"Master......" Hawking seemed to remember something again, and said with a pale face, "back...... Something even more terrible happened later. ”

"Huh?" Dante was mentally prepared. He guessed that the liquid leaking out of that little bottle would definitely not be anything good. At that time, in Silvermoon City, the monster that he killed was a blood jīng spirit that drank magic water, and it actually had such a strong mutation. He deliberately pretended to be surprised and said, "Tell me, what's going on?" ”

"Uh......"

Hawking wiped the sweat from his forehead, looked around, and made sure that no suspicious person was looking into their corner, and whispered, "That bottle of liquid leaked out and burned a small hole under my desk, which frightened me at the time!" But fortunately, I knew chemistry, so I hurriedly put on anti-corrosion gloves, took a corrosive flask, and put the small bottle inside the flask, which prevented more liquid from leaking out. ”

"Well, what's the terrible thing?" Dante was a little annoyed by Hawking's ramblings.

"What I didn't expect was that there were two rats hiding under their desks, probably eating the liquid that leaked!" Oh my God, I was cleaning up the liquid residue under my desk when I saw two monsters with muscles bursting open! At that time, the two mice had mutated to the size of cats, and they pounced on me! Luckily, I had a wrench nearby, and I picked it up and knocked a mutant mouse to death. Another one came straight at my neck, and I blocked it with my left hand, and it almost bit off a piece of flesh! ”

At this point, Hawking closed his eyes and gasped for air, as if he was still terrified by the scene.

"Sure enough......" said Dante thoughtfully, "that liquid must have a very strong magical power, and can infect and mutate the creatures it comes into contact with into monsters!" ”

"Yes!" Hawking seemed to come to his senses, opened his eyes, and continued, "My left hand was bitten by a mutant rat and couldn't shake it off, so I could only hit it desperately with a wrench. Finally it almost knocked out its brains before it relented. Luckily, I was wearing thick clothes at the time, otherwise my left hand might have been bitten off! ”

When Dante heard this, he asked, "Don't Grandet and your other colleagues know about making such a big noise?" ”

"Alas......" Hawking shook his head, "master, this is what you don't know. At that time, Grande had just opened a branch in Gem Harbour, and I was the only resident there. Because I belong to scientific researchers, it is relatively difficult to recruit, so he arranged for me to live here directly, and I have lived there until now. That little house is my lab. ”

"Hmm." Dante said, "Well, you didn't tell Grandet about the vial?" Is that right? ”

"Uh......" Hawking seemed to sense the meaning of Dante's question, touched his head, and said, "Yes...... Oh, yes. ”

Dante decisively pulled out his iron sword, stuck it on the ground, and said to Hawking in a very stern tone: "Hawking, don't be careful with me in the future. Otherwise, you'll be thrown away to feed the dogs. Do you understand? ”

The word "feed the dog", he said it especially loudly, giving Hawking a dismount.

"Ah...... No, no...... How dare I hide the truth from you? Hawking fell to his knees again, kowtowed to Dante, and said, "I can feel your power." I don't think anyone who has the mark of the Demon King can deceive you, right? ”

"Then stand up and move on." Dante drew his iron sword and thrust it back into the scabbard on his back.

Hawking stood up and continued: "After I knocked the two mutant rats to death, I burned the corpses and buried them secretly, and then cleaned up the liquid residue on the ground. At that time, since I still had work to do, I didn't have much jīng energy and time to study the small bottle, so I had to put it in the flask and store it first. I'm confused. I never dared to tell Grandet about it, because I always felt that the contents of this little bottle were very unusual. It was even able to give me some kind of strange hallucination! ”

Hallucination?

When Dante heard the word, he immediately remembered the Nightmare Beast. Don't...... Is there a nightmare beast here too?

Hawking continued: "I've lived in the lab, and I've been used to living alone for a long time, and I don't feel anything strange, but since I got that little bottle, I've had nightmares a lot. It's horrible! ”

"Nightmares?" Dante heard this familiar word and hurriedly asked, "What kind of nightmare?" ”

Hawking thought for a moment and said, "That nightmare was very strange. I dreamed that I was standing in a primeval forest, and then I walked on blankly, and soon I saw a clearing. The clearing was littered with the corpses of many trolls. These corpses are all dressed in jīng liang armor and armed with battle axes or bows and arrows, and they all look like brave warriors. ”

With that, he took out the mechanical ball from his pants pocket, stared at the liquid and small pieces in the ball for a moment, and continued, "I was completely empty-handed in my dream, and I couldn't figure out where it was or what was going on. Not daring to stay on the edge of the pile of corpses for too long, I had to keep walking. As a result, a huge snake came out from behind! But, strictly speaking, that big snake is not really a snake. ”

"What is a great snake and not a real snake?" Dante was confused by Hawking's seemingly incoherent words, and hurriedly said to him, "Put away the mechanical ball first, don't stare at it!" ”

"Oh......" Hawking heard his master's order, so he put away the mechanical ball and continued, "That big snake is very large, about ten meters long at a rough look, the snake body is thicker than that of an adult human, and its whole body is covered with blood-red scales, which can swallow me in one bite." In the dream, the serpent also had a pair of large wings, which were bat-like wings. It raised its head, flapped its wings, and opened its mouth, revealing two large fangs, the tips of which were dripping with highly venomous venom. Those venom drops on the ground and can burn out small holes! ”

"......" Dante began to feel a little nervous when he heard Hawking's description. He thought to himself, could the huge winged serpent described by Hawking be a new form of nightmare beast?

Hawking wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "I'm so scared that I can't take a step at all, I can only think that I am dreaming, wake up quickly, wake up quickly." The big snake opened its mouth and bit me, and I was immediately awakened. ”

"Huh? Is that all? Dante was a little surprised when he heard this, he thought that Hawking's soul had been taken by the Nightmare Beast.

"yes, that's all. I was directly woken up. Hawking sighed, "Ever since the vial started leaking and then killing the two mutant rats, this nightmare has been going back and forth, sometimes almost every day, and it's really driving me crazy." ”

"Then ......," Dante seemed to be able to guess what Hawking was going to say next, and tried to ask, "and then you tried to make such a mechanical ball to hold liquids and small pieces." And you succeeded, and the nightmare disappeared? Right? ”

"Yes!" Hawking nodded and said, "I'm dying of nightmares, and I'm embarrassed to tell Grandet, because I hid the truth from him from the beginning, and according to his temper, I will definitely be fired directly." So, I started experimenting with that liquid, trying to figure out how to make the same liquid myself, and to study materials that could withstand the corrosion of the liquid. ”

Dante asked, "How?" Can't even the flasks resist corrosion? ”

Hawking said: "Yes, the flasks will also slowly corrode through, and I keep changing the flasks, and I don't know how many flasks I have used up in the past four years." The vial itself was corroded and damaged at the same time as it leaked. ”

Dante asked, "And how did you find the material for this mechanical ball?" What kind of flattery is this? What is the composition of that liquid? ”

"Uh......," Hawking replied, "Master, I'll be honest with you. This mechanical ball and the liquid in it were not actually developed by me. ”

"Huh?" Dante was confused by his words and hurriedly asked, "Tell me, what's the matter?" ”

Hawking cleared his throat and said, "Actually, not long after I got the vial, two trolls came to the door. I thought they were coming to trouble, but they were here to help me! Thanks to them, I was able to create this mechanical ball to preserve liquids and small pieces. ”

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