A Hospital in Another World?

Chapter 157

In fact, Garrett Nordmark completely understood the feelings of Priest Matthew. If he were in charge, he wouldn’t want to measure the body temperature of so many animals either; one at a time was more than enough.

After all, it was too much trouble. Wearing a black bird beak suit, a large black hat, and round glasses, every measurement required removing gloves, washing hands, and disinfecting the thermometer—

Luckily, it was winter. If it were summer, wearing such an outfit and working hard, Garrett could only imagine succumbing to heatstroke on the spot.

Garrett did want to help, but firstly, his combat power was insufficient, and secondly, there was only one thermometer in total. Garrett could only watch nervously from the side, repeatedly cautioning:

"Be careful! Don’t break it!"

"Be careful! Don’t let the mercury spill! It could poison the animals!"

"I know, I haven’t finished disinfecting yet... It has to be done slowly; directly heating the glass tube will cause it to explode. You go wash your hands first..."

"Do I really have to wash my hands every time?"

After being asked to wash his hands for the 35th time, Priest Matthew finally couldn’t bear it:

"Measure once, wash once! Look at my hands, the skin is all wrinkled; another wash, and it’ll crack!"

Garrett sadly looked at him, pointing to the nearby box. Priest Matthew’s anger immediately subsided a bit:

In the box were the sausage skin gloves Garrett had prepared in advance—12345 pairs in total, all messy and thrown in there.

All for him to use; measure one animal, discard one pair, then measure another, and discard another pair. Garrett’s preparation could be described as extremely thorough; looking at this quantity, it seemed like he had scavenged every sausage skin he could find...

"Can’t they be reused?"

"No. Unless you want to experiment with cross-infection between animals, the test results won’t be accurate."

Garrett heartlessly rejected Priest Matthew. Changing gloves and washing hands were nothing; after all, in their emergency surgery, they had to wash their hands once for each patient, then wash again for the next patient...

Not wanting to wash hands, just rub them with alcohol gel—though that thing wasn’t much better. During peak times with many patients, a nurse’s delicate hands would become dry in a day, cracked in two days, and have cuts in three days...

Did they say anything T_T

"Father Matthew, endure a little longer, and I’ll go buy hand cream for you after we’re done." Garrett displayed his greatest charm, making a sincere plea:

"What we’re doing is related to medical experiments, with the ultimate goal of saving people. The more we adhere to the experimental rules, the more accurate the results will be, and the more likely we can help more people. So, Father Matthew, please endure a little longer, and I’ll make sure your name is the first author..."

Father Matthew burst into laughter.

"I’m a priest! What’s the use of being the first author in a magical council thesis?!"

Regardless of how the author’s name was listed, the thesis had to be written. Garrett was quite lucky; the incubation period of this new disease wasn’t too long, and it didn’t make him wait too long. Animals began to fall ill one after another about five or six days later. Garrett recorded while measuring, and half a month later, news came from Elder Wood.

So, Garrett’s thesis, at the end of the month during the small exam when students’ research results were being evaluated, was sent to the desk of the mage who was collecting assignments along with the homework of his classmates in the training class.

Mage Harvey looked at the pile of student assignments in front of him, and his face turned green. Heaven help him, what kind of work could a Level 1 mage produce? The format of the thesis was often not even half correct; the abstract was often nonsensical, and as for keywords, if half of them matched, that was considered good...

The teacher was too lazy to correct assignments, and he didn’t want to waste time with this thing! Moreover, this issue had an unusually large number of articles... Seventy or eighty students submitted over twenty theses. Considering that the training class allowed collaborative writing, at least more than half of the students pounced on this, right?

This made him unable to even buy a bat... He had just finished half of his previous research!

Mage Harvey opened the first one with a dejected expression. "Improvement of Feather Fall Spell by Imitating Bat Flight Posture"—good, starting with the improvement of magic. He casually touched a bat wing and tried it out according to the description in the paper...

"Added extra casting materials, magic consumption did not decrease, and landing speed did not increase or decrease." He quickly scribbled a note at the end of the thesis:

"Suggest this student solidify their foundation in magic research or choose another research direction."

Throwing it aside, he opened the second one. "Comparative Study of Three Different Bats as Echo Magic Materials." This one wasn’t as far-fetched, but the conclusion... Mage Harvey flipped to the second-to-last page, scanning it at a glance:

"In summary, the differences in bat species do not affect their effectiveness as echo magic materials..." So, after all your fuss, you researched something insignificant?

Mage Harvey sneezed and casually picked up a red pen, ticking off that conclusion, and couldn’t be bothered to write any comments. The third one, the fourth one...

After reading about thirteen or fourteen papers in one go, Mage Harvey’s eyes were blurred, feeling like he didn’t recognize the words "bat" anymore. He casually threw away one more and grabbed the next paper:

"Research on a Disease Caused by Close Contact with Bats"

What... what?

Researching a disease?

Treating diseases is the work of healers, so why did you come to the magical council’s training class? Or is it that there’s a necromancer among this term’s students? I don’t remember there being one?

Mage Harvey’s instinct was to throw the paper away. However, with a glance, he happened to see the abstract below:

Recently, among adventurers capturing bats, some patients with similar symptoms have appeared. We conducted a comprehensive investigation of people in contact with bats and simultaneously performed animal experiments, confirming that bats may carry some unknown toxin, causing diseases in both animals and humans. The characteristics of this disease include: fever, headache, muscle pain, vomiting, and sore throat, followed by dizziness, drowsiness, and confusion...

Mage Harvey shuddered. He suddenly remembered that he had a slight fever and a bit of a sore throat a few days ago. At that time, he thought it was just a cold... If it was related to researching bats, then how many mages were affected? And how many mages would suffer serious consequences?

He carefully read on. Many of the research methods in this paper were unfamiliar to him, including a bunch of specifications for animal experiments. However, Mage Harvey could at least tell:

The person who wrote this paper put a lot of thought into designing this experiment, making it as detailed and accurate as possible, eliminating all possible interferences.

"In conclusion, we

 can draw a preliminary conclusion: saliva, excrement, inhalation through the nasal cavity, or contamination during the eating process of bats in close contact may pose a pathogenic risk.

Therefore, it is recommended to wear masks when researching bats, and after the experiment, be sure to wash hands and face... Don’t let bat products come into contact with food..."

The more Mage Harvey read, the more serious his expression became. Finally, with Garrett’s thesis in hand, he knocked on the teacher’s door.

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