A Hospital in Another World?

Chapter 502: Life Should Be Sweet, Sweet, Sweet

Garrett eagerly awaited Viscount Carden, or other nobles, or any wealthy folks to come for medical treatment. You know, the typical "I have a friend" scenario that everyone understands.

Unfortunately, the wait was in vain. The first day passed, then the second, and the third… No one came. The hospital remained eerily quiet, serving no more than three to five patients a day, and those were the cases that could be cured with a simple treatment.

It wasn’t clear whether people still needed to inquire and verify more or if the "I have a friend" with "that kind of illness" were too embarrassed to come unless it was very quiet.

In the end, it was their own family who repeatedly asked about the initial treatment.

"So at that time, did everyone really say it was incurable?" Seraina asked with eager interest. Garrett answered for the third time:

"Well, it wasn’t necessarily incurable... I suppose a limited wish spell might work, um, I’m not sure about a healing spell…"

While searching his knowledge, he explained to Seraina. Thanks to the daily teachings of the Thunder Lord, Garrett had gathered a fragmented understanding of high-level magic, which still made for good gossip with Lady Silver Dragon.

"Priestly sixth-level spells, healing spells, involve channeling positive energy to heal diseases and injuries, ending any adverse conditions affecting the target. Sorcerer and wizard seventh-level spells, like the limited wish spell, can achieve various magical effects.

However, working backwards from the principles of the spells, Garrett felt that a healing spell likely wouldn’t cure congenital deformities—

"What about the limited wish spell?"

"The limited wish spell might be able to do it…" Garrett thought aloud slowly.

"As long as the caster’s target is clear and not something vague like ’let the body grow on its own, in the condition it should be without disease, poison, or negative energy interference’, wanting to grow an anus should indeed be possible."

Of course, if there were other deformities involved, like intestinal atresia, congenital heart disease, esophageal atresia, or missing organs, then…

If these weren’t diagnosed beforehand, it might take more than one limited wish spell…

"But both of those spells are of such high levels!" Seraina thought hard and then cheerfully concluded:

"Garrett, with second and third-level spells, you could do it! So you’re the best after all!"

"This…" Garrett was sweating. Medicine isn’t that easy; some things divine magic can’t do, and neither can modern medicine. Not to mention rare diseases, like Alzheimer’s…

He really couldn’t handle that.

"So when will we have a new patient?" Seraina, having affirmed Garrett’s abilities, joined him in squatting at the hospital entrance, eagerly waiting:

"It’s always just bruises, cuts, colds, and coughs—illnesses that can be cured with a single treatment spell…"

"I, I don’t know…"

Alas, the hospital’s reputation was still not enough. Unlike in his past life in a renowned tertiary hospital in a provincial capital, where sitting idle would bring a continuous stream of challenging cases.

Patients came because of the hospital’s reputation, transferred from lower-level hospitals that couldn’t treat their conditions, bringing their families from far away. What need was there for advertisements or promotions?

Miss Silver Dragon, having waited and turned around so much that she almost wore down the ground at the hospital entrance (though not literally revealing her true form), still saw no patients come. Bored, she pulled on Garrett:

"By the way, all those odd things you bought back from the expo, how are you supposed to use them? They’ve just been sitting there, gathering dust! That fruit, you said it could be made into something delicious, but I tried it, and it’s so bitter and astringent!"

Garrett was sweating buckets.

This and that… He had indeed dived into research after returning from the expo, putting the exotic purchases aside. But that wasn’t really his fault!

Some of the items, like rubber, he had handed over to Mr. Norwood, and there were still no results;

For quinine bark, without malaria, it’s no different from ordinary bark, just needed to be well-preserved;

As for sunflowers, he had already shelled half of them and had Miss Anita Winvey find a place to plant them, hoping to harvest lots of seeds by autumn to continuously snack on sunflower seeds;

As for cocoa fruits…

"Did you just grind the cocoa beans and eat them?"

"Yes!" Seraina said matter-of-factly:

"I had the cook add sugar, milk, and all sorts of things, but I couldn’t suppress that bitter taste! It was horribly unpalatable

!"

"Sweat… Seraina, cocoa fruit isn’t supposed to be eaten like that! It needs to be roasted!"

Garrett groggily lifted his head from the lab bench, swaying left and right. Seeing no patients would come today, he rolled up his sleeves, deciding to take a half-day off to clear his mind:

"Seraina, let’s go! Back to the Mage Tower!"

Back at the Mage Tower, the cocoa fruits Seraina had not yet finished off were cracked open, already showing signs of splitting under the tower’s consistent temperature and humidity, turning the cocoa beans coffee-colored. Seraina covered her nose and jumped back:

"Ew! What’s that smell~~~"

A stench, strictly speaking, reminiscent of the stinky feet smell from a medical student’s dormitory. Garrett recalled a video he had watched during a night shift in his previous life, satisfied that the fermentation level was about right…

Next, it was time to dry!

No need for an oven, being a magician, he had his own ways. Garrett opened four cocoa fruits at once, dividing the beans into four portions.

Three portions were set aside, waiting to be roasted slowly at different temperatures; the fourth portion, he directly cast a weakened version of "Desiccating Touch" on it:

With a single touch, it could cause minor drying damage and make living creatures lose moisture. Garrett had been practicing this spell recently to counteract edema, dealing with conditions like laryngeal edema.

Though his success rate wasn’t high and his mana output often too strong, for these cocoa beans, he felt quite confident—

Success!

The cocoa beans were thoroughly dried!

The outer skin dried to a crisp, cracking easily at the touch!

Garrett was thrilled, summoning two invisible servants to peel off all the bean husks. Then, he had the invisible servants smash, bake, smash finer, bake again, grind, and bake a third time…

Until it was ground into a muddy mess, looking just like the video, he then added powdered sugar, thoroughly mixing it. To make chocolate, he even used a grinding machine intended for magic potions.

"Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet?"

Seraina spun around him, occasionally offering suggestions or trying to help:

"Should we use a wind blade spell to cut it?"

"Should we heat it?"

"Should we add some water?—Or milk?"

The grinding machine worked hard for a long time, and Garrett stopped the machine, pouring out the chocolate mixture. Before he could pour it into molds, Seraina jumped up and scraped some off the edge of the machine:

"Ah, this batch is much sweeter…" She eagerly licked a taste:

"But it’s still bitter! And astringent! And a bit sour! Garrett, can you make it taste better?"

Uh… It seems that mastering the temperature and time of baking and roasting, which involve reactions like the Maillard reaction to remove the sour and astringent taste of cocoa beans, can’t just be substituted with "Desiccating Touch"…

Garrett hesitated, handing over the grinding machine to the young Silver Dragon lady, letting her either eat up the chocolate or cast a cleaning spell to clean it up directly. He took another batch of cocoa beans and followed the method from the video, not daring to make a single mistake:

Heat to 60 degrees, slowly roast for 4 hours (entrusted to the tower spirits, while Garrett read);

Take out, let cool, then adjust to 150 degrees, roast for 20 minutes, flipping the beans every 5 minutes;

Cool for a minute, adjust to 135 degrees, roast for 5 minutes;

Cool for a minute, roast for 5 minutes, completely cool down…

"Hey! It doesn’t smell sour at all!"

Seraina jumped over. Not waiting for the beans to cool down, she rubbed them vigorously in her delicate palms. Garrett hadn’t even started to exclaim when the hot beans cracked in her palm, shedding their skins to reveal the dark coffee-colored beans inside.

The speed and efficiency were much faster than the invisible servants. The scariest part was, Seraina was smiling the whole time!

Well, the hands of a Silver Dragon… are simply incomparable to humans…

And Seraina didn’t need to smash or grind or use a grinding machine. With her palms pressed together, the sound of sand, the coffee beans were already powdered, falling in a shower.

The efficiency was at least a hundred times higher than what Garrett achieved with his invisible servants pounding and pounding, then pounding some more.

The only problem was, once the cocoa beans were ground fine enough, the cocoa butter would stick the powder together. Now, it clung thickly to the hands of Miss Silver Dragon…

"Garrett? Can I eat it now?"

Seraina licked her fingers, barely tasting any bitterness, and instead, a unique fragrance urged Garrett on. Garrett stared at her fingers in a daze:

Aren’t you supposed to

pour all the cocoa powder into the pot first?

Asking me now, how am I supposed to answer?

Should I just taste it from your hands?

"It should be about right…" He recalled the color and texture of fully ground cocoa beans from the video, unsurely instructing:

"Add powdered sugar…"

Adding a lot of powdered sugar, a few grains of salt to prevent it from being too cloying when drunk later. Garrett set up a large pot, pouring milk into it, simmering it on low heat.

Then, instructing Seraina to add a bit of hot milk, dissolve the chocolate, then pour in half a cup of milk…

"It tastes so good! There’s a special sweet fragrance!"

Seraina held the cup in both hands, by the pot, her eyes gleaming as she smiled:

"Garrett, this cocoa powder will be especially comforting to drink in the winter!"

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