MoP: Ch. 160

---Third POV---

Potion effects had their limits.

In the past, Viktor would rather rely on mana and time to heal naturally. But now, to increase the success rate of his expedition to Mount Wolcen, even the tiniest bit of help had to be used.

He flexed his arms, testing the joints.

"Let's get this done."

Potion processing was grueling work. By the time the sunlight outside had turned orange and slanted through the windows, he had finally produced a whole tub of finished medicine.

The meter-and-a-half tall bath barrel was filled ninety percent with blackish-purple potion that gurgled and bubbled. Thick, viscous bubbles constantly rose to the surface and popped.

Beneath it, a massive magic circle gathered power from the surrounding area.

Click!

He embedded a red energy gem into the array. The circle lit up instantly, glowing with arcane power. The bath barrel at its center became the eye of a storm, endlessly drawing in surrounding mana.

Gulp! Gurgle!

The viscous bubbles on the potion's surface boiled even more fiercely, and a layer of bluish-violet flame flickered across the top.

He stripped off his wizard's robe and stepped inside.

The moment he sat down, warmth rose from his hollow chest, driving away the chill that had spread through his body for weeks. It was the first real relief he'd felt since his injuries.

He let out a long, satisfied sigh.

The potion was only a temporary patch for his injuries. His true trump card was that 210,000 divine power.

He opened his panel. His status bar still showed no immediate changes.

[Name: Viktor von Vinesse]
[..]
[Status: Severely Injured, Weakness, Frostbite, Burns, Poisoning, Inner Sanctum Collapse, ...]
[Summary: Critically injured Undead]

Viktor skimmed past the rows of negative buffs and tapped on Poisoning.

"You'll do. Healing starts from the easiest."

He tapped repeatedly on the panel.

"And turn on those system prompts too, don't want to flip through logs one by one later."

Whoosh.

The divine power number began to plummet.

[Consumed 3,214 divine power, cleared poison buff "Radiance of Light." No more need for frequent sunlight exposure!]

[Consumed 2,119 divine power, cleared poison buff "Sacred Shackles." Movement restrictions reduced!]

[...]

One wave after another of white light surged from Viktor's body. Even the potion in the barrel absorbed faster, its liquid thinning as the thick black-purple color gradually faded away.

[Total consumption: 18,211 divine power. All poison buffs cleared!]

He opened his eyes again. The potion had turned a soft lavender shade. The invisible bindings and weakness throughout his body had lessened somewhat.

But it wasn't enough.

He closed his eyes: "Continue."

[Total consumption: 16,000 divine power. All frostbite buffs cleared!]

The bones in the potion flushed crimson as warmth returned to his skeletal frame.

[Total consumption: 21,087 divine power. All burn buffs cleared!]

The crimson bones whitened once more as the last traces of fire damage left his system.

As time passed, the potion boiled and froze in cycles while the magic circle rippled with flowing energy. Outside, the sky darkened, then brightened again. The healing process stretched through the night and into the next day.

Finally, Viktor heard a system chime.

[All negative statuses cleared. Character update: "An undead recovering from grave illness." Remaining divine power: 36,841]

From the haze of exhaustion, he opened his eyes. Sure enough, the status bar was completely blank. He braced himself against the edge of the barrel and stood up.

"Finally, the torment is over."

Although divine power dulled the pain of healing, the injuries themselves had carried countless side effects. Originally, the long list of negative buffs inside his body had formed a delicate balance.

Each time he cured one, it was like wiping out a kingdom in the chaos of war. The surviving ailments would always be affected by the others disappearing. The sensation was indescribably bitter and sharp.

He flexed his stiff arms and could clearly feel the joints in his bones connecting more tightly. At the very least, the constant grinding sound of bone against bone was much softer than before.

His entire body felt like it had been reassembled by a skilled craftsman.

He compared his height against the barrel.

"Seems... I got a little shorter?"

"That can be chalked up as a downside of denser bones."

When he stepped out of the barrel, he noticed that the surrounding magic circle had long since dimmed. At its core, the energy gem and various magic materials were either ashen or reduced to powder. Completely spent.

He glanced at his divine power reserves.

[Name: Viktor von Vinesse]
[Race: Undead]
[Level: 88 (Magus) / 159 (Demigod)]
[Skills: Divine Insight, Shapeshifter, Multiple Avatars (999/1001)]
[Authority: Life Revival, Life Purification, Eternal Light (34%), Divine Revelation]
[Divine Power: 36,841]
[Followers: 999]
[Special Items: Int??dim??Net??Spirit??, Divine Contract (Reversed), Game Console]
[Status: None]
[Summary: An undead recovering from grave illness]

He mused to himself.

"Still having thirty-odd thousand divine power left, and my level raised from 71 to 88, recovering to Magus... That's better than I expected."

"The magic circle must have helped a lot, otherwise it wouldn't have shattered so thoroughly."

Though the status bar was now empty, his strength wouldn't immediately return to its peak. It was like a patient just out of intensive care, time was needed to adapt.

So long as he remained near a mana node, his power would steadily climb. By his estimate...

"To fully return to peak condition, I'll need at least a year."

And that was conservative. After all, the church in Honeyvale Town only possessed a small mana node. The amount of stable, convertible mana it could produce was limited.

Viktor had no choice about it. Among his healing authorities, he only had Life Revival and Life Purification. They could heal injuries and clear negative buffs, but not accelerate the recovery of strength.

Technically speaking, he was already in a healthy state. Tens of thousands of divine power points, and no way to spend them.

He ran the numbers several times. The conclusion was always the same. He had to accept the fact that within ten days, he would not break through to Great Magus level.

"No matter. At least now I can handle Level 6 monsters, and against some special types of Level 7... I might even stand a chance."

"As for Level 8... Forget it. Better to think of happier things."

At least, as an undead, he naturally possessed the ability to play dead in front of monsters. Provided the monster wasn't bored enough to start gnawing on a random skeleton.

Next, all he needed was to prepare some standard defensive and offensive weapons.

Four days later, fully prepared, Viktor stood once more before the stone stele, Zycotl at his side.

From the pitch-black ruins of the crater, a deep, twisted rift of space shimmered faintly.

He flexed his wrist.

"Anyway, staying here won't bring much progress. Better to save some time for the return trip."

"Hopefully, the secret of Mount Wolcen won't disappoint me."

The time consumed by divine power healing was much shorter than he had expected. Since that was the case, rather than waiting for the space rift's time limit, it was better to head to Mount Wolcen early and probe the truth.

He patted Zycotl.

"Let's go, buddy. Time to hit the road."

With that, an undead and a dog stepped into the space rift. The stone stele returned to its original state.

---

Meanwhile, Booze came out of the player apartments yawning.

"Damn, investigated half the night, but not a single clue about the prophecy of the Twin Gods."

"This thing probably needs some more advanced maps to unlock."

"I'd better find a way to get to Nary Town first."

Stretching, he headed toward the river. Around him, besides players, there were also many ragged NPCs. All were refugees the players had recruited in the past few days.

Their direction was north of Honeyvale Town, the construction zone for the magical defense wall. Even with players working hard, the number of NPCs recruited so far was still only around 600. Far from reaching Hawkes' requirements.

But with autumn approaching, having this many was already enough. After a simple inspection and being given NPC panels by Alyanne, which had binding force and monitoring functions, these refugees could join the wall construction and start earning Magicoins.

The road to the riverside overlapped with theirs for a while. Before long, the flow stopped.

"Huh? A traffic jam?"

He stood on his tiptoes and looked ahead at the endless line.

"Just a stream of refugees is enough to clog the road?"

He checked the forum to see what had happened. The street ahead wasn't fully paved, and two piles of newly transported anti-monster ore were stacked around, making the already narrow road even tighter. So a short-term jam had occurred.

NPCs were already sent to handle it.

Looking at the posts of players stuck there and complaining together, he finally realized the importance of Viktor's presence.

"If Viktor were here, he'd never let such a jam happen."

"Why did he suddenly decide to shut himself away?"

The next second, a nearby player suddenly jumped out.

"What? Viktor shut himself away?"

The sudden shout startled Booze, who frowned at the stranger in front of him. With a glance at the player scan, the guy's level popped up. Level 6.

"Man, your news is pretty outdated. Viktor's been gone long enough for you to grind to level 6 already!"

The level-6 player scratched his head.

"Heh, this game's too grindy. I only get to play a bit before bed every day, so my info's a little behind."

By in-game time ratio, that meant he only logged in once every two days.

As he said this, the level-6 player looked around and, seeing only ordinary NPCs, lowered his voice.

"You trying to go to Nary Town?"

"Of course!"

Booze pointed at the riverside.

"I was just about to check along the river, see if I can fish up a couple of unlucky strays."

"If I find three more NPCs, I'll finally have enough to qualify for using the teleportation array out of the forest."

According to forum guides, the riverside was the easiest place to pick up half-dead NPCs. They'd struggle hard to find water, only to discover the river was full of carnivorous fish, leaving them passed out nearby. Perfect for players to scoop them up!

The level-6 player looked at him with disappointment.

"The NPCs in this forest are rarer than monsters. It's all luck, who knows how long it'll take to find one!"

He darted his eyes around, then leaned in slyly.

"I've got another way."

Booze rolled his eyes. "NPCs can't even understand what we're saying, what's with the secrecy?"

"It's called having a sense of ritual!"

"Fine..."

Booze lowered his head. "Go ahead, I'm listening."

"I know a small path out of the forest. Hardly any monsters or beasts nearby. If we keep moving, we can get out in sixteen hours," the level-6 player whispered.

"Viktor used to forbid us from crossing the forest on foot, but now he's gone. Isn't this our chance?"

The truth was, players' sense of direction was terrible, just like a certain green-haired swordsman They'd swear they were heading out of the Great Oak Forest, but one by one ended up running deeper inside, and becoming a monster's post-meal snack.

These players were usually low-level, with barely enough revival materials, yet they loved pushing the limits of account deletion by dying over and over. Viktor had no choice. To keep those revival-material loans from turning into bad debts, he had banned players from leaving the forest on foot.

Booze thought about it. Sixteen hours did sound less time-consuming than finding three NPCs. His heart was moved.

"Guaranteed?"

"Absolutely guaranteed!"

The level-6 player patted his chest.

"There are another seven or eight newbies who want to... uh, slip across with me, cough, I mean, hike. They can all vouch for me!"

Booze's eyes narrowed. "Newbies? A bunch of players not even level 5, what can they do once they're out?"

"They're all level 5 now. And the new maps give faster EXP. Worst case, they just die a few more times. There are revival points anyway!"

The level-6 player corrected him seriously.

Thinking of the already level-20-plus Garble, Booze nodded again. "True enough. So what's the survival rate on foot?"

"Preliminary estimate: twenty percent."

"Twenty percent? So basically, I just need to die four or five times to make it out? That's crazy good odds!"

Booze's eyes lit up. He reached out decisively. "Count me in!"

"Good! I'll notify you of the time later. Don't be late!"

The two of them fist-bumped in the air.

Forget all that "newbie protection period" talk, they just loved charging into high-risk zones at single-digit levels.

---

Meanwhile, Viktor, who had fallen into a vast snowy wasteland, knew nothing of the "newbie death marathon" about to unfold.

Crunch, crunch.

The snow beneath his feet was so deep that every step felt like sinking into a bog. All around was nothing but white. The wind scraped at his body. In less than a second, his wizard's robe had frozen stiff.

If he still breathed, his lungs would surely be full of ice shards.

He lifted his head. Ahead, heavy snow piled high into a natural barrier of mountain ranges. Blizzards swirled through the peaks, the white haze making it hard to see. Above it all, thick fog drifted.

"Ten minutes of walking just to leave the rift, and I'm still only at the mountain's foot?"

"So they expect me to climb Mount Wolcen from here?"

He pulled out the guiding artifact sphere. In the storm, it slipped free from his palm, floating in the wind. Inside, the two black-and-white orbs surged toward the direction ahead-left, knocking together with constant clattering.

He sighed. "Since I'm here, might as well climb first... Zycotl."

"Woof!"

The husky burst out from under the snow. It shook off the pile covering its fur.

From its body, countless micron-scale robots detached and assembled themselves into a closed white sled, so perfectly blended with the snowy environment it was nearly invisible.

Viktor opened the door and stepped inside. "Let's move."

"Woof woof!"

The husky barked twice and chased after the floating sphere guiding the way forward.