"The toll on my body is getting worse—this must be the price for absorbing that monster. Things are going to be even more difficult when I have to face the Scarlet Ephera... I hope the Difference Engine didn't predict this too, did it?"
As he summoned his Creation Pencil to draw himself a new set of clothes, Jenkins's mind raced.
If he had dozens of hours to recover, this terrible physical state could certainly be resolved. But after erging from the bloody cocoon, Jenkins could already feel the town's intense rejection of him, an outsider.
He had to leave as soon as possible; he couldn't linger any longer.
By the ti he walked from the third floor back down to the first, his skin, though still slightly flushed, had mostly returned to its normal color. When he stood before the ghost nurse, she rely glanced at him, noticing nothing amiss.
"Still," she noted, "why do you sll so strongly of blood?"
"The remnants of battle,"
he declared.
"The creature on the third floor... I've killed it."
"Excellent. I'll tell you how to leave then."
The nurse's expression was relaxed as she spoke, beckoning Jenkins to follow her upstairs.
"You believe just like that? Don't you need so kind of proof?"
"The door was always on the third floor. The hospital's back exit leads from the third floor to the outside, down an iron staircase attached to the rear wall that takes you to another street. So, if you're lying, you're only wasting your own ti... What a sha, though. I was rather hoping our souls could live together..."
Since Jenkins had killed the monster on the third floor, the transactions the hospital offered were now available. Although Jenkins only had eight dice left, because he had helped slay the beast, the ghost nurse offered to let him choose any single transaction valued at 100 dice or less.
"Can I take it in cash?" he asked as they ascended the stairs.
"Of course not."
With the nurse being the only one left in the hospital who could offer transactions, she confird the third floor was truly clear before presenting the entire hospital's catalog of services.
"There were supposed to be five others besides in the hospital, but after the third floor was taken over, everyone had nothing to do and left. Maybe I can find them and bring them back," the ghost nurse mused aloud.
The six slates offered a considerable number of transactions, and the ghost nurse was more than happy to explain the specifics of each one. What Jenkins needed most right now was a solution for the effects the town's red blood was having on his body, but a transaction under 100 dice wasn't enough to solve his current problem.
The main issue was that he had absorbed the life spirit of the third-floor monster; that was the most troubleso consequence. The effects of the blood he'd injected before entering the hospital—aside from the nun's vial—were negligible in comparison.
So, after browsing through his options and finding nothing suitable, Jenkins simply asked the ghost nurse to give him the best treatnt she could for under 100 dice.
She cheerfully told Jenkins to wait a mont, then left the treatnt room to prepare her instrunts. She returned shortly after, first instructing Jenkins to sit in a rusty iron chair. Then, she used restraints to bind his hands and legs to it, strapping his waist to the chair's back.
Next, she hung up a bag of a suspicious, yellowish-brown liquid and began to infuse it into his body through an IV in his left hand. Then, using blood she procured from sowhere, she drew nested circles on the floor around the chair, writing strange runes in the empty spaces between them.
When these preparations were complete, she placed a rusty iron mask over Jenkins's face. Once his vision went black, she began to slowly chant an incantation.
The sll of blood in the air grew thicker and thicker, a scent that was seeping out from Jenkins's own body. When the odor finally began to fade, the ghost nurse stopped and released him.
"How do you feel?"
"Fine..."
Jenkins flexed his arms. The physical changes had barely been alleviated at all, but the spirit he had just absorbed was now, through this "treatnt," almost perfectly under his control.
"Is this really a thod to treat the effects of the red blood?"
he couldn't help but ask.
"How should I know? I'm a nurse, not a doctor."
The ghost girl tilted her head back, looking imnsely proud. "You're safe and sound now, which ans the treatnt I chose was correct. It seems I can take over his role, even if I can't find that old witch doctor."
"Witch doctor?"
With the treatnt finished, Jenkins planned to leave. Although the ghost nurse desperately wanted to keep him, she saw he was determined to go. She could only mutter about the benefits of "living" in the hospital as she led him to the door.
The door the beggar had ntioned was in the third-floor broom closet. After clearing away a long-collapsed broom cabinet, they found a door that was almost fused with the wall. Pulling it open revealed the staircase leading to the next street.
"I'm leaving now. Thank you for your help,"
Jenkins said to the ghost. She clutched her spectral hat, looking at him with dissatisfaction, before giving a curt nod.
"If you're not planning to stay in the hospital, then you should leave the town quickly."
The ghost nurse might have a screw loose, but she was genuinely a good person. "Once you leave through this door, even with only eight dice, you'll have enough to get out of town. That street has no obstacles that cost dice to pass, so don't enter any more buildings from now on. Just leave directly."
She reached out and patted Jenkins's shoulder. Due to the unique nature of spirits here, her hand made solid contact. "Also, a machine from the outside ca to our town not long ago. We all tead up to chase it away, but it left a big worm behind. You need to be careful of that worm; we don't know where it went."
"I know."
Jenkins smiled at the ghost. She looked at his face with regret. "You're quite handso. It's a sha you won't stay."
With that, she took the initiative and pushed the door open for him. "If you don't make it out of town in the end, rember to co back. I've saved a place for you."
"Alright. If I don't make it out, I'll definitely co back. But I have to get out. Soone is waiting for at ho."
"I know, I know. Honestly. The good-looking n are always snatched up by other won first."
After bidding farewell to the ghost nurse, Jenkins passed through the hospital door and descended the iron staircase on the building's exterior, arriving on another street. The staircase t the street in the middle, and in the distance, he could already see the end of the road. It wasn't a void of darkness, but a shimring white gate of light.
"Alright, I can finally get out."
His mood finally lifted a little. He estimated he was about fifty flagstones away from the gate. Shaking the cloth bag holding his dice, he decided to follow the ghost nurse's advice: no more entering buildings, just head straight for the exit.
He could now be certain that the power of the Beast of Calamity hidden in this Mysterious Realm belonged to the Scarlet Ephera, an entity he'd dealt with before. Its power was very similar to the inherent power of this Mysterious Realm, so if they were to truly fight, Jenkins would surely be no match for it.
He worried that the "worm" was waiting for him nearby, so he was extrely cautious as he rolled the dice.
The first roll was a 1. Jenkins froze for a second, but still took a single step forward. Without looking at the houses to his side, he tossed another die. This ti, it was 13, a more normal result.
He walked along the blood-red flagstones, and after stopping, was about to toss another die when a voice spoke from beside him:
"Are you sure you don't want to co in and take a look?"
Next to him was a smithy. It wasn't the sa one he'd seen before entering the hospital, but the blacksmith looked identical—not a creature of flesh and blood, but a figure of pure tal. It was as if he was the very sa person.
"I see. It can only control the blacksmith... No, I'm not interested in the smithy."
Jenkins spoke, ignoring the iron figure standing in the doorway of the smithy, and tossed another die. But before the die could settle, the ground began to tremble violently.
"An earthquake?"
Lights flickered on in every building along the street, but not a single door opened. Jenkins watched as his die tumbled and flipped from the vibrations, refusing to stop.
"Are you really not coming in?" the blacksmith asked again, its voice devoid of emotion. Jenkins continued to ignore it, swiftly stomping his foot on the still-bouncing die, forcing it to a halt.
In the rules of this Mysterious Realm, deliberately manipulating the outco of a roll was a violation. But right now, Jenkins only wanted it to stop; he didn't even look at the result, so it didn't count as cheating.
With the die pinned under his foot, he quickly glanced at the result:
"15. Not bad."
He thought to himself and was about to run forward, but as the shaking stopped, the blacksmith actually stepped out of its workshop and onto the street. "Savior, you will not succeed. Though my lord awaits you at the very top, you will never reach that place."
As it spoke, it reached out to grab Jenkins, but he had already moved, nimbly dashing forward. He glanced back as he ran; the blacksmith was only standing on the flagstones in front of its shop, showing no intention of giving chase.
"Looks like I finally get to avoid facing a Beast of Calamity in this Mysterious Realm."
He thought happily, but then he saw that while the blacksmith wasn't chasing him, it had thrown its massive alloy hamr. He instinctively dodged to the side, but a terrible premonition washed over him in that instant.
His eyes followed the hamr's trajectory as it flew diagonally into the distance, striking the outer wall of a house about twenty flagstones away. That house was perilously close to the white gate of light at the exit.
The hamr smashed a hole in the house, and soil and bricks tumbled to the ground. Light spilled out from the new opening. In that mont, Jenkins felt his heart stop cold.
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