Ariel and Saito had implemented a hybridized Farming Scheme centred on cultivating Plants and rearing Animals. All of us in our various continents worked hard on raising various shelters for the purposes of storage and to minimize waste. One method especially implemented by Saito's team, Keiran's and my team was to prioritize the cultivation of non-perishable varieties of food such as cereals, grains and tubers. These varieties of food could easily be preserved through the method of drying them out in the sun.
Arlene and Mitsuki's land was not very fertile so they prioritized the breeding of their animals instead to ensure that they practically had food products all year round. They could take their animals out to graze in the more fertile coastal lands and riverbeds as well as some forests a little further inland. They were not lacking in terms of mobility thanks to Mitsuki's ability to manipulate gravitational zones.
Animal products usually expired after a short period of time so by increasing the number of animals they reared through breeding, they could compensate for their inability to adequately store their food products.
"If push comes to shove, I'll completely halt the ability of our food to expire by drastically reducing the flow of time of the bacteria acting on our food. These bacteria are responsible for food decay. That's the entire point of refrigeration and the freezing of food products. It's to slow down the activities of bacteria acting on food that are responsible for food decay. To do this however would require me to summon the active form of my sigil by undertaking a massive hunt for four hundred animals. If a time like that comes, I'll have to alter the effects of my sigil so that I can hit animals without necessarily killing them or inflicting debilitating stats upon them" Mitsuki said.
"Very impressive" Arlene said with a smile.
Saito and Ariel had constructed several storage facilities. Keiran and Concordia had as well and so had I with a little help from Ciella. We stored our food products in each set of storage facilities by sorting them according to type. Grains, Cereals and Tubers went into one set of storage facilities, Fruits and Vegetables went into another set, Oil Producing Nuts went into yet another set and Protein Producing Legumes went into the final set.
Arlene and Mitsuki did same with the crops they had cultivated. Though they focused mainly on animal rearing, they knew they also needed some amount of plant food to have a truly balanced diet and it was for this reason that they turned a part of the land fertile through irrigation. Needless to say, all of this especially with regards to the construction of the storage facilities and the preparation of the land occurred between the time of planting and our first harvest.
After we had all harvested and stored quite a substantial amount of food, we all received a new notification.
"Congratulations on completing the Planting Schemes Phase…however…a word of advice to you all. You would be much wiser to consider all the Skills you have learnt so far as extensions of one another rather than as isolated events. The Fifth Level commences now. An event is about to occur in each of your lands. An event involving debilitation however remember this…not all problems are solved immediately. At times, to cure a seemingly incurable wound…all you need is to buy enough time…with the Proverbial Shell Of The Crab! A battle of endurance commences now!" my Dad's voice was heard saying. "I really hope your bark is far worse than your bite, for your sake I really do" my Dad's voice was heard saying just before the message terminated.
In our land that corresponded with the Tropics, I opened my menu to have a look at our next skill. The next skill read 'Cancer'. I sighed heavily.
"Cancer huh? A test involving debilitation…buying time…hoping our bark is worse than our bite?" I wondered and accessed the skill.
When the Skill menu was opened, within it was the icon of a Crab. Below the icon were these readings. 'Cellular Regeneration', 'Energy Boost', 'Immunity Boost', 'Mental Fortitude' and 'Poison Coagulation', as well as 'Poison Mitigation' and 'Vitality'. I opened my eyes in surprise.
"What's with these readings? They're currently set to zero. Optimal readings seem to be marked by the figure hundred and they generally sound like a prescription of sorts ordered by a Doctor. There's also a countdown timer of sorts currently set to zero. Could that imply that the event in question has not yet begun?" I wondered seriously.
"Shouldn't your Dad be hoping our bite is worse than our bark instead?" Ciella asked.
I shook my head.
"It's a proverb most people take for granted these days. If you reverse the word for 'Crab', it spells 'Barc'. Most people have thus come to associate this proverb with dogs however…it is actually an ancient medical proverb. In the ancient world, the barks of trees played a huge role in the concocting of anti-venom for people bitten by or stung by a poisonous animal" I said seriously. "Hence for a poisonous ailment to be cured, the bark did indeed need to be worse than the bite" I explained to Ciella.
"I see" Ciella said with eyes wide open in surprise.
"The Cancer System measures the Debilitating Stat inflicted upon a person against the required parameters needed to cure the ailment. When all stats read a hundred, the ailment would have been completely cured. The parameters change with every unique ailment. The ingredients needed to cure an ailment may be found throughout the Game in the forms of recovery items or food items. The degree to which each ingredient can relieve certain symptoms inflicted by a Debilitating Stat are measured against each recovery parameter. This however only applies to items that have been acquired at least once throughout gameplay" the notification that explained the Cancer System's functionalities stated.
"So now we're Doctors instead of Farmers huh?" Ciella realized.
"Actually, we're Farming Doctors. The clues state that we'll have to hunt for the ingredients needed to cure a debuff once the event begins and my Dad said we'd be wiser to consider all the skills we've acquired as interconnected instead of as isolated events. Yes indeed! We're Pharmacists! I think the reason the event hasn't began yet is to give us enough time to plan and prepare towards it" I reasoned.
Ciella nodded in agreement.
In their land, Saito ensured that Ariel was well fed.
"Curing Debilitating Stats is right up your alley. It's your turn to shine little sis. For now, make sure you're well fed so that you don't collapse from exhaustion when crunch time comes" Saito advised.
"Yup! With my Blaze ability, (Note: Blaze is a unique kind of flame that has the power to completely nullify curses by burning them off the one upon whom the curse is inflicted. The principle works around a theory of the elemental balance that states that Fire has the power to dispel Darkness by generating Light. There are four categories of flame. They are Fire, Flame, Blaze and Inferno. They shall be explained as the story progresses) I'll burn that debuff right off!" Ariel declared with determination.
Keiran meanwhile got to work on constructing a third tank the size of a bathtub.
"What are you doing Keiran?" Concordia asked.
"It's preparation for…in case the debuff is a poison stat or something of the like" Keiran said with a determined smirk.
Mitsuki and Arlene made their preparations as well.
"In our case, we just need to freeze the waves of time around the patient and place them into a state of suspended animation that almost mimics hibernation to halt the effects of the Debilitating Stat till we can find a cure. There's a reason for the saying 'one must remain calm when bitten by a snake' you know? Panic increases heartbeat rate which in turn increases blood pressure and pumps the poison more quickly towards the heart. A poisonous wound more often than not degenerates into a fatal wound once the venom reaches the heart. This is because from the heart, the venom is easily pumped into the rest of the body" Arlene said.
Mitsuki nodded in agreement.
"We'll completely halt the cellular degeneration process and buy time till we can find a cure!" Mitsuki declared with determination.
As Ciella and I stood talking, we suddenly noticed a figure approaching our camp, staggering as though every step took great effort. At that moment, the clock on the countdown was set from 0:00 to 24:00 and immediately began a countdown. I opened my eyes in alarm.
"Ciella! The event has begun! We'd better hurry!" I roared and we rushed towards the figure.
Just before we reached the figure, it fell forward and collapsed to the ground in an unconscious heap. It appeared to be of a boy roughly about our age.
"Ciella! Bring some of the ropes woven out of fronds immediately!" I ordered.
Ciella obeyed. While she did that, I closely inspected the boy's wounds for signs of a bite or sting. I found a wound that resembled the wounds inflicted by the fangs of some wild beast. Ciella arrived with the fronds.
"Time to begin immediate treatment! Step one! Bind the wound anywhere on an injured limb between the place upon which the wound was inflicted and the upper body to sever the blood flow to the heart and by implication cut off the flow of venom. Second step…!" I declared as I picked up two stones I had sharpened earlier on and consumed them in strong flames. "…make an incision over the wound with a sterilized blade to bleed out as much of the venom as you can!" I declared and made a small cut over the wound to bleed out as much of the poison as I could. "Do this without severing any major blood vessels!" I explained to Ciella. "Once that phase is complete…" I said as I placed the heated stone over the boy's leg.
He winced in pain but remained unconscious.
"…seal off the wound to prevent death by excessive blood loss!" I explained and sighed in relief.
After doing that, I took the boy into our shelter and analyzed him via the Cancer System.
Keiran and Concordia did all that. Then Keiran put the patient they found into the tub now filled with seawater closely supervising the patient to ensure that he was not inadvertently drowned.
"What manner of treatment is this?" Concordia asked.
"Concordia, do you know why a person's body always appears shriveled up after a long swim in the sea?" Keiran asked.
"It's because of osmosis. Our body water flows into the sea via our skin and pores. Don't tell me…this method is to drain the venom via osmosis!" Concordia exclaimed in shock.
"Exactly!" Keiran said with a smirk. "However, this method is literally draining. We'll have to work quickly to replenish some of the patient's recovery stats afterwards" Keiran said seriously.
In Saito and Ariel's case, they had already completely nullified the poison via Ariel's Blaze ability. All that was left was to replenish the patient's recovery stats.
Mitsuki and Arlene on the other hand had activated Mitsuki's Internal Titanium Chrono Chrome and had completely halted the cellular degeneration process. Then they applied the same method of First Aid Treatment my team and Keiran's had applied.