Raven Healer

"Ash Hiss, get up and walk yourself if you're awake. Dinner time has already passed, and we don't serve patient meals here."

Ash, whose eyelids were already burning from the glare of the incandescent lamp, sat up nimbly. He touched his face and abdomen, finding no swelling or pain at all, as if the brutal beating he'd received from Igula just moments ago had been nothing but a dream.

It wasn't his first time witnessing the medical technology of this world, but it left him in awe every single time. That wound, which had been pierced through by the Bloodfury Hunter's sword, would have landed him in the ICU for over a week in his past life just to stabilize his condition. Yet here, he had been patched up before the interrogation even began.

It almost made Ash think they wanted to heal him first just to subject him to a full course of "interrogation wellness."

He scanned his surroundings. It was nothing like the treatment room he had imagined. There was no smell of disinfectant; while the environment was clean and free of debris or bloodstains, the color palette was dominated by gray, black, and brown, giving the visual impression of "filthy chaos."

Not to mention the Raven Healer herself: she wore a black robe that covered her entire body, a terrifying raven mask, and held a gleaming, sharp dagger in her hand.

She looked less like a doctor and more like a cultist preparing to use Ash as a sacrifice.

The healer speaking to him was on the shorter side. It was impossible to tell her gender from her voice; the mask seemed to have a distortion effect that only made her sound more frightening.

She noticed Ash staring at her and asked, "Is there a problem?"

Ash replied offhandedly, "I feel like there's still something wrong with my face."

"Hm? I've already healed all your injuries," the healer said, sounding puzzled. "Could it be that a blood vessel inside ruptured?"

"I feel like I'm not as handsome as I used to be. Did you not heal me properly? By the way, do you offer cosmetic surgery here?"

Ash had only been making small talk to build some rapport so he might score some fruit the next time he needed treatment, but he hadn't expected the Raven Healer to get so excited. She leaned in close and said, "Of course I do! Eye widening, bridge adjustment, jaw shaving, chin fillers—I can perform all sorts of techniques. You can look however you want! I can even change you into another race if you like! I highly recommend this Kazilan Dai Technique; it's very effective for enlarging your eyes..."

Ash pushed the healer away with a look of disgust. "Your raven beak is poking me!"

"Oh, I'm sorry! If you want mouth surgery, I have a brand-new White Rabbit Candy Technique that can give your lips a natural, sweet flavor..."

Watching the healer's fanatical, insurance-salesman demeanor, Ash felt a bit scared. "I don't have any money!"

"I don't want your money, I want you!"

Ash's body shuddered. "Already? We haven't known each other that long! Wait, are you a man or a woman? Wait, what race are you..."

The healer realized her slip of the tongue and waved her hands. "I mean, as long as you're willing to let me perform the surgery, that's enough. You don't have to pay me; it's completely free!"

"Hmm..." Ash asked, "Then what if I want you to pay me?"

"Uh... how much do you want?"

Seeing the healer actually reaching for her wallet, Ash quickly stopped her. "Stop, stop! I was just asking. I don't actually want to go under the knife. But are all you healers this kind? Performing surgery without asking for anything in return? Seeing how you're dressed, I thought you were the type to suddenly hike the price mid-surgery."

The healer replied, "Ah, isn't that normal?"

"Huh?"

For a moment, Ash couldn't tell if she meant "free" or "price-hiking mid-surgery."

"So, you really don't want to do any cosmetic surgery?" the healer urged desperately. "I'm a Silver Healer with three Art Spirits! You won't find another healer outside who is as capable and free as I am! You'd be getting a steal!"

"What if you suddenly start charging halfway through the surgery?"

"Do you have money?"

"No."

"Then what are you worried about!?"

That actually made a lot of sense. As long as I don't have money, you can't swindle me... Ash still shook his head. "There's a saying in my line of work: the free stuff is the most expensive. If I take advantage of this freebie, I'll inevitably pay the price somewhere else."

Seeing that Ash wouldn't take the bait, the healer finally came clean. "Fine. If you're willing to let me operate on you, there will be a tiny bit of risk."

"A tiny bit?"

"Yes, a tiny bit." The healer gestured with her fingers. "After all, I'm not very proficient in this particular technique, so I need to perform more surgeries to increase my proficiency. But I have three Art Spirits, which is enough to ensure your life isn't in danger..."

Under the healer's explanation, Ash finally understood why they were willing to let patients get freebies: because the medical results of a Silver Healer weren't guaranteed.

Unlike the evidence-based medicine of his past life, medicine in this world was developed through Art Spirits, and the most common Art Spirit used by healers was the Water Art Faction's "Hydrotherapy."

As long as there was moisture in the patient's body, one could trigger this Art Spirit to make the patient's wounds regenerate rapidly.

The most common treatment method involved bloodletting and scraping away flesh, then triggering the Art Spirit to force the body to heal quickly.

As one might imagine, this method had many flaws. However, all Art Spirits possessed the characteristic of evolution, and this was even more apparent in the "Hydrotherapy" Art Spirit: for every ailment "Hydrotherapy" had treated, it would memorize and optimize the process, allowing it to treat the same condition more efficiently the next time.

Furthermore, if a healer treated enough cases, they could even evolve their "Hydrotherapy" Art Spirit into a Two-Winged Art Spirit!

Therefore, Silver Healers were desperate for patients, while patients would rather spend more money to find a superior Gold Healer than settle for a Silver one—the weaker the healer, the worse the "Hydrotherapy" effect, and the higher the chance of something going wrong for the patient.

To a healer, a place like Broken Lake Prison was a goldmine. Every day, inmates beaten to the brink of death needed treatment. They could grind experience points here to their heart's content, and the doctor-patient relationship was incredibly stable—even if they accidentally killed a patient, there would be no trouble at all!

The healer talking to Ash, for instance, wouldn't have even had the chance to grind experience here if she didn't have connections.

Ash thought, Good grief. The Deathmatch Club wasn't just an open conspiracy to incite internal strife among inmates; it also turned the inmates into renewable resources to serve as experience fodder for the healers. This prison was too good at business; the prison had won it all.

However, the fact that treatment was free and didn't consume a death row inmate's Contribution Points showed that the prison still lacked vision. It was still a step below Ash's old company—his company hadn't just sold him "sudden death insurance," they had also deducted the electricity costs for his malicious overtime directly from his salary, effectively killing his get-rich-quick plan of mining and crypto-trading while working overtime.