Raymond nodded hesitantly.
"Yes, it's quite possible."
"Ah!"
Their eyes grew wide as if they were about to burst.
"However, there is one thing that guardians must follow. Whatever treatment I give him, you must trust and follow it."
"...!"
It was an unexpected request.
But they nodded.
They were just waiting to die one day at a time anyway. As long as they could keep him alive in any way, they were in no position to pick and choose.
"I will. Healer. Please help my husband!"
Raymond nodded.
"I understand. Then prepare clean, hot water. It must be boiled as long as possible and then cooled."
"Yes, it will be ready in a moment."
"And make sure you have as clean and sharp of a blade as possible."
"Blade?"
The mother and daughter looked at each other strangely.
A blade to heal?
"Yes, heat it up."
"What the hell... what kind of treatment are you going to give him...?"
Raymond was silent for a moment.
He wondered what words he should use to describe this treatment.
He immediately thought of the right words.
"I'm going to give him surgery."
Surgery.
It was a term that was unfamiliar here in Leifentina, and one that would shake the very foundations of continent-wide healing methods in the not-too-distant future.
***
The preparations for the surgery were done quickly.
'I never thought I'd be doing surgery.'
In fact, this level of abscess drainage was a simple treatment that was embarrassing to call surgery.
Still, Raymond was thrilled to be standing in front of his patient.
[It's an arterial bleed. Stop the bleeding!]
[Get a good view! If you don't hurry, it will become an arrest!」
The scene he saw in his dream the other day flickered past him.
A sharp sense of urgency came over him as if he were the doctor in the dream.
"Well then, thank you, healer."
"Please help my father!"
The mother and daughter left the room, begging in trembling voices.
They had faith in Raymond.
But they couldn't hide their anxiety and frustration.
The life of their precious family member was at stake.
"I'll do my best."
Raymond felt their hearts and thought silently.
'Cold in the head, but hot in the heart.'
It was a phrase that was part of his knowledge of "general medicine."
He repeated that feeling that a healer should naturally have.
He polished the rough parts with the herbs he had brought from the clinic.
It was a herb with a paralyzing effect.
He also polished the incision site with herbs that had an antiseptic effect.
After that, he picked up the blade. He had a small blade that he had never used before, so he disinfected it with fire.
At first glance, it was a sword shaped like a primitive scalpel.
It was the moment when he could feel the blade in his hand.
His heart throbbed again.
'Open.'
Jjiik.
When the knife penetrated the skin, blood flowed down.
"...!"
He was prepared for it, but when he saw the bright red blood, he cringed.
'Wake up, Raymond!'
Raymond clenched his teeth and moved his hands.
As per the knowledge in "surgery."
The inflamed, red, swollen flesh was torn straight off.
As the blood flowed, a bright yellow liquid trickled out.
It was infected.
Raymond's hand moved incessantly.
With a clean cloth, he wiped away the pus and washed the inside of the abscess with boiled, sterile water.
He washed until he could no longer see the pus with the naked eye, and then he cut out the dead tissue one by one through the small knife.
'Focus. Don't make any mistakes.'
It was a simple procedure, but Raymond felt as if he had just undergone a major, life-saving open surgery.
He couldn't tell how time was passing, or how his hands were moving.
Sweat beaded on his forehead.
As he moved like a maniac, following the knowledge of surgery etched in his mind, the inner breath of the pus-rotting skin opened up.
'Good!'
Raymond was delighted to see it.
Fortunately, the procedure had been successfully completed.
It was still red and full of inflammation, but now that the cause had been removed, it should go away soon.
Raymond poured a potion made from the herbs he had prepared for the last time on the wound.
It was a medicinal herb that was supposed to be effective against infections and presumably contained "natural antibiotics" as Raymond guessed in light of his knowledge of "medicine."
After the easy surgery, Raymond walked out of the room and met the mother and daughter.
They were anxiously waiting for Raymond.
"W-What's going on, healer?"
Raymond let out a long sigh.
It was a sigh of relief that he finished the big event safely.
"Everything is fine."
"Ah!"
"His fever will start to go down now."
Tears welled up in the eyes of the mother and daughter.
"Thank you! Thank you so much!"
They bowed their heads, almost as if bowing.
Raymond shook his head in embarrassment at the expression of excessive gratitude.
"It's okay. I just did what I had to do. You don't have to do that too much."
However, the mother and daughter did not stop thanking him.
"What do you mean 'just something you had to do.' No one helped us like you did, healer."
"...!"
"I don't know how many treatment centers we've been to. They all just scolded us for not having enough money, and didn't even try to take care of my husband."
The middle-aged woman wiped away her tears.
"Thanks to the healer, I was able to save my husband. The healer has been a great help to our family."
It was the moment he heard the words.
Raymond's heart skipped a beat again.
It was a different kind of excitement.
Something warm filled his chest. It was an irresistibly tough feeling.
'This is...'
It was the first time he had experienced the joy of curing the sick.
It was the first time he had treated a patient in that way.
***
"... You treated the patient?"
Raymond was delighted to see the look of disbelief on Lance's face.
Finally, he'd given the bad luck jerk a shot!
"Yes, I just came back from checking that his fever was all gone. He is expected to fully recover in a few days."
"That's impossible!"
Lance hissed.
"Please don't tell me outrageous lies! What kind of cure did you use?"
It was a natural reaction.
By healing standards, an infection in the hip was an incredibly serious disease.
It was a condition that a B-class advanced healer could go and pour all their energy and heals into and still not get better, but he treated it?
'It's because of heal attributes.'
Heal was not a universal power that could quickly cure any disease with a simple touch of a hand, as in other stories in novels.
Here in Leifentina and the world, healing was a power that promoted life force.
Since it promoted vitality, it had a useful therapeutic effect on various diseases, but there were many diseases that it did not work on.
A typical example was the "hip abscess" that Raymond treated this time.
When pus was present, the pus had to be expelled, so what good was trying to promote vitality with healings? It was the height of inefficiency.
'It's not just hip abscesses. There are too many messed up treatments here in Leifentina.'
Raymond thought of it as 'medical' knowledge.
Healing was indeed a great power, but the problem was that it was overconfident.
Many diseases were useless when they promoted life force, but they just bathed them in healings and that was it.
They only worried about how to further refine healing and didn't do any serious research on other treatments.
"If you're lying to me..."
"I'm not lying."
Raymond began to speak carefully, looking at Lance's face.
"Perhaps it was a blessing from the heavens, but fortunately the treatment was successful."
"..."
Lance looked at Raymond with burning eyes.
'What's the point in glaring?'
Raymond shook his head quickly and stretched his shoulders, reflexively small due to his past of being bullied for being stupid. There was nothing wrong with him this time.
"I'll go and check it out in person, so please wait. If it's a lie, you'll have to pay the price, so be prepared!"
Slam!
Raymond shook his head as Lance walked out, slamming the door behind him.
'Anyways.'
If he went there in person anyway, he would find out that he was not lying.
Besides, it wasn't the impatient Lance's reaction that mattered now.
Raymond blinked. Then a message popped up in front of him.
[Quest complete!]
[You will be rewarded!]
[You will gain a level!]
[You will gain 10 skill points!]
[Level Up: When your experience exceeds a threshold, your level will increase. The higher the level, the higher the stats.]
[At level 40, you can upgrade your class grade.]
'Grade?'
[Class: Surgeon (SSS)]
[Occupational Grade: Novice Resident]
It seemed to be talking about the grade of this profession.
'So it's saying that the higher the level, the higher the grade? From novice resident to expert resident?'
Or so it seemed.
'So I'm at the resident grade now, so I can upgrade to specialist, professor, or something like that if my level goes up a lot later?'
At that moment, an additional message came to mind in addition to the quest compensation.
[You'll receive a special bonus for treating your first patient!]
[Your level will increase!]
Again, his level went up.
Then, the status window changed like this.
[Player Status]
Name: Raymond
Class: Surgeon (SSS)
Occupational Grade: Novice Resident
Level: 3
Experience: 10/50
Skill Points: 15
Title: Dirty Bastard
Auxiliary Occupation: Inactive
[Stats]
Physical Strength: 3
Senses: 2
Intellect: 17
??: 1
Extra Stat Points: 2
'Extra stat points?'
His level went up to three, creating what was called extra stat points.
'Can I get one more stat for every level up?'
He thought so.
'By the way, what's the value of this stat?'
Then a simple explanation came to mind.
[Physical strength: refers to the overall capacity of the body, including endurance, muscular strength, etc. If you have strong physical strength, you will be at an advantage when treating patients.]
[Sensation: The ability to fine-tune the body. The more sensitive your senses are, the more smoothly you can perform delicate movements when treating a patient.]
'Senses! That's the ability to help with surgery!'
Broadly speaking, physical strength was literally the physical ability of the body in general.
Sensation was like a delicate motor skill.
In other words, in order to improve his ability to perform surgeries that require delicate hand movements, he needed to increase his sensory stats.
'Using stat points, both with sensory enhancements.'
The other day, Raymond was in a greasy sweat because he couldn't move his hands as he wanted while doing the abscess procedure, so he immediately did a sensory stat.
He was going to invest in senses for a while, every time he went up a level.
'What is intellect?'
[Intellect: the ability to make the academic knowledge you have even more useful.]
'It's an ability to use your head. Because when treating patients, making accurate decisions with medical knowledge is just as important as surgery. What's the question mark?'
An explanation came to mind.
[??: Will not be released because the criteria have not been met. If certain criteria are met, it will be released.]
Raymond was wondering what the '?? stat' was. Surely the '?? stat' would also be a useful ability to treat patients. Raymond realized one thing at that moment.
'I need to raise my level! Only then can I become the best healer I can be.'
He had only one way to become a good healer, as he was a flunking talent below grade F.
To hone his skills as a surgeon.
In order to do that, he had to raise his level.
In other words, he had to see patients.
Raymond decided to do so and moved quickly.
First aid station.
In medical terms, it was an emergency room.
He had volunteered to work there, the number one place to avoid for healers, where all kinds of dangerous patients were flooding in.