At some point in time, someone had the genius idea that hiding the stench of both dying and rotting bodies using soap would be a good thing, then a few years later, someone else put too much in a single room and that killed all the existing bacteria in that confined space, leading to a lot of fully recovered— but slightly and permanently damaged. — patients, with such staggering results, everyone else did the same thing.

  Everything smells like cleaning materials, and it's a constant stench in the air that makes her nose itch with discomfort. She actually had to wrap her head with fabric again, not because she wanted to hide— this is only part of her reason. — but because she was getting dizzy from the smell.

  Soaps used in places such as this are usually the kind that cleans shirts, and so, when so much of it is just dumped in a single room, it fills with a stench that can burn away someone's sense of smell and taste.

  Liberty liked eating, it's one of the few things she thinks is good in this world, and so she covers her face while wandering the recovery ward of the Hunter's Guild. In total, she had around 8 different patients to tend to. She hasn't checked on all of them yet but judging by how they look, she was able to tell who to help first.

  There's a man by the window, he lies underneath a bed sheet that's damp somewhere around the leg area, his face is pale and the veins on his cheeks are visible. Liberty pulled on the edge of his blanket and sure enough, there's a bite wound on his calf.

  Black veins have already begun to fill the surrounding skin, they look like cracks on the earth. The only difference is that these ones pulse with pain every second, touching it caused the man to groan and shift in his sleep, the pain he feels physically clear even though he's unconscious.

  'It didn't wake up either.' Liberty has encountered something similar to this before, and although she first has to expose the wound with purification mixture just to be sure, there's a good chance that this thing might come from a zombie bite.

  Pulling out a knife as well as a brown leather pouch out of her medical bag, Liberty begins healing the wound, she first starts by cutting open the man's wound before she dusts orange powder onto the wound, it immediately overheats and wisps of steam erupt from the open gash in droves. The heat on his skin almost rivals a revolver which has been fired six times.

  'As I thought, it's from a zombie bite.' Or undead, as what most people refer to these things locally. 'What stage is the infection? Can I even heal him?'

  She would have to feed this man an entire spoonful of penicillin followed by a drop of healing potion to even give him a chance of recovery but if he stabilizes then Liberty is confident that she will be able to heal him.

  His death would also mean that she has to clean up his corpse with heat, as it wouldn't turn into an undead just yet, mold would have to come to visit his body first. The bacteria then provides the right temperature, humidity, and even bodily function that will allow the mold to take hold, after that, a symbiotic relationship that allows them to control a corpse and evolve would occur.

  But without the mold— and it is impossible for it to be here thanks to the air being full of soap. — then the man would just be a dead body upon death, his passing also wouldn't be chastened by the mold.

  After setting up the man into an upright position, Liberty opened his mouth and dropped an entire spoon of powdered penicillin on the bottom of his tongue. She then closed the mouth and let the medicine flow into his veins, meanwhile, she prepared the cup of healing potion he will drink. Lastly, she cleans her tools since she's gonna use them again after this

  It isn't special, just a drop of alcohol into a clean dish rag which she then wipes her spoon. Standard medical practice, but oh so important to prevent cross contamination between patients.

  She grabs a tiny hourglass from her medical bag and placed it on the table next to the bed, then she moves to her next patient.

  This time, the man was actually awake, he was staring at Liberty as she approached, his expression wary. "This isn't something that needs that blue powder of yours Leech!" Ah, so he's the kind of guy who distrusts doctors. "How many bodies did you steal to make that thing huh?!"

  Probably because of that

  "Don't worry, I won't be giving you that." From what she could tell of his wound, it was just a standard slash, there is no sign of infection either so it wasn't from goblins. "Where did you get this wound?"

  Was he cooperative when Liberty examined his back? Not really, the way he angled his body was very awkward for Liberty and only a small portion of his wound could be seen. She tried to help him anyway, she pulled a bottle of alcohol from her bag— which was still met with contempt by the man but he quickly relented when he realized that it was just alcohol. Yes. Liberty gave him a shot. — and poured it over the gash.

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  Out of pettiness, she also dug her fingers into his exposed flesh, reasoning that every bit of it needed to be exposed to alcohol when the man asked. She relished in the way he reacted in pain. Every wince he gave her gave Liberty unbridled joy.

  After the wound had been cleaned, Liberty wrapped it in bandages and told the man: "All you need now is a bit of rest, just lay down and the gash should just heal on its own."

  "I thought you'd heal it fully? You're saying that I can't work for a season?"

  "Do you have a potion?" Liberty asks with a serious tone, the man shakes his head in response. "Then your wound will have to heal on its own, there's nothing I can do about that."

  "You gave that man a potion, why can't you do the same for me?"

  Liberty checked the hourglass and saw she still had a minute or two left, she can argue with this guy.

  "First off, the potion is there because I don't want him to die, the man is literally on his last legs, that small drop of potion is there to stabilize him, not completely heal him." The explanation clearly went over the man's head because he was still glaring at her. "Look, I'm not giving you any healing potion so unless you want to irritate your wound and make things worse, it's time for you to lay down and rest. Got that?"

  Liberty didn't bother to say anything more to him and went back to her first patient. Opening his mouth allowed her to check on the state of the powder, which has dissolved and is presumably in his system by now.

  Pouring the small cup of healing potion down his throat was the last thing that she needed to do, after that, she can only wait until he recovers.

  Or die.

  One of those two.

  Liberty's third patient simply had a fever, and his body heat was increasing fast. She always says this whenever she deals with patients but it is literally a miracle he hasn't gone up in flames yet.

  'Wait, no, it's the lack of body fat.' Liberty concluded after she pinched the man's forearm. 'Is he new to the hunting business? He does look young.'

  "Am I gonna be okay, miss?" The kid asks— if he's even a kid. Liberty is sure that they're both close in age. — with a terrified expression. "I don't really feel like anything, I'm perfectly fine?"

  Liberty stops, she was gonna give him penicillin again thinking that all he needs is a bit of help to fend off whatever bacteria is causing the fever but it's not actually microbes, he's dealing with parasites. And she doesn't know if she has enough stuff to actually deter them.

  'Needing funds for all my constant traveling means that I had to use most of my resources...' And she still has yet to settle down to make more of her depleted medicine. 'Fresh Water Salt-Rash was too rare during my journey.'

  This was all her fault, it wasn't anyone else's.

  "Listen kid, you have a worm inside of your body right now." Liberty's blunt statement made the kid go pale, she doesn't regret it one bit. "So either you drink a lot of alcohol in hopes that it just leaves one day or... You can let me open you up and pull it out."

  "Will... It hurt?"

  In response, Liberty sighs and pulls out a bottle from her bag.

  "This is pure alcohol, I've made it myself." Distilling water while traveling is not fun. "You can drink two cups of this and you will fall asleep like a baby, after that, I'm gonna cut you up."

  "I hear that sometimes, wounds from this type of thing can get worse, will I be fine?"

  "Of course, you can trust me on that." If he's referring to infections then yeah, sure, they make wounds worse. "My surgeries have high success rates, and the only times they failed is because my patient refuses to cooperate."

  "Then okay, I'll do the... Surgeries. Or something." Nods the kid. He follows Liberty's instruction and takes off his shirt, then he downs two bottles of alcohol and after that? They wait. Liberty talked to him throughout the entire thing, easing him into trusting her.

  After he becomes tipsy, she makes her move. "Lay on your back, start breathing, and close your eyes."

  "O-okay." He follows, Liberty listens to his breathing. When it is even, she knows that it is now time to perform the surgery. The table next to the bed is suddenly filled with all sorts of items: an empty jar, a half full-bottle of healing potion, as well as a tweezer.

  She pulls out a scalpel from her bag and held the tool by the neck, with careful precision, she slices the nape, a towel is used to wipe the blood for a moment. She continues, the scalpel cuts deeper, his flesh parts until the opening is deep enough to reach his spine.

  Liberty quickly took out her tweezers and used it to pull out a tubular shape sitting on top of the bone. It is dark brown with purple rings running through the length of its body, two viscous openings gapes on either end, one is to feed and the other is to release waste.

  Waste is released on the blood vessels that pump blood into the brain, hence why people don't feel anything when they are infected. The mouth just feeds on blood cells.

  The Combustion Parasite is what Liberty refers to this thing, a worm that has a fatality rate of over 80 percent. The only reason why it isn't any higher is because other diseases kill the person they are infesting before the worm could cause them to burn up.

  "What is that?" A feminine voice asks.

  Liberty didn't turn, she was too focused. Lost time would mean that this kid is paralyzed for the rest of his life, she stores the tiny worm inside an empty jar then she pours some of her potion on the boy's wound.

  Only when the opening stitched back together did Liberty finally turn to the receptionist. "You've never seen the cause of Hell's Gate before? Also, this thing is a delicacy."

  "... That is a curse. And that worm is full of blood. I can't tell what it even is!"

  Liberty laughs, "of course you'd say that, wouldn't you?" She takes the worm and hides it inside her medical bag. "I'm keeping it as well, there's plenty of uses for this little thing."

  Like igniting something when it's raining, or in damp areas. They can also kill powerful creatures over time, and not only that, these worms can be used as bombs when given to pets or livestock. But mostly, she needs them to make her anti-biotic pills with pain killing properties.

  "... I see, how come he never erupted?"

  "Who knows." Liberty lied, she will keep her advantage for as long as she can. "People combust all the time don't they? Worms don't always have to be the cause of it."

  "Well, thank you for taking care of him then, is he gonna be fine?"

  "He should be." Liberty turns to the boy, specifically on the wound she cut into his body. "I'll wrap it with something so that it doesn't worsens."

  That's three patients. She needs to take care of 5 more.