Chapter 339: [Alleviating Pain] A Cure for Hiccups?
This time, Garrett’s mage level advancement came earlier than before.
Perhaps the significance of penicillin was too great, or perhaps because he had treated too many patients day and night at the infectious disease hospital, or perhaps it was the accumulation of many small achievements he had made recently, gathering much feedback...
In any case, this time, no sooner had his priest level advanced than his mage level swiftly followed.
The world’s feedback was tumultuous and rich. Even with the strict barrier of the meditation chamber, the magic fluctuations seeping out of the room made Archmage Carlisle stop in his tracks outside:
Is this really advancing from level three to four?
cup halfway through chanting...
If you’re lucky, the spell fails, and you start over. If not, well, anything could happen.
Archmage Carlisle froze. For safety, he simply decided to stay in a room within the tower, fully focused on stopping the hiccups first. Aurora hovered around the teacher, offering one idea after another:
"Teacher, drink some water! Press it down with water, maybe the hiccups will stop!"
"Teacher, hold your breath for a while, push the hic back!"
"Teacher, drink water, sip by sip, I heard this can cure it!"
However, these methods were of no use. Later, Lynn and Norwood, two mages, also joined in, offering various folk remedies:
Drink a cup of warm sugar water...
Pinch your ears with your fingernails...
Sniff some snuff to sneeze and stop hiccups...
"You’re trying to kill me, huh!" When Norwood Mage brought a large cup of onion juice, claiming it was a folk remedy for hiccups from his homeland, Archmage Carlisle finally exploded:
"I won’t die from hiccups, hic, but these, hic, weird things might, hic, actually kill me! Hic~~~"
"What’s going on?" A laughing voice came from outside. Everyone turned around:
"Garrett, you’ve completed your advancement!"
"Garrett, do you have a way?"
"Congratulations on your advancement, Mage Nordmark!"
"I’m fine, hic, I’m just hiccupping..."
Garrett quickly approached. Halfway there, everyone present instinctively recoiled, then simultaneously started casting cleaning spells on him:
You’ve been in the meditation chamber for days! Didn’t change clothes! Didn’t bathe! Couldn’t you clean up before coming out?!
Garrett apologized with a smile. Amid a shower of cleaning spells, he sat down in front of the archmage to inquire:
"How did you start hiccupping? How long has it been? Besides hiccups, any other discomfort?"
Aurora eagerly answered for the teacher. As Garrett listened and observed Archmage Carlisle’s condition, he had already made a judgment:
Just simple neurogenic hiccups, nothing serious, just annoying. As for treatment, there was a small remedy...
"I do have a method. Your Excellency Archmage, could you roll up your trouser legs above your knees?"
"What’s this for?" Archmage Carlisle watched him warily: "I have hiccups, not leg pain! Why do you want me to roll up my trouser legs?"
"A remedy for hiccups." Garrett smiled amiably:
"If you don’t want to roll them up, I can cast through the clothing as well. It’s just that the spell is lower level, so if your clothing has strong magical defense, it might not work."
With a gentle demeanor, Archmage Carlisle reluctantly complied with Garrett’s instructions and rolled up his trouser legs. Garrett leaned down, activating his newly imprinted [Alleviating Pain], casting the spell on both sides of the archmage’s knees, just below the indentation four fingers below the knee.
The spell’s vibrations swept quietly across. The covered area was no larger than the mouth of a cup, and the depth no more than two inches. Archmage Carlisle was still surprised:
"[Alleviating Pain]? I told you my legs don’t hurt...hic, your spell’s vibrations are much smaller, and the casting area is reduced, how did you do it? Hic, did you modify the model again? Right, last time you said you wanted to learn this spell, I even took you to consult Madame Syatt, and this is the result? Hic, remember to publish a paper when you have time, don’t be lazy..."
He talked non-stop for about ten minutes. Suddenly, Aurora interrupted:
"Teacher, you seem to have stopped hiccupping!"
Archmage Carlisle paused for a moment. He raised his hand to touch his throat, then his stomach, and rapidly chanted a long string of spells. In the lounge, furniture and decorations began to float, their surfaces crackling with electric light.
And such a long string of spells wasn’t disrupted by a single hiccup.
"...[Alleviating Pain] can cure hiccups? Garrett, how did you do it?"
Garrett just smiled slightly, not answering. The truth was, this was a small trick shared by a colleague in emergency internal medicine, using lidocaine injections at Zusanli for treating neurogenic hiccups, which research found quite effective. His colleague from internal medicine even shared a dozen or so related papers with him.
Now, without lidocaine or any anesthetic at hand, why not...
Try magical local anesthesia?
And it actually worked!
