Pandora Unchained B1C24 - Nostalgia

Sorin rose bright and early the morning after his assessment. His body was full of mana, and his limbs were bursting with strength. He had a quick breakfast with Percival before heading out to the Kepler Clan’s clinic, where the Adventurers Guild was busy assembling a tent structure of their temporary medical clinic. Despite the fanfare, however, the people lined up for treatment at the clinic didn’t show the slightest interest in lining up at the temporary tent. .

Most of the patients present were cultivators. Due to the proximity of the outpost to Bloodwood Forest, absorbing corruption into one’s body was inevitable. There was also a small portion of non-cultivators suffering from similar symptoms. In their case, the absorption was due to physical contact with objects charged with demonic energy.

The medical tempt was fully assembled well before 7 o’clock. Its material, beds, and cupboards were fully sterilized, and there were cupboards full of medicinal ingredients, syringes, and mithril medical equipment.

It would be difficult to obtain these things in such quantities in such a short amount of time without paying an extravagant price. But since this was politics, these costs had been absorbed the local guild and the larger guild supporting it.

Three individuals in mages robes greeted Sorin as he entered the tent. “Greetings, Sorin Kepler,” said the lead mage. “We’re 1-star life mages hired jointly by the Adventurers Guild and the Mages Guild to assist you today. My name is Leffen, and these two are my associates, Elise and Marlyn.” Those two were the ones being charged by the medical association.

There was also a handful of assistants in the tent. Of note was Janice, someone who hadn’t yet received her qualification as either a life mage or an adventurer. Regardless of their talent, however, they all had something in common: life mana. Life mana was useful, even if the wielder was dumb as rocks and couldn’t control their mana flow.

“It seems Assessor Haley wasn’t exaggerating when she mentioned the Medical Association was making it hard on life mages, given the size of this clinic,” Sorin said to Leffen.

“They’re despicable scum that make it difficult for people to save lives,” said Leffen. “While I have great respect for individual physicians like yourself and Physician Lim, a few greedy individuals and their cliques have basically taken over the Medical Association and make it difficult for us life mages to make a difference.”

“I’m not a physician,” Sorin corrected. “In fact, you could argue that I’m the opposite of a physician.”

“Words are words, and actions are actions,” said Leffen.

“Just so,” said Sorin. “Does the Adventurers Guild have anything else to prepare?”

“There’s just one last thing,” said Leffen. “Marlyn? The sign?”

“Right!” said Marlyn. She rushed out back and pulled out a large white board. It bore the words:

Temporary Medical Relief Center: Courtesy of the Adventurers Guild and the Mages Guild

Commoners received free treatment!

Reasonable rates for cultivators of all background!

Staff on Duty:

Sorin Kepler, 1- Anti-Poison and Anti-Corruption Specialist

Leffen Woodrow, Senior Life Mage, 1-Star

Elise Firebringer, Intermediate Life Mage, 1-Star

Marlyn Watchmaker, Junior Life Mage, 1-Star

Disclaimer: The Temporary Medical Relief Center operators with a staff of adventurers and mages, and as a result, cannot provide official prescriptions or a professional diagnosis.  Treatment will be provided to the best of their limited abilities. The Temporary Medical Relief Center is intended to provide emergency medical services in response to the overwhelming demand for medical services and the inability of local physicians to cope with this demand. The Temporary Medical Relief Center does not intend to supplant local physicians and will shut down once local clinics adapt.

“They’re being very cagey about all this,” said Leffen. “We’ve provided emergency relief before, but never with such pageantry and legal disclaimers.”

“That’s politics for you,” said Sorin. “It changes everything it touches. But let’s not concern ourselves with that and provide whatever serves are within our capabilities. We’ll charge reasonable rates for our services, and by reasonable, I mean lower than the current rates set by the medical association for rural patients.

It was also important to remember that their goal was to fight back against the medical association’s encroachment in a tit-for-tat manner. They wanted to be territorial with life mages and withhold services to retaliate once that didn’t go well? Fine. The Adventurers Guild and Mages Guild would eat their dinner. Exactly how the local physicians would react was up in the air. But one thing was clear: this was a provocation they couldn’t ignore for very long.

“Looks good,” said Sorin, giving Marlyn a thumb’s up. “Put up the sign and let’s have our security team shout it out periodically for advertisement.”

“You want them to shout?” asked Leffen. “In front of a clinic? Isn’t that a bit rude?”

Sorin shrugged. “How else are we going to get their attention?” With that, he retreated to a desk in the corner of the room and started brainstorming potential poisons.

***

It was several hours later when Sorin finally received his first patient. A tall man coughed as he stumbled towards Sorin’s desk, looking pale and gaunt.

“They say you’re a poison master?” said the simply dressed man, taking a seat in front of Sorin’s desk. His hands trembled as he wiped away a trace of white phlegm from his mouth.

“I believe the words they used was anti-poison and anti-corruption specialist,” said Sorin. “But Poison Master has as nice ring to it.”

“We’ll I’ve been poisoned,” said the man. “And no one will believe me. They say I just have cold, but… colds just don’t last that long. And every doctor I’ve been to say there’s no infection.”

Sorin put away the stack of calculations he’d been working on and observed the man. His skin was pale, and light spots could also be seen on his sleeveless arms. Moreover, the skin on his arms was wrinkled, a symptom of atrophy.

“You were a strong man, weren’t you?” asked Sorin, nodding towards his arms. “The calluses on your hands and the powerful veins on your wrists and forearms indicate previously strong musculature. You’re not just sick – you’ve been wasting away for several months without knowing what’s ailing you.”

He cut off as the man started coughing and continued coughing several dozen times before revealing blood in his spittle. “I just don’t know what to do,” the man said. “The doctors say it’s not an infection, that there’s nothing they can do.”

“Let me have a look and see if there’s anything to be done,” Sorin reassured. He led the patient over to a bed and closed the privacy screen. “Shirt and pants off. You can keep your underwear. I want to see if there’s any other wounds or symptoms I might be missing.”

The man did as instructed and sat on the bed. Sorin placed a hand on his chest and used his spiritual strength to test his breathing. “Breathing is normal. Heart function is good. Mana flow is blocked, but you’re not a cultivator, so that’s normal. You’re a farmer then? Why the mismatched clothes?”

The man winced. “Farmers have a harder time getting seen at a clinic, I’ve been told. So every time I go to the doctor’s, I dress up as a town worker.”

“I don’t ever recall seeing you at my clinic,” said Sorin.

“I always went to Physician Lim’s clinic,” said the man. “Most of us farmers go see him, since he’ll see a certain number of non-cultivators every day for a lost price. It’s been the same for the past 30 years.”

“But now you don’t have the coin,” said Sorin. “So here you are.”

“It’s not so much that I don’t have the coin, but that Physician Lim doesn’t have the time,” said the farmer. “Physician Lim is understanding. He won’t charge someone if they can’t afford it. But problem is, there’s too many people lined up every day. And since you stopped your practice, its only gotten worse.”

“Hm...,” said Sorin, taking his hand off the man’s chest. “You must have been working at the fringes of the bloodwood. There’s nothing wrong with your internal organs, strictly speaking, but your hands are so heavily corrupted that its starting to affect your other organs. Your heart and longs sound fine, but they’re actually all unperforming. And I know the corruption is localized in your hands because your legs are still quite strong.”

“Then… you don’t need to amputate them, do you?” said the man, frightened at the prospect. “Those are my hands. They’re how I make a living!”

“There’s no need to amputate,” said Sorin. “Just wait here and you’ll see improvement shortly.” He went to fetch a set of crystal needles, a cup of water, and a pack of white powder. “Its cowbane grass seed, ground up,” Sorin said to the man as he poured the white powder into the water. “Its poisonous to most animals and to humans. Very poisonous against lesser demons. And no, you’re not drinking it. I am.”

To the man’s horror, he downed the cup of poison and winced as it worked its way down his throat. The five poisons in his body immediately came to his defence.

Unfortunately, imbibing the poison didn’t greatly enhance the quality of his mana, nor did it increase his cultivation. But by assimilating the poison, he was now able to generate it on demand. Sickly green mana appeared on his hands and poured into a crystal needle, which he then inserted into the farmer’s leg.

“Unfortunately, this is going to sting quite a bit,” explained Sorin as he continued inserting needle after needle into the man’s thigh, then into his torso, and finally into his arms.  “The corruption is set in deep, and we need to chase it out of the rest of your body and into your arms before pulling it out of your hands, one of the most sensitive parts of your body.”

He pricked the man’s finger, drawing a trickle of blood into an empty pan. At first, it was only red blood, but as Sorin placed more needles, the blood gradually turned black. He repeated the process with all the meridians connected to the man’s arms until finally, only red blood flowed. By then, the man was even paler than before, and on the verge of fainting.

“Blood replenishing concoction,” said Sorin, holding out a hand. One of the assistants came over and gave it to him. “Drink this. Anyone can get a blood replenishing potion at the Alchemist’s Guild without a prescription, so if you find you need another, you can go buy one. Mortal-grade potions are cheap.” The man drank the potion, and his face flushed red as a new blood was created.

“My hands…” said the man as he placed down the vial. “They’re not shaking!”

“And they won’t for a while, assuming you take the right precautions,” said Sorin. “Wear the demonbane gloves the outpost provides next time you do fieldwork. Not only do they not make you any less of a man, but they’ll also stop such a problem from reoccurring in the future.”

“Thank you, Physician Sorin!” said the farmer.

“I’m no physician,” said Sorin, shaking his head. “I’m just a man who’s good at treating poisons.” By the time he escorted the man to the entrance, another patient was ready and waiting.