A Hospital in Another World?

Old Hunchback ended up in Garrett Nordmark’s hands.

Strictly speaking, he was kept in a state of imprisonment, carried along with his chair into the Refuge Hut conjured by Seraina. This spell, known for its low consumption and significant utility, is consistently recommended in the council’s "Advanced Compulsory: Third-Level Magic" syllabus, which is revised and republished annually.

In Garrett’s plan, this spell’s learning priority is even higher than that of flight or fireball spells, essentially making it the first in the sequence of third-level magics. Unfortunately, he hasn’t advanced to a fifth-level mage yet, so for now, the task of constructing a makeshift operating room falls to Seraina.

Seraina summoned a floating disc, and Bernard placed Old Hunchback and his chair onto it, slowly rotating the disc at the edge; Elder Gushan, the village head of Redstone Village known as "White Wolf" Wolfgen, stayed far away, barely daring to breathe;

Meanwhile, Garrett, clutching a thick, hardcover book, muttered to himself while sketching and writing at the edge of the floating disc:

"High density... medium density... low density... high, medium, medium, high, low... turn it! Ah, too much, come back! — Stop moving, let me continue... low, low, low, medium, high, medium..."

The pages were filled with densely packed grids, which he filled haphazardly, resulting in a messy sprawl. After completing one page, he moved on to the next, soon breaking out in a fine sweat on his forehead.

"Garrett..."

"Shh!"

Garrett instinctively silenced the interruption. Wiping his forehead, he sighed at the notebook that only had two pages filled:

This is hard...

Challenging a computer with manual efforts, is this task too daunting after all?

But you must persevere, Garrett! The daunting task of developing mushroom bombs was achieved through manual calculations and abacuses, let alone the simplest CT! Keep at it, summarize the formulas, verify them, and then—

You can return them to the Tower Spirits!

Keep going, Garrett!

He meticulously recorded from one angle after another. Recording, compiling, calculating... Poor Old Hunchback remained motionlessly imprisoned in his chair, his face turning from red to pale, then from pale to blue, and back to red, unable to utter a sound. It was Garrett who noticed his distress and asked Seraina to release the head restraint, asking:

"What’s wrong?"

"This... that..."

Old Hunchback twisted his neck back and forth, glancing repeatedly at the silver dragon girl, refusing to utter a word. Garrett suddenly realized:

"Seraina! Can you step out for a bit?"

"Why?"

"Just do as I say! Step out for a moment, and come back in when I call for you!"

Garrett signaled desperately with his eyes, blinking so hard it almost hurt, until Seraina reluctantly moved out of the Refuge Hut. Old Hunchback finally breathed a sigh of relief, saying urgently:

"I can’t hold it anymore!"

What... Even if I knew how to release the imprisonment spell, if you went to the bathroom and came back, wouldn’t all the CT work I’ve done be for nothing?

"Can you hold it?"

"I can’t!"

Sorry about this, Garrett sweated. In the hospitals of his previous life, a CT scan of the head took only a few seconds, and a chest CT only about ten seconds. Even enhanced CTs or scans of multiple areas, including the time to get on and off the scan bed, took at most twenty minutes. But now?

It seems, perhaps, an hour has passed? And I’m only halfway through my recordings?

I am not skilled enough, my apologies.

It’s not good to force yourself if you can’t hold it. But dealing with it directly on the chair, Garrett worried that if Seraina came back and smelled that, she might not kill the patient but would certainly kill him first...

Forget it. He casually summoned a seed, channeling the power of nature. Green vines snaked towards Old Hunchback, weaving through the magical restraints. Soon, the old man screamed:

"Don’t come any closer ahhhhhhh!"

I’m sorry, I didn’t want to do this... I’ll try to record faster in the future and remind patients to go to the bathroom before a CT...

Not long after, Garrett, carrying a bag wrapped in green leaves, quietly stepped out of the Refuge Hut and then back in. Returning to his spot, he refocused and resumed manually recording the CT signals.

After nearly another hour of work, he finally completed recording information from various positions. Garrett squatted at the side, calculating furiously for who knows how long, until he managed to compile all the records onto a single spreadsheet, then manually sketching the CT image based on the data in each

cell.

"Umm... something still seems off..."

Garrett frowned deeply at the hand-drawn CT image. Observing with the naked eye (and mental visualization), the accuracy was despairingly low. A sheet filled with varying shades of blurry squares, like a heavily pixelated image, made it nearly impossible to discern whether there was a perforation in the esophagus or damage to the aorta.

Ah... I really wish I could contract a phantom right now... With a phantom’s eyes, I could directly see the internal situation, making CTs and MRIs irrelevant!

"Garrett, what’s wrong?"

Seraina peeked over his shoulder. Garrett’s hand-drawn image showed a large circle with two bright spots on the sides and several shadows of varying opacity in the middle. Where was the trachea? The blood vessels? And the spoon stuck in the esophagus that Garrett mentioned—where was it exactly?

"This image represents a horizontal section of the human body at a certain level. Imagine slicing the body horizontally to reveal a certain plane—imagine! Imagine!!!"

He sweated bullets, stopping Seraina’s eagerly moving hand. Although he knew she was a good dragon who wouldn’t cut someone open without reason, her gestures still made him uneasy:

"On this level, looking from the back forward, the spine is at the very back, followed by the esophagus, then the trachea, with the blood vessels running alongside the trachea and esophagus. So, it’s clear that there’s an extra shadow in the esophagus, bulging towards the direction of the blood vessels..."

"Where?"

"Er, it’s still not very clear..."

64-row CTs would be needed for a clear image! My mental visualization, in terms of accuracy, probably can’t even compare to a single-row CT...

Despite such pitiful accuracy, Garrett still managed to draw a conclusion. Holding the hand-drawn CT image, he summoned the Silent Phantom, explaining to Old Hunchback:

"The esophagus is definitely damaged, and there might even be a perforation. How do you feel now? Like there’s something in your chest? Pain? Difficulty swallowing? That’s because it’s stuck. But since there’s no coughing, phlegm, vomiting blood, or breathing difficulties, it means the object hasn’t punctured the trachea, and the major blood vessel connected to the heart isn’t bleeding heavily."

Pointing to the phantom image in front of him, he simplified the explanation as much as possible. However, the more he spoke, the paler Old Hunchback’s face became, eventually looking like he was about to faint:

"Your Excellency, Reverend, please decide how to treat this! I’ll listen to you! Whatever you say, I’ll follow! Even if it means opening up my chest to remove the object, I’ll listen to you!"

"Nonsense!" Before Garrett could respond, Elder Gushan already shouted in rebuke:

"Your Excellency, are you a Necromancer?!"

Garrett: →_→

Though I’m not a Necromancer, something about that comment feels odd...

Ahem, there’s no need for a thoracotomy, at least not in the current situation. If Garrett had encountered such a complicated esophageal foreign body when he first started working, it indeed might have required opening the chest. But now, with esophagoscopy, thoracoscopy, and possibly an aortic stent graft as a backup, everything can be resolved.

The surgery would be quick, with minimal intraoperative bleeding and fast recovery. Unless treatment is sought too late, when the interior is perforated, inflamed, purulent, and adhered too close to the aorta, making it impossible to remove with endoscopy, there’s really no need for major surgery.

After all, isn’t the advancement of medical technology meant to benefit patients?

"It’s not as terrible as it sounds." He smiled reassuringly at Old Hunchback, quietly casting a Remove Fear spell. Alas, I’ve fallen... Now, when communicating with patients, I’ve started to take the easy route, using magic for comfort...

Garrett silently criticized his own laziness while manipulating the phantom to explain to Old Hunchback:

"Next, we’ll use a method involving the growth of vines. They’ll enter through your mouth, reach the esophagus, and directly extract the foreign object." A green vine entered the mouth, straight down the semi-transparent esophagus, wrapping around the half-visible spoon in the phantom image:

"To ensure visibility of the foreign object during the procedure, we’ll also place an Arcane Eye and a light source. Considering the spoon might have punctured the aorta, we’ll need to make a small incision in your chest—"

Garrett spread his index finger and thumb to show a width of 0.5 centimeters, indicating that only such a small incision is necessary:

"Then extend

another vine inside. If the aorta is injured, it will be treated immediately upon removal of the foreign object."

Second, third, and fourth vines, one wrapped around the Arcane Eye and another around a bundle of light, descend into the esophagus. The fourth, fifth, and sixth vines enter the chest cavity, with the Arcane Eye illuminating another field of vision. Old Hunchback watched dumbfounded as Garrett said:

"Considering that any injury to the aorta would be minor, we have another plan: we won’t make an incision in the chest, but prepare a healing spell instead, to be released immediately after extracting the foreign object. As long as the operation is quick and well-coordinated, there won’t be excessive bleeding."

"Let’s not make an incision then!" Old Hunchback eagerly exclaimed. After shouting, he fearfully glanced at Garrett, worried about offending him:

"Your Excellency, I’m old, and well... quite timid..."

Inserting a few vines into his mouth was one thing, but making an incision in his chest sounded truly terrifying!

---------------

• Your invaluable feedback and ratings mean the world to me. Please take a moment to rate this novel at Novelupdate.

• If you come across any mistakes within this chapter, kindly notify me in the comments below, so that I can make the necessary corrections.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!