MTLNOVEL Chapter 359: Stale
Zach did what he always did when he used the contract skill from Alzara's contract. He imagined himself gathering and extracting all the valuable material of the Basilisk's brain and assembling a lump of pure and refined Basilisk brain matter.
The plants and herbs Alzara used for her alchemy he had done so many times that he could get a feel for what to extract just by holding them. The more commonly used monster parts like bones, hearts, scales, and gallbladders were the same. There was a pattern, a standard to those things and the materials he wanted from them that Zach had learned.
However, brains were rarely used. They were mostly only useful when active since the worth in one was approximately equal to the information it held.
But Zach wasn't after the information in the Basilisk's brain. He wanted the physical matter. He didn't even really want it. It was just that he needed to use Material Extraction on the brain, and he would do his best. He needed a target.
That target was the most precious raw materials of the Basilisk's brain, whatever that was.
Zach dragged out his arm, overpowering the resistance he felt from the Basilisk. The arm that had been lodged up to the elbow was soon only wrist deep. Then the knuckles. Next were the fingers that were hooked around something.
Zach pulled out a surprisingly rigid lump of grey, colorless clay. It wasn't clay, but it was not as flappy as his usual material worms, and it wasn't the same meat that the Basilisk's brain was made of.
Alzara's eyes lit up when she saw it, so Zach tossed it to her and shook the slime off his hand before turning to Yanael, who was covered to her cheek in stone. To their relief, the petrification stopped spreading when it became clear that the Basilisk, for all its size, strength, and renown, couldn't survive without a functioning brain.
However, Yanael had ended up like this when she had both her and Mandra's energy to slow its spread. The others would be worse, even if they started attacking the Basilisk later.
"It's going to be alright, Yanael…"
Yanael's eyes were wide open, and she blinked and stared in Zach's direction like she was warning him about something. She couldn't do anything else, but that was enough for Zach to first look behind him to see if there was anything there and then at his arm, which felt a little heavier.
At first, he thought it might have been because the world essence energy retreated from his muscles and back to his core. It wasn't.
Mandra rushed over and held his arm with both hands, wrapping it in blue energy to stop, or at least slow down the layer of stone spreading over him like drying mud.
It wasn't helping much.
"Hmm. I guess that makes sense," Zach said as the petrification rapidly spread from his arm to his chest.
If attacking the Basilisk caused one to become petrified, wouldn't it make sense for the same to happen if one killed it? And compared to merely attacking it, killing it was far more serious. It seemed like a built-in revenge method for whoever or whatever killed it since the petrification on Zach spread far more aggressively than it did on Yanael.
Zach turned to Alzara.
"I trust you—"
The petrification swallowed him. It was fast. Only a few moments after it took his mouth, it took his eyes as well, plunging him into darkness. He couldn't see, he couldn't breathe, and he couldn't feel.
He had been isolated from the world. Zach was surprised he could even think with his head encased in stone. He thought it would have seeped into him and petrified all of him, not just covered him in a layer of rock.
But then again, being able to think made it worse. He was trapped with his thoughts as he stood face to face with his inevitable death of asphyxiation, dehydration, or starvation, whichever came first. For now, Zach didn't feel the need for air. Somehow, he was managing.
Was he breathing through the stone? He tried to sense his lungs move, but they were as still as the stone covering them. Had he transcended human limits and overcome the need for air?
It almost felt like it.
Maybe he had reached such a level that all he needed to break through the petrification was brute force.
Zach struggled.
Nothing happened. He had not come that far. He was not that superhuman. He felt a little silly.
Zach wondered if his familiars were doing alright. He hoped they wouldn't panic while he was stone and that they would handle things calmly and properly. He wanted to say that they would remain calm. But Yanael, who had a little more experience with seeing him up to his ears in trouble, was also petrified. The others…
On the surface, all of them seemed like individuals capable of acting calmly in stressful situations, especially Soara, who had gone through how much. Alzara and Mandra had probably also gone through a lot.
Zach thought about when Mandra talked about how her Eyes of Truth had been both a blessing and a curse. The hollow look in her eyes told him that her life before becoming a familiar hadn't been easy, either.
But Soara was the only one he knew a little more about since he had glimpsed her past at the Labyrinth of Syst. Your journey continues with empire
Speaking of which, he wondered of the others were faring. Were Nessa and Violina doing okay? Had the Millipede managed to chew a hole through the Basilisk's stomach to pour the acid into its body?
Was it tasty?
'Hmm.'
Zach tried to imagine what Basilisk meat might taste like. He had a feeling that it might cause some petrification, but if it was delicious, it might just be worth it, especially if Alzara developed a potion to remove petrification.
Although the meat would probably be stale since the Basilisk had been dead for so long, it was still a monster with a similar level of infamy as dragons. And Dragon meat was famous for being a treasured delicacy. It would even be better than the miraculous food the Empress Dowager had served them.
'I wonder what the Empress Dowager's other familiars are…'
Zach's thoughts wandered, flickered, and flashed around inside his trapped mind in a chaotic frenzy while he was petrified.
He was scared.