Chapter 33: Des Town

It was deep winter. Des Town’s climate this year was unusually cold. Goose down snow had fallen for three days and three nights continuously.

Ace was eating breakfast while warming himself by the cozy fireplace in Hicks’s clinic. Over two months ago, Ace had thoroughly explained the estate’s development plan for the next two years to his mother, Marina. Carson was responsible for implementation, and Romon and Marina were to supervise.

He left a letter for his mother, instructing her to give it to his father, Romon, in the spring. In the letter, he requested Romon to sell the estate’s homemade alcohol and flour in the spring, and then move the printing house to the estate, asking Romon and Marina to look after the estate’s development for the next two years.

Afterward, he took a carriage south and arrived at Des Town, located in the southeastern part of the city-state. Des Town faces the sea to the east and is located in the central part of the city-state. Low-level Monsters occasionally appear here, and with a large population, it is the most populous area besides Medimus City.

Hicks is a famous physician here. Ace still remembered their first meeting.

“You are a city-state scholar? That badge looks real, but it doesn’t matter. You cannot work as an assistant in my clinic! You cannot!” Hicks refused with a serious expression.

“Dr. Hicks…” Ace tried to say something, but he was immediately interrupted.

“You have no recommendation from any famous physician. Traveling around to practice medicine is impossible. Even if you are a scholar, you must start as an apprentice.”

Ace looked at Hicks with a broad smile and said no more. He activated the Lesser Charm Creature spell card hidden in his black hooded robe.

The Mana in the air fluctuated, condensing into an invisible force that rushed toward Hicks, forming a flickering rune structure around his neck.

“But, you are my old friend, so of course, there is no problem at all. Welcome to my clinic, and welcome to be my assistant.”

In this manner, by relying on the Lesser Charm Creature spell, Ace easily gained Hicks’s trust and became his assistant. As long as he used Charm Creature on Hicks once every three days, he could freely do whatever he wanted.

Through Hicks, he had collected nearly 200 medicinal formulas and 300 common medicinal materials. After experimentation, 121 were effective symptomatic medicines, which Ace recorded in Materia Medica and Prescriptions, a book he was currently writing.

He also recorded and summarized common and special diseases, collecting them all in A Complete Explanation of Internal and External Diseases. These two books would be his main guiding references for future medical practice.

Hicks’s treatment methods were still the same as those of Physician Telos in the city-state. Many patients were treated without success and died in despair. By dissecting the corpses of dead patients, Ace quickly figured out the structure of the human body in this world, which was basically similar to his past life, and compiled his findings into the book Human Anatomy.

Ace’s arrival slowly changed things here. After two months, Hicks’s clinic’s treatment methods underwent a qualitative change. It was no longer amputation, bloodletting, and enemas, but diagnosis by inspection, auscultation, interrogation, and palpation, prescribing symptomatic medicine. Patients with complex conditions were kept for observation.

For patients who truly needed a part of their body tissue removed, Ace tried making a set of simple surgical instruments: copper scalpels, surgical clamps, surgical scissors, and surgical threads of different models. All instruments had to be sterilized at high temperatures and then placed in an enclosed room fumigated with Incense Grass (an otherworld insect-repelling herb) and disinfected with alcohol before surgery.

Ace established the basic surgical procedure: sterilization, anesthesia, surgery, suturing, and stopping bleeding.

After dozens of failures, he could already perform simple surgeries. Excising an appendix or suturing an Achilles tendon was no longer a problem. He performed specific classifications for surgeries, and all his experience was recorded in A Complete Explanation of Internal and External Diseases.

Although bloodletting was no longer necessary, Ace continued the practice to collect data on the blood conditions of this world, summarizing the blood type patterns. Progress was currently slow due to the lack of a microscope.

“Doctor! Doctor! My son fell while playing in the snow and can’t walk! Please come quickly!” A father anxiously knocked on the clinic door.

Ace quickly took a few bites of breakfast and opened the door. Heavy snow blew in. A man about 30 years old carried a boy of seven or eight and rushed into the clinic in a panic. Ace closed the door.

“Don’t worry. Put the child on the long bench, and I will examine his condition.”

“Young man, my child’s condition is very serious. Can you ask Dr. Hicks to come take a look?” The man pulled out a handful of Silver Thales from his pocket and covertly slipped it to Ace.

“I will check him for you first. That way, when Dr. Hicks arrives, he can diagnose the condition faster.” Ace gently accepted the Silver Thales, weighing them in his hand. About five or six coins—it was not a small amount.

“I am Hicks. This is my assistant, Ace. Don’t let his youth deceive you. In the past month, most of the patients with broken legs have been cured by him. I will check him with him shortly. Don’t worry.” Hicks came out from the back room, pulled the man aside, and seemingly took him away to pay the consultation fee.

Ace examined the injury and asked the boy about the details of his fall. He was basically certain it was an Achilles tendon tear.

“Prepare for surgery!” Several apprentices quickly stood up, carried the boy on a stretcher, and headed to the inner room.

The man had heard from others that Hicks had recently invented a treatment method called surgery, and many people with broken legs or cut hands had regained limb mobility after treatment. Although they were not as good as before, it was better than a lifelong disability.

The group entered the operating room. The smell of Incense Grass was strong in the room. The boy was a little restless. He only heard the words, “Give him the medicine,” and his nose was pinched as he was force-fed several mouthfuls of a bitter and numbing medicine. He quickly lost consciousness.

Ace looked at the boy under anesthesia. He washed his hands with wood ash and then wiped them with a cloth soaked in high-proof alcohol. The conditions were limited. When he returned to the estate, he could use alcohol distilled from high-proof liquor for sterilization.

The others had been charmed by Ace and were basically compliant. The surgery was soon completed. Ace somewhat clumsily sutured the boy’s left leg. After washing his hands, he and Hicks emerged from the operating room.

“You pay the hospitalization fee first. The child just had surgery and still needs supervision here for the removal of the stitches and to prevent post-operative infection. You don’t need to understand all that. Just come pick him up in three days.”

Hicks somewhat roughly drove the man away. The man wanted to say something but dared not offend the physician. He could only pay the money and turn to leave.

Ace stretched. He did not intend to change anything he saw. Although he had charmed Hicks, how to charge was still Hicks’s decision. Ace only needed a stable place to collect medicinal materials and formulas, record types of diseases, and practice surgery.

Now that he had basically collected all the local medicinal material samples and formulas, recorded the types of diseases, and his surgical skill was initially developed, it was time to leave. Ace planned to spend the next two years traveling across the Salia Peninsula, practicing medicine while hunting Monsters and collecting more runes. Since his medical skills were now rudimentary, there was no time to delay further.

Ace took a bag of Gold Thales from Hicks as compensation for his medical practice over the past few months.

When Hicks broke free from the charmed state, he might wonder why he allowed Ace to be his assistant and even gave him a bag of Gold Thales upon departure. However, the New Medicine philosophy and methods Ace left him with would be enough to benefit him for a lifetime, so Ace felt he was sufficiently justified in taking the bag of Gold Thales.