A Hospital in Another World? Chapter 920: Indigenous Youth: Please Let Me Join the Team!

Garrett lowered his head silently, stifling a sigh and a curse.

This was already quite good, he thought, already quite good. Simply taking advantage of the information gap to gain the upper hand, using the momentum to force the natives to work for the immigrants just to survive and eat...

They even left the natives a way out. As long as they accepted employment, they would have food and could survive.

There were no massacres, no plundering, no deliberate or accidental spreading of infectious diseases.

No bounties were issued for the scalps of males over twelve years old at 100 gold coins each, or for the scalps of women and children at 50 gold coins each. There was no boasting about boots made from native skins...

Yet Garrett still felt very sad. If the council had more power, higher productivity, and more humanitarian care, things could have been done better.

They could have used gentler methods, with a higher level of civilization and a richer life, to slowly attract, assimilate, and integrate these natives, without leaving behind so much death and hatred...

He forcefully speared a piece of meat and shoved it into his mouth, choking himself instantly. Cirilla glanced at him and patted his back vigorously:

"Cough! Cough cough! Cough cough cough!"

The commotion lasted for quite a while. When Garrett finally calmed down, Cirilla waved her hand, removing the barrier between them and the bonfire.

Bernard lifted the lid of the stew pot again, and Baronsimo put the frying pan back on the fire. Appa snorted, lowered his head, and quietly continued gnawing on his piece of roasted meat.

Garrett looked up, wiped away his tears, and smiled at Radon:

"Sorry, I choked for a moment. Please continue eating, let's talk while we eat—wait!"

He quickly half-knelt, pointing to a large fish that had just been taken off the slate, sizzling with oil. Radon's antler fork immediately retracted, seeing a faint glow from Garrett's hand:

"—!"

"Alright, you can eat now." Garrett smiled at his guest, and a breeze sliced the grilled fish into seven or eight even pieces. Then, the mage's hand transformed, taking a piece of the fish tail for himself:

"This way, there are no bones."

Radon, skeptical, took a piece. Sure enough, the small bones in the fish had become soft and elastic, easily cut by teeth. He chewed vigorously, oil dripping from his mouth:

"This is great! This is great!"

The young native's whole face lit up. He leaned forward and then back, trying not to drool on the slate:

"How did you do that? With this method, our tribe's children won't have to fear fish bones! You don't know, every spring when the mountain waters come down, half of our food is fish!"

"Uh... this is a caster's technique..."

"Can I learn it?" Radon squirmed with excitement. Unfortunately, the group was crowded around the fire, with Appa on his left and Baronsimo on his right, making it impossible to move closer to Garrett.

The indigenous youth half-sat up, removed a necklace from his neck, and placed it before Garrett. A string of beast teeth, bones, bird beaks, claws, turquoise cat's-eye stones, and various gems sparkled in the firelight:

"I can pay! I am the Great Shaman's student; I can cast spells too! If this isn't enough, I can guide you through the mountains! I'm spending this winter outside anyway. With me, crossing the mountains will be much easier!"

Garrett hesitated. In the mind link, Baronsimo's voice had already come through:

"Boss, these beast teeth and bones likely contain beast souls. Gems can be useful for casters and are often sought after. Having a Son of the Dawn with us would greatly reduce danger."

Garrett nodded slightly. It wasn't that he was unwilling to teach his spell, especially since this spell could reduce the risk of children choking on fish bones. The problem was:

"Uh, let me explain briefly. First, to cast this spell, you need to cover the entire fish with your mental energy, accurately locating each bone..."

Radon's beautiful black eyes immediately froze. He stared at the fish piece in front of him, trying hard to see, as if glaring could let him touch the tiny bones with his mind.

After a while, he wailed:

"...I can't find them at all! I can only sense the big bone! But that big bone doesn't need to be removed anyway!"

It was no use if his mental energy couldn't cover such fine details. Garrett himself had practiced hitting moles with the electric ball given by his teacher after advancing to level nine, gradually learning to cover every tiny bone.

This young native named Radon probably wasn't even level nine in warrior ranking, maybe around seven or eight, and as for his caster level, judging by the mental energy Garrett sensed, it was probably only two or three?

Garrett smiled, pushing the necklace back, indicating it was fine if he couldn't learn, no need for payment. Radon immediately sat back, even leaning as far back as possible:

"It doesn't matter if I can't do it now! I can practice slowly!—What's the next step?"

...The next step was to extract the calcium from the bones. Garrett opened his mouth, unsure how to explain:

How to tell him to extract something called calcium, with atomic number 20, atomic weight 40.078, a +2 valence, a silvery-white reactive metal in its pure state, from its compounds?

This guy was a native! He wasn't even as knowledgeable as the council's mages! The council, at least the mages of Nevis, after years of tinkering, had some concept of elemental substances!

For the sake of the tribe's children, Garrett racked his brains for an understandable method. He slowly said:

"Next, you need to remove the hard stuff inside the fish bones..."

"Hard stuff?"

"Hard stuff."

Garrett nodded firmly. Radon frowned, muttering to himself repeatedly:

"Hard stuff... hard stuff... hard stuff..."

He stretched out his hand, grabbing at the air repeatedly. Garrett sensed a faint magical fluctuation in the air, very obscure, completely different from his detoxification spell variant.

The problem was, the fish bones didn't seem to change under his spell...

"It seems he wants to extract the concept of 'hardness'." In the mind link, Cirilla quietly commented:

"That's not easy, not at his level."

"Forget it, let's eat first!" Radon decisively gave up trying:

"Nothing can make me give up a feast! I'll learn tomorrow!"

He finished his meal, wiped his mouth, and quickly left. That night, in the far distance of the campsite, there were sporadic sounds of whistling, hitting, neighing, and running throughout the night.

Early the next morning, as Garrett's group got up, they saw Radon, smiling, riding a large deer:

"Honorable caster, please let me follow you and learn this spell! I will guide you across the mountains!"

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