Researching Disease - 652

Skymender sat down and began to read deeply, doing his very best to memorize every piece of information. If necessary, he would read it twice or even three times.

As he went deeper into the book, the information got less detailed. Eventually, there would be at most five pieces of information. 

Yet, as he got to the back, everything got a little creepy. It would speak of tiny snakes that burrowed into skin and parasitized the human, turning them into a walking, breathing sack of eggs.

There were also snakes said to live on blood, residing under houses within large cities. The book seemed to turn into some sort of mythical keepsake of legendary beasts. Nearing the end, with only a few pages left, there were a few pages with giant snakes.

One was called a titanoboa. It was far bigger than a human, and lived deep in the wild where humans had barely explored.

It was known to have killed even seasoned hunters. Only Sword Masters dared to venture into its territory. It would be a legend, had not a Sword Master from hundreds of years ago brought one's head.

But not all Sword Master's returned, and other than that one, those who did returned with only stories or without finding it at all.

Of course, those Sword Master's who had died were at the lowest level, known as the 4th rank. 

But even so, it showcased the incredible power of the titanoboa.

It was unknown if the titanoboa was venomous or simply extremely powerful, but to place importance on its danger, it was placed in the venomous section.

Finally, on the last page, at the very top, the words, Unconfirmed Legend were written in deep, dark ink, as if declaring it a section of its own.

An illustration of a snake lifting its head was on the page. However, on that snake's head was a mountain.

This was the mountain serpent.

Such a snake was nothing more than a myth or a legend, not fit to be in a scientific book. However, there was a single fact that made it necessary to know.

The Sword Master of the Ancient Empire, hailed as the strongest in history, had said that there was a 50% chance that it existed, based on evidence he himself had seen.

And even if it didn't exist, either something similar in size did, or some sort of natural disaster had formed suspiciously logical tracks.

Skymender closed the book.

This was actually not his first time hearing of such a creature. In fantasy books, legends were usually incorporated in some form. This was one of the ones he had seen before. In that book, it was referred to as the ancestor of snakes, but in the end, there was a footnote about the legend of the mountain serpent.

Skymender had memorized a vast portion of the information in the book, and in order to ensure 100% memorization, he read it twice more.

With his talent, he believed that he had memorized it all. Of course, in the Imperial Scholar Camp, everyone had similar memorization talent. It was one of the things that set them above everybody else in the world who was not invited.

Equally important was comprehension, something Skymender incorporated while memorizing the book.

Through his comprehension, everything he memorized was applied to what he already knew. He had seen many venoms that would go well with other poisonous substances.

Skymender put away the book and scrolled around for the next. He eventually found an interesting one about diseases.

It spoke about major disease outbreaks and how their effect was either diminished or removed through the use of science.

As he read through the book, he paid the most attention to a part about how a major disease just a hundred years ago was handled and how a cure was created.

It was not created by a Kingdom or Empire, but by a group of scientists unfunded and unlawful.

Seeing the disease wreak havoc, they decided to do something that would eventually get them killed, but would save millions.

They kidnapped a person infected by the disease. They kept him captured and took samples of his blood throughout the progression of the disease. They took the last sample after his death from the disease.

Afterwards, they kidnapped more and more infected people. They took from all sample subjects, men, women, children, and even animals. They were good people, and it had hurt them, but they had done it for the greater good.

Eventually, through experimentation after experimentation, they created a cure. It was through the deaths of thousands of men, women, and children that this cure was found.

The day they found it and proved its effectiveness, they knelt before their Emperor and asked for death, presenting the cure and stating their crimes.

The Emperor, reluctantly, granted them the release of death for their crimes.

However, they were respected by more than half of the Empire, and a majority of the world. The other half hated them, but even they understood their impact. 

Losing a thousand to save a millions was considered a very good outcome.

Of course, what intrigued Skymender was not their actions of sacrificing the few for the many, or their courage in asking for death, but what form they managed to take out the disease in.

After numerous experiments, they managed to take the disease out of a deceased patient, turning it to liquid form. Of course, it was only a fraction of what was in the body, but it led Skymender towards a new possibility.

What if he did not stop at making poisons? Instead, what if he created diseases, plagues, and hereditary defects?

He could cripple the entire Empire of his enemy, or seriously harm his entire bloodline.

But he did not understand how a disease came to be. So, he began to research it. 

Since it was related to the curing of a disease, there was a little bit of information on how diseases came to be.

Simply speaking, from what he gathered, diseases formed on the molecular level. Molecules were a theoretical existence, small enough that millions or billions formed a single eye. 

This theory was gradually becoming more and more proven. Newer research showed that the molecular level was where diseases were most likely formed.

In other words, to create a disease, he would have to interact with the molecular plane.