ALL NOVEL Chapter 53
Elliott, the mage, scrambled to his feet.
Looking disheveled, a trickle of blood stained his face, and his mage robe was smeared with a hefty lump of horse dung. Oblivious to his condition, he locked eyes with Garrett, took a deep sigh after a while, and said, "Garrett, thank you. But... I can't learn."
"Can't learn? Why?" Garrett was surprised. "Afraid you won't understand? I can simplify it for you!"
I'm the best at explaining things! When it comes to patients and their families, explaining medical conditions, surgical procedures, I've always made it understandable for them!
He took a step forward. Elliott immediately stepped back, his gaze reluctant yet regretful. "I can't learn. According to the mage's rules, any knowledge and service come at a price. And I can't afford the cost of this meditation technique."
"But you helped me so much before—"
"What you've told me is already enough." Elliott softened his gaze, staring deeply into Garrett's eyes. Then, as if fearing a change of heart, he gritted his teeth and turned away. "I'll cast the copying spell for you. Understanding languages, if you need it, is also fine. But don't tell me anything more—I can't afford it."
Garrett stood there stunned.
Earlier, if Elliott hadn't spoken, Garrett would have understood. As a mage, there's always some pride, some arrogance, about certain things.
You could at least offer a layaway plan!
Feeling regretful, Garrett wanted to smash something. The more Elliott declined, the more Garrett felt inclined to share—after all, it wasn't anything particularly special; in his previous life, even medical students could learn it. Caught in a dilemma, he suddenly had an idea:
"Um... the price I need isn't what you're thinking."
"What?"
"When I was learning this knowledge, I once made a vow." As Garrett began to speak, his words flowed more smoothly. After all, the existence of an oath is real, the process of making it is real. Maybe he had revised it numerous times during his oath-taking, but it wasn't the earliest original version:
"I swore to teach everything I learned without reservation to my teacher's children, my own children, and any disciples willing to take the same oath. So, as long as you're willing to swear—"
Come on, agree already!
I won't teach you these things just because you helped me a lot before!
Garrett felt a bit impatient. Yet, after pondering for a while, Elliott's first words were, "What kind of oath?"
Uh... okay. In the magical world, taking oaths seriously is necessary, or else you won't even know how you died. Garrett took a deep breath and began to recount a revised version, or rather, one adapted to the specifics of this world, of the Hippocratic Oath:
"...I swear to the best of my ability and judgment, to act for the benefit of the sick and do no harm... I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise on such a plan; and similarly, I will not give a woman a destructive remedy... I will keep secret what I see or hear, in the practice or even outside of the practice..."
Elliott listened intently, growing increasingly surprised. By the end, he seemed lost in thought for a long while before sighing deeply. "The predecessor who established these rules must have been a sage..."
Of course, it's Hippocrates. Not just him, but Bian Que, Hua Tuo, Zhang Zhongjing, Sun Simiao, Li Shizhen, even the great doctors of modern China, each of them deserves to be revered as a sage alongside the God of Agriculture.
Following Garrett's guidance, the young mage solemnly made the oath—a revised version of the Hippocratic Oath. Subsequently, the two of them sneaked into a small room opposite the library, where Garrett unfolded a large piece of paper and started drawing a schematic of the human body.
Bones...
Muscles...
Blood vessels... the heart...
The flow of blood, the aorta, pulmonary arteries, pulmonary veins, superior vena cava, inferior vena cava...
Garrett hunched over the table, drawing for an hour straight. As he drew and explained, his wrist ached, his mouth grew dry. He went through sheet after sheet, covering the entire tabletop from left to right.
This time, he completely exhausted his artistic skills as a doctor. Previously, it was just rough sketches to explain things, no need for correctness in shapes or proportional accuracy. Normally, drawing a few organs or bones sufficed for the patients and their families to understand. If they couldn't understand...
If they couldn't understand, he would deepen their understanding during treatment.
But this time, it was for sale, no, an exchange of knowledge and information, requiring quality assurance.
Oh, my poor back—
Straightening up, Garrett rubbed his lower back. On his left, Elliott was in the same position, hunched over the table, eyes squinting at the drawings. If he hadn't stood up just now, the upper bodies of the two would have formed a right angle.
Hey, if you bend down a bit more, you'll dive into the drawing...
Garrett felt like laughing. Out of habit, or perhaps from countless times of asking patients and their families in his past life, he inquired of Elliott:
"Is there anything you don't understand?"
...No response.
Elliott lay engrossed on the latest sketch of the human body, as if captivated, as if his soul had been captured.
After patiently waiting for a minute, then another, Garrett finally gave up waiting and began to roll up his sleeves to copy the vocabulary list. After copying about half a page, Elliott suddenly jumped up like a startled rabbit and darted out.
Garrett: "..."
Hey! Hey! The body diagrams! Don't just leave them!
Elliott quickly returned. Gripping an ink bottle in his left hand and a large scroll in his right, he slapped it onto the table. Without a word, he snatched "Magic Linguistics" from Garrett's hand, placed one hand on the book, and murmured an incantation.
A glow shimmered, and the blank scroll instantly transformed into a stack of copies.
Copying spell, done!
Wow, that's impressive! Garrett's eyes brightened. He smiled and nodded at Elliott—but only caught a glimpse of his back. The young mage swiftly snatched the sketches from the table, once again dashing out. This time, he was faster, running while tightly clutching the papers, as if afraid of being seen.
Ah... I hope he remembers everything.
Back then, he studied systemic anatomy for a full 120 hours. Even though he condensed it and condensed it again, memorizing this stack of papers in one go was quite a challenge.
With a smile, Garrett got to work. Scissors in his left hand, paste in his right, he cut the copies made from the copying spell into strips and pasted them in order onto blank sheets. He worked tirelessly for an entire day. As he walked
out of the mage tower in the evening, there was a sudden loud noise above—
Garrett reflexively looked up. From the fourth-floor window where Elliott had been hurled earlier in the morning, a young boy flew out, gesticulating wildly and swearing:
"Elliott! You're breaking the rules!"
Standing at the mage tower's entrance, Garrett tilted his head back, his mouth slowly gaping.
...No way, did this meditation spell work so quickly?
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