Chapter 230: Bestiality Disease

"Bestiality Disease?"

Luo De had heard of it before.

A condition that causes grotesque, terrifying physical changes, excessive hair growth, and erratic, unpredictable behavior.

Calling it a disease isn't quite right—even plague doctors can't touch it.

It's more like a curse.

The Ethelon Kingdom handles bestiality disease patients with extreme passivity.

They're merely gathered and confined in places filled entirely with other bestiality disease patients.

Aside from occasional mage studies, there's virtually no other intervention.

As a result, patients occasionally escape.

As for the learned elf Kali, she knew far more.

The two stood side by side against the sail's edge, watching the night.

"Elven texts record accounts of bestiality disease; some scholars suspect it dates back to the Third Era."

The night wind blew, scattering the elf's golden, silken hair.

She had to hold it back with one hand, lest she appear unseemly before Luo De.

Luo De knew this was precisely the use for all the lady's accessories he'd collected.

He pulled a silver hairpin with intricate patterns from his spell satchel and handed it to her.

Kali scowled.

"Why do you have so many ladies' items?"

"The moment I saw it, I thought it matched your golden hair—I couldn't resist buying it. It has a magic effect that nourishes hair quality."

As he spoke, a price tag dangled down from the silver hairpin.

Of course, Luo De had deliberately left it there.

"You spent 127 Jin Along on a magic item that supposedly nourishes hair? That's useless!"

"It suits you, doesn't it?"

Kali scowled and said nothing.

She pinned up her hair, twisting it into a loose knot at the back with the silver hairpin.

Honestly, it gave her a wifely charm.

Tally, beside them, grew slightly jealous and secretly lengthened her shortened hair again.

"Master~~ my hair's all messy too~~"

"I saw you use transformation magic."

"Pfft."

Luo De smiled and handed Tally a delicate crystal hairpin.

Such Chinese-style ornaments were rare on the continent; only a fickle succubus could pull them off.

In truth, though she spent every day with him, Tally rarely showed interest in anything beyond Luo De and his essence.

Luo De didn't believe that was truly the case.

Perhaps he simply didn't know her well enough.

"Hmph."

Kali beside them let out a barely audible hum.

Of course.

Giving gifts to one girl, then turning right around and giving another—of course she'd roll her eyes.

But I, Luo De, am no ordinary man.

My affection is obvious, hahaha—I don't hide it at all!

As for the other two present.

The banshee Krist was trembling, clinging to Luo De's thigh from her fear of heights.

The female orc Amy, still recovering from severe injuries and suffering from carb intolerance, was asleep.

But even if she were awake, it wouldn't matter.

Small gifts, small surprises—these two, along with the zombie Selina and the ghoul Pan Ni, had no claim to them.

Back to bestiality disease.

Kali: "About two hundred years ago, goblins unearthed a Melu ruin from the Third Era beneath the earth. They accidentally touched the blood inside a golden chalice used for sacrifice, contracting the original bestiality disease."

"But whether goblins were inherently beastmen or simply possessed extremely high natural resistance to plagues, the symptoms never manifested in them—only mild fever and slight agitation, with no strong transmission."

"Bestiality disease might have remained forever underground, had it not been for the human craze known as Maze Fever."

As she spoke,

the elf's gaze toward Luo De carried a hint of "stupid human."

Ah.

Maze Fever?

Luo De couldn't help but press his palm to his forehead.

This was a still-famous turning point in human history—the kind of fame that other intelligent races laughed at.

Back then, a human mage discovered a stable, non-dangerous ultra-small maze and auctioned it for a staggering 700 million Jin Along.

That wasn't unusual.

Stable, non-dangerous mazes were always rare; after the frantic plundering a thousand years ago, such maze dimensions became even scarcer.

Two billion Jin Along? The price was inflated, but everyone just shrugged.

So when the same mage found another such valuable maze the next year and sold it for 400 million Jin Along, many didn't even realize it was the same person.

But trouble came when a goblin merchant who ran underground villas smelled opportunity.

He used special means to bewitch the mage.

Then forced him to publicly claim both mazes were found deeper beneath the merchant's own underground villas.

No need to guess—the goblin merchant's villas sold out.

Why didn't he just have the woman steal the mage's money outright? That touches on goblin ethics—their notion of a "proper merchant"—something most people simply couldn't grasp.

In short, he made a fortune.

Meanwhile, certain desperate human mages, eager to ride the wave, spread the absurd claim that "stable, safe mazes are more likely to form underground."

They published it outright in major, low-integrity newspapers.

Thus, Maze Fever was born.

But even this wasn't yet laughable enough.

What made later generations laugh hardest was that both "stable, safe" mazes collapsed simultaneously two years later.

The result: the complete extinction of the two clans that had purchased them.

The incident caused a massive uproar.

Everyone knew something was wrong.

As the Ethelon Kingdom's investigation—then still powerful—revealed:

The so-called "mazes" were temporary dimensions built by the mage using a new spell, costing only 200, 00 Jin Along.

After his arrest, the criminal mage admitted the two magical mazes lasting two years far exceeded his expectations—he'd only planned for them to last two or three months.

But due to this tenfold miscalculation, the underground had been dug through almost entirely over those two years.

This led to frequent contact between humans and subterranean goblins, bringing bestiality disease to the surface.

This was how bestiality disease reached the surface.

And this was also the origin of the eighth-rank spell 【Maze Spell】.

"Have you noticed how I handled that bestiality disease patient?"

Kali didn't dwell on it, continuing:

"I purified the body along with the splattered blood."

"Correct. The primary transmission route of bestiality disease is blood contact—even external contact carries high infection risk."

The elf looked at Luo De with added disdain.

After all, he'd personally severed the patient's limbs—the most likely point of blood exposure.

Luo De knew she was deliberately reminding him.

So stubborn—she's clearly worried but won't say it outright.

He smiled: "My sword didn't even get bloody."

(End of Chapter)