Another day passed before I was off to Helen’s clinic again. Alice was not particularly interested in going to work at the clinic so she decided to just hang out in stasis. Having my body to myself again was actually not as pleasant as I had expected it would be. It was a bit of a double edged sword really, it was nice that I didn’t have Alice in my head constantly, but Dual Consciousness made everything I did easier. I had two minds working together to walk around making even mundane tasks feel half as demanding.

Of course if the task was too complex I would need to supply the skill with mana to gain the benefit. Even still, every simple thing I did was simply less mentally taxing. Which left me more focused when it came to something that actually required my attention.

Nonetheless Alice just wasn’t as interested in healing as I was. She knew that I trained to become a doctor and some of what that entailed, but she hadn’t lived my previous life. Many of my motivations for becoming a doctor and wanting to help people in general were because I knew what it was like to grow up poor. To be shipped from foster to foster, not because I was a bad kid, but just because it was expensive to raise a child. Alice had experienced only my life as Alea first hand, so other than the abduction she had been treated like a princess her entire life.

All that meant it was Riza and I heading into Grimstel, without a voice in my head. I kept my use of Radiant Step to a minimum since I wanted my mana to be full or nearly full when I got to town.

I had tried all of my healing skills a couple times just to figure out what spending energy reserves meant. As I had expected it made you hungry, really hungry. Even if the skill wasn’t doing much of anything. I tried to keep Enhance Metabolism up on me with as much mana as possible for as long as possible, which was less than 10 minutes, and I ended up having to eat near constantly for an hour to feel full again even though I just had lunch before the test. I couldn’t imagine how horrible it would have been had I had an empty stomach before trying to marathon the skill.

Immuno-boost on the other hand was significantly less taxing. I became hungry enough to want another fairly normally sized meal after pouring all my mana into that skill. So applying it to an injured person to reduce the risk of infection was much more reasonable. Especially if there wasn’t a Dark healer around or a wound cleansing potion.

Finally Bioshift was still a complete mystery. I started working with it on innocuous things like killing some hair follicles on my arm. It worked, but it blew out my entire mana supply to do it. I made a single hair follicle on my arm stop producing hair permanently and it cost well over 1000 mana. I couldn’t begin to imagine what it would cost to change someone’s entire immune system to memorize and be able to fight off a disease. Leveling it and Fire Affinity will make it more efficient, but even still it will cost an insane amount of mana to do anything truly powerful.

Riza and I arrived at Helen’s clinic. “Hey kiddo.” Helen said as I entered.

“Good morning.” I responded with a nod of my head. She knew I was a noble so technically I shouldn’t be doing that, but she was also helping me learn so the respect was deserved. “I have unlocked my second class and acquired a Fire healing class called Bioshifter Curist.”

Helen’s eyebrow went up. “Already?” She shook her head. “What an absurd leveling speed.” She motioned toward the room we saw patients in. “Why don’t you tell me about your skills? I can’t say I’m particularly knowledgeable about Fire healers.”

Riza walked over to a nearby bench and layed down. It had become her spot to rest while I worked here at the clinic. Guard duty was a boring job almost all the time, I felt a bit bad for her. She did however often bring a book or two with her from the manor’s library so it was better than her normal duty when she just stood around and looked intimidating.

Helen and I discussed what I had learned from my limited healing tests. The only ability she found interesting was Immuno-boost. Since I could cast that rather than having to use an expensive potion to clean wounds. It would also mean while I was here the clinic could provide a low cost alternative to help heal minor illnesses. Finally it was probably something that should just be up as often as possible during childbirth assuming we could feed the mother enough.

All those ideas were pretty much what I came up with as well. Despite being a professional class Enhance Metabolism was really more of a combat healing ability. If you knew the fight would be short you could apply to everyone for the small stat boost and a slightly reduced chance of dying.

The extra cost in caloric energy of my skills were solved fairly easily by having Riza go out and by some fresh bread and cheese to give out to anyone that came in. As long as I was only using Immuno-boost, that would be all that would be needed.

Our first two patients were pregnant women, which made up about half of Helen’s clients. There was nothing for me to do for them magic wise so I just did their paperwork for Helen. Well not paperwork since paper was expensive, Helen had some around but she used it sparingly. Instead we mostly used parchment, each patient had a scroll dedicated to them with their medical history on it.

I was fairly impressed by the amount of records Helen kept. If not for her miserable organizational skills I would say this was about the best someone could do without computer assistance. I had taken care of her organization problem, but each time I came in I would have to correct careless errors Helen had made. Without me it would just be a mess of parchments that she sorted through for hours everyday.

Our third patient was more of an emergency though. A guardsman came in with a slashing wound on his arm. I was sitting working through more paperwork as he came in. He was an older man, appearing to be in his 40’s which in this world probably meant closer to his 60’s. He was about 6 feet tall which made me feel tiny as usual. He was handsome and in great shape for his age, definitely a gray fox since his hair and stubble were shot through with gray.

“Is Matron Helen here?” The guardsman asked while he held his wrist firmly. Despite holding the wound, blood leaked between his fingers. Another guard, a woman, was standing next to him with just a hint of concern to her gaze. She was fairly average height, but she wore a helmet so making out much more was difficult.

“We should have just used a bit of potion.” The woman rolled her eyes. “You got blood everywhere on the way here.”

I stood and walked around the counter. They gave me a wary look. “Are you Helen’s apprentice?”

I shrugged, many people questioned my being at the clinic. I found it was easiest to just let them believe whatever they wanted and just treat them. “Let me stop that bleeding then I’ll bring you in for treatment. I really don’t want to clean more blood up.” I said calmly.

The man glanced over to the woman who just frowned and gave a bit of a shrug. “Uhh, yeah sure.”

I touched the man’s arm and began to channel Critical Care. Immediately the bleeding began to slow. Despite the fact that I wasn’t even touching anything near the wound the magic slowed then stopped all bleeding. “I have to keep touching you to make my skill work, but would mind wiping the blood away.” I said then handed him a cloth.

He released the wound somewhat surprised to see it no longer bleeding. The flesh was still cut, yet nothing more came out. He took the cloth then began to clean the blood away. It revealed a slightly jagged cut, clearly the knife he had been cut with wasn’t the sharpest. Truthfully seeing a wound like this without blood coming from it made it almost appear to be dead flesh. Like a poor cut into a cadaver.

“Great, please follow me to the next room.” I said with a pleasant smile. I kept a hold of his arm as I led him toward the examination room. The guardswoman glanced at Riza lounging on her reading bench and took a seat near her.

In the examination room, Helen was looking through her small supply of potions she had on hand. Apparently potions went bad slowly, losing the magic they contained. She would spend time testing them occasionally to be sure they were still potent. Keeping a good supply of wound cleansing potions was required to have something that even approached a sterile field in their world.

Helen also had a smaller supply of various types of antidote potions, they were organized into different ailments she couldn’t cure with her Light or Earth healing. Some were for common diseases, others for poisons common to nearby wildlife, and still others that reduced pain. She didn’t need potions for things like acid or fire since the prefered treatment was to slowly cut away the damaged flesh then make new clean flesh with Light healing. Far and away the most common potions she had were for contraception and fertility. Her clinic had originally focused on midwifery and sexual wellness, so even after she became the most powerful general healer in town she still had many clients coming to her for such things.

Helen glanced up. “Guardsman Earl, good to see you.” She stood walking toward us.

Earl bowed his head slightly. “Matron.” He greeted her in a manner that signified his respect.

“What seems to be the matter?” Helen asked.

Before Earl could speak I jumped in. “The patient has a 3 inch long shallow cut that has nicked a… major vein.” The terminology in this world wasn’t nearly advanced enough to convey which artery, or even the difference between veins and arteries really. “I’m currently stopping his bleeding with my skill.” I continued.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Earl gave me a confused look but, yet again, before he could get a word in, Helen took hold of his hand and twisted his forearm to examine the wound. “I could heal it easily enough, but truthly this is a light enough wound it might be better for you to do it.” Helen gave me a meaningful look. We had discussed earlier that if I heal anyone she would check the work afterwards to be sure it was done properly.

“Wait? What? Can’t I just have you heal it, I’ve been away from my post for too long.” Earl popped in.

“Training new healers is important work, guardsman Earl. Don’t you want more of us around?” Helen gave him a warm smile I knew to be at least somewhat fake. Helen was far more crass and combative when patients weren’t around.

Earl glanced down to me. “Uhh, yeah…” He seemed to not be terribly interested in the idea.

“My form of healing is somewhat different from Helen’s, but for something like this it should work well enough.” I gave him a hopefully comforting smile.

Earl sighed. “Fine…”

I activated Enhance Metabolism and Immuno-boost each with as much mana as I could. They had both gained a couple of levels so they would last a few minutes at this point. “I use Fire healing rather than Light, Earth, or Water, like matron Helen, so you will feel a bit hungry after everything is healed.” I motioned over to the table with a covered serving tray. “There’s some sliced bread and cheese, I suggest eating something before you return to work.”

After only one casting of these two spells he should just need a snack, unlike when I marathon casted them on myself just to see how hungry I would get.

I watched his wound, without keeping it open intentionally I couldn’t see the artery, but the healing had already begun. Slowly the flesh regenerated in real time. It took about a minute for the slash to be healed, leaving behind flawless skin.

*Level up. Bioshift Curist level 4. You gain 2 Vitality, 1 Animus, 2 Magic, and 3 Manipulation.*

*Critical Care has leveled up, level 4.*

*Enhance Metabolism has leveled up, level 4.*

*Immuno-boost has leveled up, level 4.*

Helen took a look and nodded. “It took a bit of time, but it looks fully healed.” She cast her diagnostic Earth spell. “No infection either, nicely done.”

I released my Critical Care skill, and stepped away from Earl. “Does anything hurt?” I asked.

He gripped his hand and rubbed the spot the injury had been. “No, it feels great.”

That was a relief, but it had been far from efficient, costing about 400 mana. Helen had healed a much deeper cut with about double that mana. Also Light healing was much less efficient generally speaking than Earth healing. She could have done what I did in half the time and half the mana. Not to mention my healing made the patient hungry and cost them some mana to maintain the buff.

Earl was already munching away on some of the snacks I had readied for him. “You were right about the hunger that comes with it, though. Fire healing is strange.” He continued to stuff his mouth.

Helen was about to turn back to what she was doing when Earl gasped in pain, dropping the bread he had been eating. He clutched his stomach as his entire body tensed up.

“Guardsman.” I reached out to him, holding him steady. “What’s wrong?”

“The cramps are back with avengence.” He groaned. A man with stomach cramps was at least somewhat rarer than a woman.

“Do you have these often?” I asked.

“For a couple years now, they’ve been happening more and more often.” He responded as I guided him to a nearby seat. “I’ve tried to have it healed before, tried every element except Fire, no one could do anything.” He sat down still groaning a bit at the pain.

Out of an abundance of caution I deactivated both of my healing skills. Immediately Earl’s face showed less strain, but it was obvious he was still in pain. “Did your pain just lessen?” I asked.

He gave me a surprised look. “Yeah, did you use some skill or something?”

“No… exactly the opposite actually, I removed my active skills.” I glanced over to Helen with a bewildered look.

She just shook her head. “If a Dark healer couldn’t deal with it then it might be the aging disease.”

“Aging disease?” I questioned.

“An ailment that afflicts people more commonly the older they are. Only the most powerful Dark healers with extremely high manipulation can cure it. Being one of the few diseases healers can’t heal, it stands out a lot.” Helen explained with a bit of a grimace. “I fear there is nothing we can do for him.”

I sat down in the chair next to Earl deep in thought. A disease that is progressively more common as one ages, difficult but possible to remove with magic, and causes at least cramps. “Can I ask you a few questions, Guardsman Earl?”

“Uhh yeah sure, why not?”

“What other symptoms have you noticed in the last couple years?” I asked.

The man blushed deeply, glancing away from me. Something he was uncomfortable talking about then. That generally meant one of three things, mental health, genital issues, or rectal problems. I was most keenly interested in the third possibility. “I would rather not say…” He murmured.

I couldn’t stop myself from rolling my eyes. I get it talking about symptoms was uncomfortable at best, and my being a 12 year old elf girl probably didn’t help, but still. “Let me take a guess then. You’ve noticed blood in your stool and had irregular bowel movements regardless of your diet.” Usually telling a patient their symptoms wasn’t kosher, but I was becoming very confident I knew what the problem was.

He started. “How’d you know?”

Helen gave me a discerning look, clearly wanting to ask the same question. I ignored her. “I think I know what this is and why a Dark healer needs a massive amount of manipulation to deal with it. I also think I might be able to heal it, but I want to stress that this is a long shot and will require some very uncomfortable experimentation.”

Earl had cancer, specifically colon cancer. My theory based on the facts is that Dark healers can’t heal it easily for the same reason cancer was a bitch to fix on Earth. Cancer is very similar to the cells around it, trying to target just cancer cells without hitting everything around it is really hard. Cancer has more or less the same DNA as the rest of your cells with just a few mutations.

The first hint was that Enhanced Metabolism made his symptoms worse. Making the body work and regenerate at a higher rate will just feed the cancer at an explosive rate. I imagine full-body Earth healing would do the same thing my Fire healing did. The second was that it was called the aging disease. Although childhood cancer wasn’t unheard of, unfortunately, cancer was far more common the older one was. Then the symptoms all matched, well not the weight loss or fatigue, but I imagined his Vitality was countering those symptoms.

“I think Fire healing might be the answer to this disease, but it won’t be easy. I’ll need to cut you open and find the disease inside of you, then extract it physically. That alone won’t heal you though, I’ll need to use my skills to experiment with it to find a way to kill it without killing you.” I explained to both Helen and Earl. “Pain suppression and wound cleansing potions should make the surgery pretty harmless, and fortunately Helen has Light healing. If my theory is right, Earth and Fire healing and probably healing potions are actually making your disease worse.”

“You want to cut me open?!” Earl exclaimed.

I grimaced. “I prefer to call it exploratory surgery, but yes. With a Light healer and potions there is virtually no risk to you, but I understand your discomfort.”

He looked to Helen. “And you’re alright with this?”

Helen shook her head slowly. “I have no idea what she’s talking about, but if you are asking me if she’s right about her ‘surgery’ being next to no risk then yes.”

I sighed, how could I explain this in a way they would understand. “This disease… it's what happens when the body starts to… regenerate wrong. In fact, regenerative healing probably makes getting the disease more likely in the long run. Fire healers, or at least my class, allows me to modify living organisms directly. If I can make your body stop regenerating incorrectly then you will be cured.”

Cured until he eventually relapsed that is, but I wasn’t interested in getting into that can of worms. If I did this right and removed every speck of cancerous cells then it would be more likely that he would generate a different cancer than the same one again.

In order to create a cure I needed to modify only the cancerous cells. To do that I would need to experiment a lot. I would need some of his healthy cells, cutting out a bit of colon wasn’t a big deal when I had a Light healer, and I would need a sample of his cancer. Then I would need to keep those samples alive so I could keep manipulating them with magic until I found a way to deactivate the uncontrolled replication that made cancer so deadly.

I think I can graft some cells onto another creature, being sure they get a blood supply will probably be easy with Bioshift. Of course the graft will eventually be rejected by the host body, but hopefully I’ll have enough time to find an answer.

So all that meant I needed to perform this surgery, and find a pig if possible or a rat if I couldn’t get a pig. Pigs were pretty similar to humans, obviously a primate would be better, but I doubted I’d find a bonobo just hanging out.

“I can’t offer you certainty, Earl, but I truly believe I can find a cure.” I gave him a stern look, probably totally alien on a 12 year old’s face. Yet at this point I didn’t care if they thought I was peculiar, in two months time I would be leaving this place and likely never returning. If I wanted to take a risk to expand my magical healing knowledge, now was the time.

Once again Earl looked to Helen for confirmation. “The kid is a genius as far as I’m concerned, the risks are low and there’s a chance she is right. That’s all I can say.” Helen said with a shrug.

Earl winced as his guts cramped up again. “Fine! Whatever, but I’m not footing the bill for some experimental treatment.”

I smiled. “I wouldn’t dream of it.” I pulled my money pouch out and handed Helen 3 gold coins. “That should pay for the potions and healing I’ll need for the surgery.” As soon as the coins left my hand they disappeared into her own coin pouch. “Get things ready, I need to go find one more thing before we can start.”

“Wait, you want to do it right now?” Earl asked.

“Either now or three days from now, your choice really.” I responded putting back on the most innocent smile I could muster.

He seemed displeased by that but didn’t say anything more.

I stepped back out into the lobby. “Riza, I have a bit of an odd request-”