After getting dressed, my mood was complicated. It was hard to say whether Amelia had ill intentions towards me. If not, she had still kidnapped me, performed surgery without my consent, and intended to use me as an experimental subject.
If she did have ill intentions, she hadn’t truly harmed me. She returned all my belongings, and most importantly, she helped me resolve the mutation that had been a dark cloud hanging over me.
All I could say was that her morals were highly questionable and vastly different from my previous life’s perception of doctors.
Therefore, I needed to re-evaluate my attitude towards her. I couldn’t afford to be her enemy or ignore her because she was the only person I knew who could help me with my mutation. Furthermore, judging from her words, her medical skills seemed outstanding.
Before I could figure out what to say, Amelia spoke first. “Come and be my pharmacist.”
“Huh?” I was caught off guard.
“I said, come be my dedicated pharmacist. From the moment I brought you here, I intended for you to be my exclusive pharmacist. Your potion brewing skills are exceptional and shouldn’t be wasted on refining witch potions. Follow me, and I can teach you more professional pharmacy.”
I wasn’t happy about her saying my talent was being wasted. The effects of my witch potions were not comparable to ordinary potions. However, despite my thoughts, I was still somewhat hopeful about her offering to teach me pharmacy.
I had already refined two of the three complete potions from the Witch’s Notes, leaving the Life Elixir for healing. I still needed to craft the Strengthening Potion and the Body Swap Potion.
But it wasn’t enough. If I could learn more potions from her, especially the method for making Sedatives, it would undoubtedly be beneficial to me, not to mention the surgery to remove the mutation.
“I need to think about it. Please give me some time. However, if you need witch potions, I can still provide them. Do you want more Life Elixirs?” I planned to stall for time.
“Of course. As long as I have enough Life Elixirs, I can perform more surgeries. Even if I make a mistake, I can immediately restore it, and there’s no fear of severe bleeding. In fact, with enough of it, I can even keep someone alive. The more, the better,” Amelia said.
It seemed she was a pragmatist. Although she initially looked down on Life Elixirs, likely thinking my potion was a low-quality item bought from a shop, her attitude changed immediately upon seeing its actual effect.
Conversely, this also revealed Amelia’s keen sense for medicinal properties. The moment I opened the bottle, she could tell it was a good medicine just by a faint scent. She immediately made an offer, her judgment so swift and accurate that I felt inferior.
“Let’s trade for Sedatives instead. As for future transactions, we can discuss them slowly. We can also use money,” I said.
After attending a Trade Fair, I deeply realized my poverty. Earning money had become an urgent need. The fifty gold coins I earned from selling those five bottles of potion weren’t even enough to make a single bid during transactions.
“Then follow me. I’ll take you to get the Sedatives,” Amelia said as she stood up. I reluctantly followed her, dragging my still weak body.
Only after coming out did I realize her clinic was quite large. Beyond the door was a Hall, and there were even multiple floors. On both sides were rows of wards, each with a signpost.
However, within the overall dim clinic, the atmosphere was gloomy, making it feel more like a prison. The faint screams and cries I could hear from somewhere in the distance only added to this feeling.
I cautiously followed Amelia up a spiral staircase, the wooden steps creaking with each step. The pungent smell of medicine and preservatives constantly assaulted my nose.
Walking through a long corridor lined with potion bottles, I could see the situation inside the wards through the glass at the doors. Strikingly, the glass was fitted with iron bars. I could see hospital beds on wheels and wheelchairs in the wards.
The IV poles and infusion bottles hanging beside them indicated that Dr. Amelia had mastered infusion techniques. But the fresh, red blood in the infusion bottles sent a chill down my spine.
Although a blood transfusion should be a normal medical procedure, as I passed by the infusion bottles, I seemed to hear faint whispers from the blood bags.
I also saw someone lying on a hospital bed in one of the wards. However, they were completely wrapped up and bound to the bed with several restraints. Most outrageously, their body was covered in various surgical scalpels, scissors, and even clamps and saws.
Fresh blood had dyed the quilt covering them red and was dripping continuously from the bed onto the floor, forming a pool. The scene looked like a half-finished surgery, or rather, a dissection, though even dissections weren’t this gruesome.
“What is that inside?” Although I knew it was best not to ask anything, I couldn’t help but ask, as I had faintly seen something moving within the bundle.
“Nothing, just an experiment,” Amelia said offhandedly, without specifying what kind of experiment it was.
I didn’t dare ask further. Knowing too much might mean I’d end up on the dissection table. I obediently followed Amelia to a room on the Third floor.
This appeared to be a storage room, filled with large transparent glass jars. They all contained specimens, and very bizarre ones at that. One eyeball had three differently colored irises, a heart seemed to have five or six chambers, and a human skull, pried open, was densely packed with teeth.
“Ugh!” I quickly covered my mouth, almost spitting up. I considered myself to have seen a lot since coming to this异世界 (Other World) – many disgusting and terrifying Demons and Monsters, but it was the inanimate specimens here that made me feel inexplicably disgusted.
“These are all mutated parts, or organs from Otherworldly beings. Didn’t I promise to let you see my failed surgeries? This is one of them,” Amelia said, turning around. In front of her was a life-sized specimen jar.
“This! This is?” I was stunned. Inside the jar was a beautiful Otherworldly woman. Her head was covered in writhing poisonous snakes, her hands were huge, sharp claws, her lower body was a snake’s tail, and she had golden Wings on her back.
This reminded me of a legendary creature, the Gorgon, Medusa.
“This is the end of a follower of Athena. It was too late when she came to me for surgery. Her body mutated rapidly and irreversibly, and in the end, I could only grant her eternal sleep,” Amelia said, leaning against the specimen jar.
“Wait, you’re saying this is the end of a follower of Athena? But I heard she was cursed by Athena…” I asked the snake-haired woman in surprise.
I had heard the legend that Medusa was originally a Priestess of Athena. She was violated by Poseidon in Athena’s Temple. Athena punished her for losing her chastity by cursing her into a snake-haired monster.
