After the brief interlude, Andrew and Caesar began checking the physical condition of everyone present. Over half an hour of exposure had left the workers' faces a bit pale, but most hadn't yet reached the point of showing symptoms of Ether corruption.
Out in the Outer Ring, anti-corruption agents simply didn't exist. Inside a Hollow, all you could do was tough it out with your own innate Ether resistance.
The dozen or so people who had followed Andrew and Caesar, however, were in relatively good shape, some even having a healthy flush on their faces.
Of course, this wasn't because these workers found by Andrew and Caesar had better Ether adaptability; it was because of Andrew's presence.
Don't forget, Andrew could convert the ambient Ether energy into Dragon Element energy—a force teeming with powerful life essence and beneficial to humans. This ability made Andrew act like a walking air purifier inside a Hollow, gradually lowering the Ether concentration in his immediate vicinity.
But no matter how strong one person was, it was impossible to completely absorb all the Ether energy within a Hollow. As Ether from other areas constantly flowed in to replenish what was lost, the reduction wasn't significant enough to directly lower the Ether's activity to the point of actually weakening it.
This meant the ability had no particularly powerful effect on him personally. After all, to Andrew, a Hollow was just an ordinary area that didn't even warrant a special drink.
However, while it was useless for Andrew, it was a completely different story for the ordinary people traveling with him.
The imperceptible but very real decrease in activity made all the workers who had been staying here feel the oppressive weight on their chests lighten somewhat, and the negative emotions brought on by the Hollow's corruption also diminished considerably. Unable to detect changes in Ether activity, the workers just assumed their minds were relaxing after seeing so many other survivors, and that, combined with the earlier exhilarating fight, was what had lifted their spirits.
But before they could even breathe a full sigh of relief, a sudden, violent coughing fit shattered the calm.
Andrew turned his head and saw it was the young man with the worst complexion, the one who had been in the safe zone since they arrived. Not only was his face extremely pale, but he had been huddled in a corner the whole time, hugging his knees, looking utterly dejected as if he had completely lost hope.
Rushing over to him, Andrew immediately went to check his condition. But as soon as he turned the man around, he saw fine Ether crystals already forming on his face.
This was not a good sign. Or rather, the situation had already become critical.
Although the intensity of the corruption had lessened, it had never stopped. Andrew's presence had only slowed the process.
Having learned a great deal about Hollows from the constant explanations from the siblings, Andrew immediately realized this young man's Hollow resistance was worryingly low, and he was already starting to show symptoms of corruption.
At this rate, even with Andrew present, the young man would be completely transformed into one of the Hollow's the Corroded in about thirty minutes, tops. And without Andrew, that time would shrink to a mere twenty minutes—a full quarter faster.
And that was under ideal circumstances. At that point, never mind the young man's own life; once he turned into a the Corroded, the lives of everyone in this safe zone would be forfeit.
Given the young man's condition, and with no Proxy around, the most logical and convenient option seemed to be to take him out of the safe zone while he was still human and abandon him to the Hollow.
But if he did that, Andrew wouldn't be a Hunter.
As it happened, he had been wanting to test if a Nulberry would have any effect on Hollow corruption symptoms.
He took a Nulberry from the item pouch he always kept stocked and brought it to the young man's lips. While helping him up and pushing the fruit into his mouth, Andrew prepared for the worst.
If it didn't work, then the mission to eliminate the Hollow's boss and clear out this disaster would simply gain a twenty-minute time limit.
It would be tough, but being a Hunter was all about making the impossible possible, right? Still, it would obviously be better if he didn't have to add that time limit.
Andrew didn't stop.
The young man, who had been suffering from the corruption just moments before, suddenly felt his mouth being blocked.
Opening his eyes, he saw Andrew shoving a uniquely shaped, unfamiliar blue fruit into his mouth and immediately began to struggle.
But the corruption symptoms left him feeble, and Andrew forced it into his mouth with little effort. He was like a dog having its muzzle held and jaw pried open to be fed medicine.
After tossing the fruit straight to the back of his throat, Andrew didn't wait for a reaction and immediately clamped the man's mouth shut. With the reflexive swallow that comes from an object blocking the throat, the Nulberry went right down.
The young man flailed a couple of times like a fish out of water, but against Andrew's iron-like grip and his own powerless body, he gave up the struggle and went completely limp like a salted fish.
But to his utter astonishment, as the strange fruit settled in his stomach, the constant pain that had been wracking his body from the corruption instantly vanished.
It was as if... he had never entered the Hollow at all.
Watching the young man stare in shock at his completely recovered body, Andrew nodded in satisfaction.
His theory had been correct. A Nulberry, which could cure elemental blights, could indeed cure an Ether-based elemental blight. The gray crystals that had completely vanished from the young man's face were all the proof he needed.
Meanwhile, Caesar, who had been standing beside Andrew watching the whole display, found her jaw had practically hit the floor.
The things Andrew pulled from his pockets always managed to challenge her perception and worldview, making her wonder if all the common sense she'd ever known was just a lie.
First, there was the potion that could pull someone back from the brink of death. Then, there were the insects that could track footprints.
And now he could just casually pull out a fruit and cure the Ether corruption symptoms that left everyone else completely helpless?
This was Ether corruption! The only way to deal with it was to leave the Hollow before it was complete, but even that just stopped it from getting worse!
After leaving the Hollow, the after-effects of the corruption would linger for a lifetime, impossible to heal. And yet, this incurable condition was just... solved by a tiny fruit?!
At that moment, Caesar finally, truly started to believe that these were things Andrew had developed himself. Because if these were things developed by one of the research institutes under TOPS, then given the nature of those megacorporations, there was no way they wouldn't have been monetized and sold as products.
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