Doctor Player

Chapter 3

Raymond nodded without hesitation. “Yes, he can be treated.”

They gasped with hope, their eyes going wide.

“However, there’s something you must do for me. I need you to trust in my treatment and follow my instructions.”

This was an unexpected request, but they nodded in acceptance. At this point, they’d resigned themselves to waiting for the man’s death, so they were in no position to be choosy if there was any way to save his life.

“We will, healer. Please save my husband!”

He nodded and said, “Then, please bring me some clean water boiled at high heat. It needs to be boiled as hard as possible, then cooled.”

“Yes, of course. We’ll prepare that right away.”

“I’ll also need a clean, sharp knife.”

“A knife?”

The mother and daughter looked puzzled. A knife? For treatment?

“Yes, one heated over the fire.”

“Exactly what kind of treatment... are you planning…?”

Raymond pressed his lips closed for a moment, thinking about how he should describe the treatment. The right word eventually came to him. “I’ll be performing surgery.”

Surgery. It was a term as yet unknown to Lepentina, but one that would not long from now shake the very foundation of patient treatment all across the continent.

***

The preparations were soon completed.

I can’t believe I’m performing surgery. Draining an abscess like this was technically too minor a procedure to be considered surgery, but standing in front of the patient now, Raymond’s heart felt like it might beat out of his chest.

“Arterial bleeding. Stanch the flow!”

“We need visibility! Hurry, or he’ll go into cardiac arrest!”

Scenes from his recent dream flashed through his mind. A sharp tension enveloped him, just as if he’d become one of those surgeons.

“Then... We’ll leave you to it, healer.”

“Please save my father!”

The patient’s family left the room with one last shaky plea. They had faith in Raymond, but they couldn’t hide their anxiety over the danger to their loved one’s life.

“I’ll do my best.”

Taking in the weight of their emotions, Raymond silently thought, Cool head, warm heart. It was a phrase that had been included in the knowledge granted by <General Medicine>. He mentally repeated to himself this slogan for the mindset a healer needed to embody.

First, he cleaned the afflicted area using herbs with a numbing effect he’d brought with him from the infirmary, then wiped the incision site with herbs used for disinfection. Then he picked up his blade—a never-before-used pocketknife resembling a primitive scalpel that the family had happened to have on hand, which he’d sterilized by heating it in fire. The moment he felt the knife in his hand, his heartbeat picked up its pace again.

Incision.

As the knife pierced the skin, a stream of blood began to flow from the wound. He’d been prepared for it, but seeing the deep red blood inevitably made him feel a little faint.

Get it together, Raymond! He gritted his teeth, forcing himself to hold the knife steady as he made a straight cut through the flesh swollen red with inflammation according to the principles imparted by his skill <Surgery>. As blood poured from the wound, a yellow substance followed, oozing from the same source. That was pus.

Raymond’s hands continued to move without pause, wiping away the pus filling the abscess with a clean cloth and flushing the site with boiled sterile water. He rinsed until he couldn’t see any more pus, then proceeded to meticulously slice away all the dead tissue with the knife.

Concentrate. Even the smallest mistake is unacceptable. Even though it was only a simple procedure, Raymond felt as much pressure as if he were performing a major life-or-death laparotomy. He lost track of time, moving his hands as if in a trance. Sweat dripped down his forehead as he focused on utilizing the knowledge engraved in his mind by <Surgery>.

At last, he managed to clear away the obstruction in the festering flesh. I did it! Raymond exhaled with relief at the sight, silently cheering inside. He’d managed to complete the treatment without issue. The area was still inflamed, but as its cause had been eliminated, the swelling was sure to settle down soon.

As his final step, Raymond applied a potion made from herbs he’d prepared beforehand onto the wound. As far as he could tell from his knowledge of medicine, these herbs that were known to be effective against infection likely contained natural antibiotics.

Having swiftly completed the surgery, Raymond stepped outside the room to meet the mother and daughter anxiously awaiting him.

“H-how did it go, healer?”

Raymond exhaled a long sigh of relief at safely completing a huge task. “It went well.”

The two let out a shared gasp at the happy news.

“The fever should start to go down now.”

Tears welled up in both the mother and daughter’s eyes.

“Thank you! Thank you so much!”

“Thank you!”

They bowed deeply, nearly prostrating themselves.

He shook his head, flustered by their excessive show of gratitude. “No need for that. I only did what I ought to. There’s no need to thank me.”

But the mother and daughter didn’t stop thanking him over and over again.

“What you ought to? But healer, no one else helped us the way you did today.”

Raymond was taken aback by the mother’s words.

“You can’t even imagine how many infirmaries we’ve been to. They all just told us off for not having enough money and didn’t even take a good look at my husband.” The woman wiped away the tears flowing down her cheeks. “Thanks to you, healer, my husband wasn’t lost to me. You are our family’s savior.”

At her words, his heart skipped a beat—a different kind of throbbing from before. An overwhelming warmth swelled in his chest, and he felt as if he might burst from it. So this is…

It was the joy of successfully healing a patient, his very first time experiencing such a thing.

And so, Raymond had treated his first-ever patient.

***

“You… cured the patient?”

Raymond felt a thrill run through him seeing Lance’s incredulous expression. He’d finally shown that smug little rat!

“Yes, I only returned after confirming his fever had broken. He should recover fully in a matter of days.”

“What nonsense!” Lance burst out. “How dare you tell such unbelievable lies? How could you have healed anyone with such pitiful power?”

His reaction was only natural. By the standards of healing, a gluteal infection was an incredibly serious condition. Even if a grade-B senior healer poured all their power into healing it, the results would still be up in the air, but here Raymond was claiming to have cured it.

It’s because of the inherent properties of healing. Unlike in storybooks, healing wasn’t an all-powerful cure that magically disappeared any disease with a single touch. In this world of Lepentina, healing was a power that boosted one’s vitality.

Although this was useful for combating many diseases, there were just as many it was entirely ineffective against. A classic example was the gluteal abscess that Raymond had just treated. If a patient was full of pus, what was the point of invigorating their body’s natural powers of regeneration instead of draining the site of infection? It was the epitome of inefficiency.

It’s not just gluteal abscesses, either. So many of the treatments used here in Lepentina are a complete mess. Raymond thought of his newly acquired medical knowledge. Healing was certainly an amazing power, but the problem was that too much confidence was placed in it. Though there existed many diseases that wouldn’t be helped by boosting the patient’s vitality, all anyone ever did was throw more healing at the problem. Everyone was only consumed with determining how to best refine and improve healing, paying no mind to researching alternative treatment methods.

“If you’re lying...”

“I’m not,” Raymond responded cautiously, keeping a wary eye on Lance’s temper. “By the grace of the heavens, I was fortunately able to finish the treatment successfully.”

Lance shot a fiery glare at Raymond.

What’s glaring at me going to change? Due to his past experiences of being scorned as incompetent, Raymond reflexively shrank back, then quickly shook his head and straightened his shoulders. He’d done nothing wrong this time.

“I’ll go and check for myself, so wait right here. Be prepared to pay the price if you are lying!”

Bang!

Raymond shook his head as he watched Lance storm from the room, slamming the door behind him. There he goes.

Once he checked for himself, he would see that Raymond hadn’t lied. Anyway, what was important right now wasn’t Lance’s petty reaction. He blinked, setting off a storm of messages before his eyes.

[Quest Completed!]

[Reward Issued!]

[Level Up!]

[You have earned 10 skill points!]

[Leveling up: When you have accumulated enough points, your level will increase. After leveling up, you can boost your stats (ability points).]

[When you reach level 40, you can upgrade your class rank.]

Rank? he thought.

[Class: Surgeon (SSS)]

[Class Rank: Novice Resident]

The message seemed to be referring to this class rank. So as my level increases, so will that rank? From Novice Resident to Skilled Resident?

That seemed to be the case. Then since I’m at resident rank right now, does that mean if my level increases a lot in the future, I can upgrade to specialist, or professor, or something like that?

Right then, another message appeared as part of the quest reward.

[Special bonus awarded in celebration of your first successful patient treatment!]

[Level Up!]

His level increased again, changing his status window.

[Player Status]

Name: Raymond

Class: Surgeon (SSS)

Class Rank: Novice Resident

Level: 3

Experience Points: 10/50

Skill Points: 15

Title: Filthy Bastard

Subclass: (Not Activated)

[Stats]

Health: 3

Attunement: 2

Intelligence: 17

??? : 1

Unused Stat Points: 2

Unused stat points? His level had increased to 3, and he had extra stat points now. Can I raise my stat points by 1 each time my level goes up? That seemed right. But what do these stats actually mean?

A simple explanation appeared in response to this thought.

[Health: This refers to overall physical abilities, including stamina and strength. Having robust health will be advantageous when treating patients.]

[Attunement: This is the ability to fine-tune your physical movements. The more sensitive your attunement, the more smoothly you can carry out precise motions in your treatment of patients.]

Attunement! So this ability helps with surgeries! At a glance, health seemed to pertain to overall physical abilities, while attunement affected fine motor skills. In other words, he needed to raise his attunement stat to improve surgical skills requiring precise movements.

Spend stat points to raise attunement ability by 2 points.

Remembering how he’d struggled because of his lack of dexterity while treating the abscess not long ago, Raymond immediately raised his attunement stat. He intended to invest in attunement every time he leveled up for the foreseeable future. What’s intelligence?

[Intelligence: It is the ability to use your existing academic knowledge more efficiently.]

So, a brainy ability. Right, making accurate judgments based on medical knowledge in the course of treatment is just as important as the surgery itself. But what’s with the question marks?

Another explanation popped up.

[??? : Locked due to unmet criteria. Can be accessed once the specific criteria are fulfilled.]

He was curious about the “???” stat. It had to be another ability helpful in treating patients. In any case, he realized one very important thing in that moment. I need to level up! That’s the only way I’ll become the greatest of healers.

There was only one way for a sub-F failure like him to succeed as a healer, and that was to hone his skills as a surgeon. To do that, he needed to level up, meaning he had to see patients.

With that in mind, Raymond immediately took action. He volunteered to be assigned to the almshouse, the number one place healers wished to avoid, as it was always swamped with all sorts of patients in critical condition—in medical terms, the emergency room.