Chapter 783: The Navy Fleet Bringing Medical Cases to the Door
A Hospital in Another World?
James Drake, the commander of the Third Fleet of the Magic Council, was recently troubled.
"Commander, we donāt have enough manpower." ā Felix Winter, the fleetās deputy commander, would come to his office every day with this topic.
"Commander, we need to recruit more people." ā William Gonson, the fleetās logistics chief, would say every time he saw him.
"Commander, our fleetās knights have suffered a 20% loss over the past year or two! If we donāt recruit more, it really wonāt work!" ā Even the flagshipās chief sailor and charge leader would shout at him.
The charge leader, responsible for boarding battles and close combat, had always had the highest requirements for combat power. Without knights, they couldnāt dare to fight boarding battles, which was like losing an arm.
James Drake was so worried he pulled his hair. As the commander of the Third Fleet of the Magic Council and a Level Nine Great Knight, he had just recently managed to catch a break.
Thanks to Garrett, he had been incredibly busy the past two years:
First, last year, he sailed north to the Black Gate Peninsula to meet the barbarians waiting there. After picking them up, they sailed west to the northern tip of the New World, then headed south along the coastline.
Secretly joining forces with the other three fleets, they blocked the Golden Fleet of the Radiant Church near the capital of the Storm Islands, Havana, and engaged in a grand battle.
They returned home successfully, delivering the guests back, and the fleet underwent repairs. Barely catching a breath, they then worked day and night transporting goods back from the New Worldā
Of all things, they transported guano!
The valuable transport capacity of the councilās ships wasnāt used for gold, silver, spices, tobacco, cochineal, indigo, or rich furs, but for those stones formed from bird droppings over hundreds or thousands of yearsā¦
And they had to dodge and weave through the Radiant Churchās blockade in the Storm Islands.
After all this chaos, the fleet was severely depleted. Commander Drake took stock of his forces and found that about one-third of the lower-level sailors had been replaced.
āOf course, sailors were cheap. Stop at any port, throw out some shiny silver coins, and a group of people would immediately sign up. But second, third, and fourth-level warriors, or even fifth-level knights, were extremely valuable!
These werenāt easily recruited. The skill gap between the navy and army was significant.
Recruiting a bunch of army knights, who couldnāt swim, couldnāt handle rigging, and would be seasick on the swaying deckā¦ what good were they?
Space on the ship and its transport capacity were limited and precious! Housing a bunch of landlubbers was a waste!
The most reliable method was still to train from within the sailors. The problem was, second, third, and fourth-level warriors could be trained with ample food, rigorous training, and proper guidance; however, knightsā¦
The transition from a fourth-level warrior to a knight was a fundamental metamorphosis, involving the body, mind, blood, and breath, all converging to break through a mysterious barrier.
Many warriors trained from fifteen to twenty, from twenty to twenty-five, from twenty-five to thirty. Training till they were old, with declining vitality, and yet still couldnāt break through.
Ordinary warriors naturally had to practice tirelessly. Those with some means, backed by family, the War God Temple, or the militaryā
There were various methods to improve the chances of breaking through, such as drugs.
The council issued [Bloodburn Potion], and the War God Temple had [Burning Warrior], both of which could help warriors over this hurdle to some extent. The problem was, using drugs to break through was highly riskyā
"Commander, Eric failed to break through and died." Archbishop Hampton, a seventh-level War God priest stationed on his flagship, quietly reported the bad news.
"What a pity, Eric was a brave young man." Drake took off his hat and placed it on the table, bowing his head in silence. Archbishop Hampton also made a gesture of prayer:
"I did my best to save him. Unfortunately, even with all my divine powers, he couldnāt make it."
The two sat in silence across the table for a while. After a long pause, Commander Drake put his hat back on and started the conversation:
"Archbishop, how many warriors have failed to break through this year?"
"Fifteen. Of those, ten can try again after a year or two of recuperation, three are severely injured and must retire, and Eric and Freyā¦"
He bowed his head a second time, praying for the souls of the young men who had died trying to break through. Commander Drake sighed deeply:
"Archbishop, is it possible to provide better potions? The young menās failure rate is so highā¦"
"[Burning Warrior] is already the best among the templeās regular potions. Those with over 80% success rate, or those ensuring no severe injury or death after failure, cost more than ten times as muchā¦"
And they were scarce. Only the heirs of great nobles or geniuses groomed by the temple could use them.
Not to mention, warriors strong enough to be groomed by the temple often didnāt need potions to succeed.
As a result, these secret potions were mostly reserved for the pampered heirs of great noble families, who didnāt want to suffer but still wanted to become knightsāonly they had a significant demand for the safety of potions.
The two of them sat with furrowed brows. After a long while, Archbishop Hampton stood up, sighing heavily:
"Iāll think of somethingā¦ Iāll try to come up with somethingā¦"
He pulled at his hair, walking unsteadily back to his office to search through books and materials for a breakthrough. Two days later, a loud explosion erupted from the small building next to the fleetās barracks:
"Boom!"
Everyone on the training ground, running laps, carrying buckets, simulating rowing, climbing masts, and pulling ropes to simulate boarding, turned their heads to look. They saw Archbishop Hampton waving his arms, clutching a scroll, hair disheveled, rushing out:
"I found it! I found it! āThis method might work!"
Commander Drake quickly ushered him back into the office to prevent the War God priestās image from crumbling too much, making pre-battle prayers difficult. Archbishop Hamptonās eyes shone as he thrust the scroll in front of him, nearly hitting his face:
"Look!"
The commander took it and first saw the cover, "Medical Research." Oh, a journal run by the Healing branch of the Enchantment School, mainly their own playground. Archbishop Hampton had once submitted a paper but, unfortunately, it wasnāt accepted.
Looking at the article again, it was by an old acquaintance, Garrett Nordmark. Commander Drake immediately felt some goodwill:
Nordmarkās inventions, however outlandish, were genuinely useful. Whether it was the cure for "Sea Plague" or the solution to the "Curse of Fabuti," even that rubber tube!
Hmm, so what had Master Nordmark come up with this time?
Commander Drake tried hard to read, from beginning to end, slowing down and reading it again. Then he looked up at the archbishop:
"ā¦This spell, can it save people?"
"It can!" Archbishop Hamptonās eyebrows almost flew off his forehead in excitement:
"Look! Look! He experimented with [Foxglove]! Extracts from [Foxglove] are indeed one of the main ingredients in [Burning Warrior] and similar potions!"
Commander Drakeās eyes twitched. So these breakthrough potions had [Foxglove] as a main ingredient?
He really didnāt know. Although he was the fleet commander, he hadnāt paid attention to such details about potion ingredients.
Mainly because he had broken through with his strength, without using potions. The fleetās potions were just requested from the council, and no one cared about what they were made of.
He flipped through the journal, buried his head, and read it a third time:
"Foxgloveā¦"
"[Foxglove], also known as [Witchās Glove], [Fairyās Glove], [Dead Manās Bell], is a potent potion that can provide great energy to the heart." Archbishop Hamptonās eyes burned:
"After ingesting a large dose of [Foxglove] extract, the heart rate of a spiked boar accelerated rapidly, and blood pressure rose quickly. Eventually, the heart stopped, causing ventricular fibrillationā¦"
He slowed down at the last few words, clearly unfamiliar with the term "ventricular fibrillation." After squeezing out the term, he sped up again:
"This is exactly what it looks like when the young men fail to break through! And Nordmarkās paper also explains how to save them when this happens!"
A second-level spell!
The [Direct Current Defibrillation Ā· Cardioversion] was just a second-level spell! To be precise, it was a combination of two first-level spells, and if not for its high difficulty, it wouldnāt even be a second-level spell!
Compared to the fourth-level spell [Cure Critical Wounds], its consumption was much lower, and its success rate was even higher than [Cure Critical Wounds]!
"ā¦So, we can use this spell to save the young men who fail to break through?"
Commander Drake finally understood the paper. Combined with the archbishopās explanation, he concluded:
"So, can you learn this spell?"
"ā¦No." Archbishop Hampton instantly deflated:
"The gap between this spell and divine magic is too great."
To be honest, he hadnāt even learned the prerequisite [Electrocardiogram] spell. For healers relying on divine grace to cast spells, the gap between them and mages
was quite significant.
"Moreover, Nordmark mentioned in the paper," the archbishop got up, moved around to Drakeās side, and pointed out a section:
"This spellās energy usage is based on preliminary estimates from experiments on zombies and animals. So far, there have been no large-scale clinical trials on patients."
"Soā¦?"
"So, if we want to increase the warriorsā breakthrough success rate, we can invite him to help?"
Given Master Nordmarkās character, he would probably be happy to come over.
Maybe they could even save on treatment fees, or get a discountā¦ With the recent flurry of activity, numerous ships to build and repair, the navyās budget was really tight!