned to look at Rackham, and the two quickly noticed something amiss in each other's eyes.
"Senior Maurice! Senior Maurice!"
Detz rushed out of the recycling room, his footsteps echoing loudly and urgently in the corridor.
Morris was holding a half-finished cup of Norton tea, his expression somewhere between impatience and patience.
"You'd better really have something important to do."
Detz excitedly showed Morris his unusual behavior, but Morris's reaction was very calm.
He picked up the cup again and took a sip.
"Working in the recycling room inherently carries the risk of contamination; this is something you should be aware of."
He put down his cup, his voice still calm.
Mental pollution.
The result struck Deitz like a hammer blow, causing his body to sway uncontrollably.
The consequences of mental pollution, at best, damage to the mental sea, making it impossible to continue meditating.
In severe cases, mental strength is completely eroded, consciousness collapses, and thus the source of life force is lost.
How serious will it be?
Rackham asked, his voice trembling.
“That depends on the type and severity of the contamination,” Morris said, his gaze sweeping over the two men’s arms. “Right now, you only have the symptom of the whites of your eyes changing color, which means the contamination is still limited to the superficial layers of your skin. But if we don’t intervene…”
He didn't finish the second half of his sentence.
Deitz suddenly took a few steps forward, the last trace of color draining from his face, his lips trembling uncontrollably as he uttered several sentences:
"The Wizarding Tower... Can the Wizarding Tower send someone to treat us? We were sent to the Recycling Room by the Academy, and the accident happened while we were working. They should be responsible."
"Responsible?" Morris glanced at him. "Your contract with Oak Crown stipulates that you are responsible for all risks and consequences during the work period. Unless..."
"Unless you are second-class apprentices or students of a wizard."
"Of course, you can also choose to buy a Soul Purification Serum for 500 Magic Stones, which is very effective against pre-contamination."
Deitz's body trembled, and he staggered to grab the edge of the table, his breathing becoming more and more rapid, his pupils reflecting the ghastly green light of the recycling room.
He clearly didn't meet any of these conditions, otherwise he wouldn't have been assigned to the recycling room.
In this basement surrounded by roots, the despair of having no way to survive was eroding the last shred of sanity from his face.
Morris picked up his teacup and took another sip slowly, his expression like that of a patient sailor fishing.
The bottom of the cup fell back onto the table with a soft thud.
"However, there is another way."
Deitz and Rackham looked up abruptly.
"I specialize in a type of magic tattoo that has a purifying effect and can prevent the spread of pollution. It can be done for about 40 magic crystals."
Suen remained silent as he stood in the corridor, but his brows furrowed when he heard Morris's new proposal.
From the very first day they entered the recycling room, the risk of contamination was the biggest concern for the three new students.
But when the pipeline leaked yesterday, Deitz and Rackham either forgot or didn't have time to put on their protective gear and came into direct contact with the raw waste liquid.
Morris completely ignored the fact that the two were unprotected and did not offer any warning.
Was he doing it on purpose, or did he simply not care about the apprentice's life?
No one could answer the questions in Su En's mind, but they also served as a silent warning to him.
When in border areas, be sure to act with caution, no matter who you come into contact with.
Under the cover of mental power, it is difficult to detect the malice of others.
In the end, Morris, moved by kindness, agreed to help the two assistants with their magical tattoos on an installment basis, citing his desire not to lose them.
"Don't worry. The effects of the magic tattoo may not be as immediate as the soul purification serum, but it is more stable."
The moment the door to the recycling room was opened, a gust of cold wind rushed into the corridor outside.
Suen watched Morris's figure disappear at the end of the corridor.
He then looked at Deitz and Rackham.
The two were looking down at the bluish-gray marks on their arms, looking a bit more relaxed than before.
Taking on new debt in exchange for a chance to survive can be considered a very worthwhile investment.
Suen offered no further words of comfort and turned back to her work for the day.
Whether it's a mortal kingdom or a wizarding world, most things in this world are ultimately not chosen by those at the bottom.
But there was one thing that Su En was very clear about at this moment.
Detz and Rackham were contaminated, while he escaped by sheer luck.
Then Morris happened to have a way to counter it.
Is this a coincidence?
If he hadn't been lucky enough to wear gloves and a mask yesterday, there might have been one more person contaminated by now.
Weakness is the original sin.
He needed a sense of security that he could control, so he had to master Hermes as soon as possible and also get a basic understanding of potions.
An invisible pressure lingered in the hearts of the three.