Show your Strength

To put Poltas out of his misery, Darshel had invited him for a trial working period at the clinic. This was a familiar field for Poltas as a health sciences student, so he felt quite excited about the opportunity.

His quest had been updated to "Show your Strength" and Poltas took this as a good sign. A chance to unlock his golden finger and overcome all hardships.

Since his arrival in the morning, most patients had been to the clinic for follow-ups of past complaints, which left Poltas to his own devices.

Darshel had handed him a book on 'Healing for beginners' which was full of abstract concepts. The scientific brain cells in his body shed tears of blood as he tried to reason with the bookish knowledge, eventually he abandoned it in favour of learning about herbs and their effects.

"I didn't expect you to be interested in plants."

"Huh?"

"I had the impression you preferred hands-on practice."

"You can't be good at hands on practice if you don't even know what you are using with those hands."

Poltas learned this lesson in his lab classes after a lot of trial and error. If someone deviated from the instructions it often led straight to failure. To be able to perform something outside the book, you needed to know the theory well, only then could you truly experiment.

"In that case, I will leave you to it. You can ask me if something confuses you."

"Thank you."

Darshel was used to people coming to his clinic in hopes of becoming his apprentice. They'd often try to imitate his work to show how skilled they were, but the truth was that being a healer was not just work. A lot of it was knowledge.

Skills could be practised and polished, but without knowing the details of your tools, you were bound to fail in the long run.

Initially he had invited Poltas on Brandial's request, but now he could see some potential in her.

The morning shift ended in peace, but after lunch came an onslaught of patients and a test of Poltas' strength.

"You have to hold the kid properly while I inject her."

"It's just an injection, does she really need to be held?"

"Yes. Yes she does."

"...okay."

Poltas stood in front of the child and held her arms down. It took a kick in his abdomen for him to learn why restricting the child's movement was necessary during the injection.

"There is a first time for everything."

That's all the consolation Darshel offered before the next patient walked in.

Considering that it was the monthly vaccine day, most patients during this time were children needing an injection. And within a few hours Poltas had several scratches, a few bruises and one prominent bite mark.

Holding a child down seemed to be a true challenge. The parents seemed very apologetic afterwards but when their children were in feral mode, the parents were nowhere to be found.

Initially Poltas found the reactions to be over exaggerated but upon closer inspection of the injection, its needle turned out to be very thick.

"A needle this thick is used for animals with thick skin or a lot of fat. Why are you using this on humans?"

"You even know of this! You're correct about its usage, but healing is a magical profession and my practice differs from common healing, so finding the right tools is tough. This is the thinnest needle I can get for a reasonable cost."

'Design and produce a human safe needle.' Poltas wrote this down under his objectives on the weblet. To care for his domain, he had to start from health care of his domain's subject.

"Poltas what are you goofing off for, come help."

Poltas went to stand behind the child but was interrupted by Darshel.

"This one's here with a broken bone. You have to go get the immobilisation suit."

"Suit? Do you mean the sling?"

"No. I mean the suit that is hanging behind you. We have to immobilise him and fix the bone."

Poltas peeked at the patient and saw a red faced child silently crying with snot all over his face. His leg was propped up on a wooden plank and a bloody scene was present at his shin with two pieces of jagged bone protruding outwards.

Wounds like this weren't Poltas' strong suit, so he immediately looked away. Unfortunately the scene was burned into his eyes already, he angrily whispered at Darshel.

"Don't you think you should give this child an anesthetic instead of putting him in an immobilisation suit?! That looks so painful."

"You must come from a well-off city because things like anesthetics can only be considered a dream here."

"Is there no such medicine in this entire town?"

"There is only one vial and it's stored with the oracle, only to be used in emergencies. I have done this before, we will give the patient ample pain relieving medicine before beginning the procedure."

Unwillingly Poltas had to bring the suit and watch as the child was placed in it with his parental consent.

'I would have never survived in older ages on Earth. This feels inhumane even, maybe I should go take a break.'

But even after fully incapacitating and medicating the child, Darshel made Poltas hold down the child firmly incase he tried to move.

And the child did move. Quite aggressively unlike a normal child should. Part of Poltas wondered what they were feeding children in Pamsteria. The other part contemplated if he, too, could have his eyes blindfolded like the child's so he wouldn't have to see the procedure.

When Darshel went to get some clean gauze, Poltas took the opportunity to check his weblet and find that the 'auto-mode' was available. 

Never had he been this thankful for the existence of this device. He tapped on it without any delay and chose the 'maximum time' option for his return.