176 Chapter 168 - Stickman's Aftermath.

Ben rushed to the end of the corridor, only to see Chris sat on the floor while leaned on the wall, he is holding his left chest, seems to be having difficulty in breathing, at his side is Sky who is unconscious and leaned on his shoulder. The hole leads to the underground had been totally sealed, all the foul aura had slowly cleared on its own.

"I had... put him to sleep... To prevent any further damage from the stickman worm..." said Chris, a bit lifeless.

Ben was in a daze for a second before reacts to the situation, he took up a tiny key pendant, sending three of them to the mini dimension that they used the day before.

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In the mini dimension, Ben is applying acupuncture on Chris's left arm and chest. Chris stared at an empty bottle on a table.

"You consume that drug again?" Chris asked with a disagreeing tone.

"I need to stay awake and focus when doing this complicated procedure after all." said Ben.

Chris sighed at Ben's answer and closed his eyes without saying anything.

"And a more complicated thing is coming up after this." said Ben while applying the last needle on Chris's bared left chest.

"What do you mean by that?" said Chris, with his eyes closed.

"I didn't bring any herbs or medicine that can use to remove those stickman worms from Sky, so I will need to go for a more brutal and direct way. But it can be quite risky as his nerve might get damaged in the process, so I will need you to remove the sleeping magic from him." said Ben while preparing for the tools and drugs that needed, including two bottles of unknown liquid.

Hearing this, Chris opened his eyes and look at Ben with a rather anxious look.

"You mean... You will need to do it when Sky is fully conscious?" Chris asked.

"And without anesthetic." said Ben, Chris nodded...

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Meanwhile, cathedral backroom, Dominic continues to ask Seito all sorts of personal questions about Chris, Seito answered most of the questions except for those which are too personal that Seito doesn't know or getting stopped by Itsuki. Then Dominic changed his target to Bob.

"You weren't originally the same group with them, right? Can you tell me how do you know each other?" Dominic asked.

Itsuki and Junior stared at each other as they know how serious this question can turn into.

"Oh! I asked his help to solve a scary monsterery trouble in our village." said Bob. Both Itsuki and Junior are in relief as they heard that over-exaggerated answer from Bob.

"Oh? What kind of issue is that?" Dominic asked, which put those two in tensed mode again, Itsuki is ready to use his reduced Eternal Sleep on Dominic.

"Monster?... Hmm?" As Dominic was going to continue the question, the clergy boy suddenly entered the room.

Dominic looked at him with a questioning and reprimanding look.

"My deepest apologies, Your Grace. I have some really emergency matters to inform." said the clergy boy, without any emotion. Dominic nodded and asked another person in clergy outfit to send Seito and the others back to the homestay before closing the door of the backroom.

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Mini Dimension. Ben carefully cut off the body of the stickman worms that dug into Sky's flesh with a pair of surgical scissors, leaving only the heads and torsos. Then, he took a scalpel, lightly cut through the flesh where the stickman's torsos held tightly on, in order to create a gap to remove it safely with a surgical forceps without causing damage to the nerve. Sky gritted his teeth as he endured the pain from the blade that sliced through his flesh. Chris turned his head away, he doesn't have the heart and gut that needed to see such a scene, despite many lives had been ended by him in his lifetime.

Fortunately, Ben's move is quick and accurate, he removed all of the torsos in about two minutes. Then, he proceeds to remove the head that located at Sky's forearm, he took a small drill and carefully drilled a small hole on the stickman worm's head, his movements are so fast that the stickman worm's head that is actually still alive did not realize that it gets drilled. Without giving any chance for the head to react, Ben took out a pair of syringes that contain the liquid from the bottles earlier, he injected one of the liquid into the drilled head of the stickman worm and the interior of it starts dissolving into the liquid on its own, when most of the head been dissolved, but not yet reached the end, he injected another tube of liquid that immediately dried up the first liquid, leaving an empty shell of the stickman worm's head.

Ben carefully removed the empty shell with the surgical forceps. Then, he stared at the remained stickman worm's head on Sky's back neck, he frowned as it's located directly on the top of Sky's spine. He sighed and hesitated for a while before chugged down another bottle of that teal-colored drug...

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After the stickman worms are completely removed, Sky had been put back to sleep again for the remaining process of treatment. In that short slumber, he had a weird and disturbing dream again.

In the dream, there's a group of ten stickmen that are holding hands with each other, forming a circle, and they are doing some weird dance that turned rounds and rounds around Sky, chanting some weird unknown phrase that sounds like some sorts of mantra...

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*Something out of the story

Sky: "Dear readers."

Chris: "Hmm?"

Sky: "As what Chris said. Right now, this story is free on the authorized platform, so please read it from authorized platforms as mental support for the writer."

Chris: "Mhm... There are two authorized platforms. One is webnovel.com. And another one is that messy and half-dead Weebly site that she uses for draft and backup... But not recommended."

Sky: "Ah... Haha. Yes, as Chris said."

Chris: "But look out, those scums might change this note to their own website link. So, be cautious.

Sky : "By the way, if the cover page is the old cover page that shows two stickmen, stop reading it, it's cursed and might caused the writer to stop writing."

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