Alien Knights

Handing over the affairs of Muxi Town to others, Todd buried himself in the small building of the laboratory.

Before officially starting to form the "Successor" army, there is one thing that needs to be confirmed first.

This is the carrying capacity of the human body to "Sutherland bacteria". In other words, if a large amount of "Sutherland bacteria" is injected into a normal human body, will it cause adverse reactions?

The rationale behind this question is that overuse of anything can cause negative effects, let alone the human body - such a delicate and balanced vehicle. To give some examples, such as ergotamine, triptan, and opioid drugs, excessive use of them will cause headaches of varying severity, muscle tissue spasms, neurological psychedelic vision, addiction and other reactions; another example is antibiotics, excessive use will lead to a decline in immune function in the body and promote the increase of bacterial resistance, resulting in the emergence of superbugs.

As far as Todd knows, there are only three people who have been artificially injected with Sutherland bacteria. One was himself, one was Huggins, and one was Edgar. As of today, none of the three had any adverse reactions. But the amount of "Sutherland Bacteria" injected by the three people was not much. Todd injected about 20 ml of bacterial liquid, while Huggins and Edgar injected less than 15 ml.

Then, the first thing to calculate is the number of bacteria contained in the bacterial liquid.

To confirm the number of bacterial colonies, it is necessary to use the plate count method (CFU count method, colony forming units) to detect "Sutherland bacteria". The specific method is to serially dilute the one milliliter bacterial sample obtained in the volcanic environment culture bottle with sterile physiological saline, take a suitable dilution (generally 3 dilutions), inoculate it on the plate by coating method, and directly count the colonies on the plate after culturing for a certain period of time. This method can determine the number of live microorganisms that can be cultured in the sample of "Sutherland bacteria", so this method is also called "viable count method" by microbiology.

Todd finally detected that the unit density of the "Sutherland Bacteria" obtained in the volcanic environment culture bottle was about 170cfu/ml (note that this refers to the number of colonies, not the number of bacteria). After conversion, Todd injected 3400 units (170×20) of "Sutherland Bacteria" with colonies, and Huggins and Edgar injected 2550 (170×15) units of colonies.

So here comes the problem.

Digging... What is the maximum number of Sutherland colonies that the human body can carry?

Todd devises a drug tolerance experiment. The general idea is as follows, inject "Sutherland Bacteria" into the mice, and observe the maximum drug tolerance of the experimental subjects. Then according to the tolerance ratio of humans and animals, the bacterial tolerance of the human body is calculated.

What is the tolerance ratio?

Tolerance to the same drug varies greatly between humans and animals. Generally speaking, the tolerance of animals is greater than that of humans, that is, the dosage per unit weight of animals is often several times or even dozens of times that of humans. Therefore, the dosage of human medicine is converted into the dosage of animals, generally as follows: the dosage of human medicine is assumed to be 1 unit, that of mice and rats is 25-50 times, that of rabbits and guinea pigs is 15-20 times, and that of dogs and cats is 5-10 times.

The experiment officially started. Todd selected 5 mice, who were similar in age and weighed roughly 20 grams. The 170cfu/ml Sutherland bacterial solution was diluted tenfold to 17cfu/ml, and the bacterial solution was injected once a day, with a dose of 1 ml each time.

On the 9th day, after 9 injections of the bacterial solution (a total of 9 ml, 153 Sutherland colonies), the mice showed anorexia, vomiting, and low vitality.

On the 11th day, after 11 injections of the bacterial solution (a total of 11 ml, 187 Sutherland colonies), the mice developed epilepsy and convulsions.

On day 15, after 15 injections of the bacterial solution (15 ml total, 255 Sutherland colonies), the first mouse died after 7 hours and the second after 11 hours.

After necropsy and pathological tests on the mice, the experimental subjects mainly died of nerve infection caused by germs.

It seems that "Sutherland Bacteria" is not used randomly, and the wanton abuse of super large doses will cause unpredictable and serious consequences to the host.

Next, we set out to calculate the upper limit of human tolerance. The mice showed symptoms on the 9th day and were injected with 153 Sutherland colonies. Calculated according to the tolerance ratio between humans and mice, 153 divided by 37.5 (the median value of the interval) was approximately equal to 4.

The weight of a mouse is 20 grams (0.02 kg), and the weight of an ordinary human man is 75 kg. The weight ratio of the two is 1:3750, and the tolerance of the Sutherland colony of an ordinary man is 15,000 (4×3750). That is, once there are more than 15,000 Sutherland colonies in the human body, pathological symptoms will appear.

According to Todd's internal conditions, 3400 Sutherland colonies can suppress 3 kinds of abilities, then after conversion, 15000 Sutherland colonies can suppress 13 kinds of abilities, and then make conservative adjustments, and a 75 kg adult man can have about 10 kinds of abilities at the same time.

Through the tolerance experiment of Sutherland bacteria, Todd finally came to the following conclusions:

A 75 kg man was used as a control.

1. The upper limit of Sutherland bacteria that humans can tolerate is 15,000 colonies (this level may cause pathological symptoms). If the density of Sutherland bacteria liquid is 170cfu/ml, the maximum injection volume is 88.25ml.

2. Once humans are injected with more than 15,000 Sutherland colonies, they will develop neuroinfection caused by bacteria. The initial symptoms are anorexia and dullness, the mid-term symptoms are epilepsy, and the late symptoms are neuron degeneration until death.

3. The upper limit for human beings to accommodate abilities is 13. If it is safe, it is conservatively estimated to be 10.

In a word, if a human being is transformed into a "successor", it can carry up to 10 kinds of abilities. If this number exceeds this number, there is a possibility of causing disease.

After determining the upper limit of abilities that the "Successor" can carry, the next step is to determine what abilities should be carried.

Todd made a statistic. After repeated testing and screening, there are currently 18 effective and usable abilities in the "Ability Library", which are divided into three categories according to the type of ability.

Elemental Attacks:

『Flame Breath』, 『Freezing』, 『Acidic Blood』, 『Sonic Shock』, 『Weakness』

Physical Enhancement Department:

"Perspective", "Night Vision", "Eagle Eye", "Resist Pain", "Regeneration", "Speed", "Underwater Breathing", "Hands and Feet"

Metamorphic Mimics:

"Metal Skin", "Limb Enlargement", "Chameleon Camouflage", "Stone Fist", "Blood Mark"

What Todd needs to consider now is, from these 18 kinds of abilities, which abilities should be extracted and injected into the 13 "successors" headed by Huggins?

The selected criteria are as follows:

1. Try to choose abilities that are not obvious in the form of expression. After all, an ability that is too flamboyant will expose the identity of a different species and attract attacks from the church and the secular world. Therefore, the abilities of the elemental attack system cannot be selected.

Second, it should adapt to the combat style of the Knights. Considering that the terrain around Muxi Town is mostly plains, the group charge of heavy armored knights will be used as the main means of combat. Therefore, in the selection of abilities, more charge and protection abilities should be selected.

3. Pay attention to the number of abilities, and leave space for the later stage. A "Successor" has a limit of 10 abilities, but if all 10 abilities are loaded now, once a better ability appears in the future, it will not be able to be erased or replaced. After all, Todd does not have any way to remove the alien ability in the body.

After thinking about it again and again, Todd finally selected three alien abilities for the 13 "successors", which are "regeneration", "resistance to pain", and "metal skin".

In addition to this team, Todd also plans to equip them with a scout——Edgar. In addition to the "speed" that the opponent already has, he plans to inject the abilities of "night vision" and "hawk eye" into the scout.

After making the above decision, Todd found these 14 people and held a meeting in the side hall of the church, presented his plan to them, and explained some of the processes and risks.

He wasn't worried about Huggins and Edgar, but it was the 12 former subordinates of Huggins that made him a little bit embarrassed. Because these people are not aliens, they are all normal people who are fake. Letting them undergo bacterial transformation is an order beyond the normal range in terms of emotion and reason.

To Todd's surprise, after hearing his words, 12 sergeants expressed that they could receive the injection immediately.

After repeated confirmation by the priest, the sergeants still insisted on their opinions.

Finally, these 14 people received the bacterial transformation of "Successor" in three days. Except for one sergeant who had a strong rejection reaction when receiving the "Sutherland bacteria", but fortunately he was not seriously injured after timely treatment.

So far, including 1 (former) knight, 12 (former) sergeants, and 1 (new) scout, the first combat team of the Muxi Knights was formally established.

After handling this matter, Todd instructed Huggins to start recruiting farmers, soldiers and believers in Muxi Town. In peacetime, farmers and soldiers are mainly responsible for the management and operation of the Knights' teaching property; in wartime, they are mainly responsible for material transportation, and sometimes they are also responsible for cleaning up remnants and cleaning the battlefield. The believer group is generally the basic military force of the church organization. They are composed of devout catechumens. Under the leadership of the church knights, they usually carry out combat skills training and formation arrangement;

After finishing these matters, the time has come to the end of September and the beginning of October in 1170. It is less than two weeks since the Papal Council and the official edict of the Muxi Knights.

On this morning, Todd was walking on the streets of Muxi Town, watching Joe and the monks measure the red line of the land and the distance between houses, while discussing the street planning and building layout with the craftsmen headed by old Aiden; Huggins and the sergeants led a group of 68 catechumens, and carried out basic formation training in the open space not far away; Alfonso was carrying out physical training with great difficulty on the distant hills, holding a big sword.

And Todd himself, according to the agreement, came to the dining table on the first floor of Rachel and Karin's "sister hotel" on the first day of opening, looked at the dazzling array of dishes on the menu, touched his dry stomach, and thought about what to eat, when a figure stumbled in from the door.

Todd raised his head and took a closer look, and it turned out to be Edgar, a cute new scout with a panicked face.

"Cavalry! A lot of cavalry are coming up to the town!"

Hearing his words, Todd quickly put down the menu in his hand, stepped out of the store, walked to the square, and looked into the distance along the street. Using the ability of "Eagle Eye", Todd clearly saw more than 20 heavily armed Silver Ring Knights running towards Muxi Town on the plain.

When Todd saw this scene, the first thought in his mind was—are these people crazy?

The army of the secular kingdom broke into the territory of the church without permission. Could it be that someone is so arrogant that he is an enemy of the entire church?

When the team got closer, Todd saw something strange. The old knight in charge had white beard and hair, was covered in blood, and had a few arrows stuck in his armor. He looked like Baron Cumberland, and there was another person sitting behind him. Todd tried his best to distinguish, the person seemed to be a young woman, wearing a luxurious court dress.

When Todd saw who the woman was, he involuntarily gasped.

queen mary...