The Lost Doctor's Soul - Chapter 34 - A moment to pause

 Stepping into my office, the first thing I did was open the computer and look at those notifications.

<Authorised individual Starlight Von Aurora has entered the hospital, extracting first time bonus of 60🜍 for the visit of a greater succubus.>

<Starlight Von Aurora converted to an employee due to standing contract of mutual aid.>

<Due to the presence of an assigned receptionist, registration fees increased from 5% to 10%.>

This explained a lot. And it did make her seem even more fangless than I first thought. Seeing the words ‘greater succubus’ was worrying, but I felt grateful I didn’t have to witness a slutty nurse costume near my hospital. Emotions or not, I might have an aneurysm if I see something like that.

Pushing those thoughts aside, I looked at my balance of 235🜍. I had collected a lucrative 43.5🜍 from Vildost and Kanako’s treatment. and I clicked into Manage Soul-space, then Add Facilities to bring up the list again. I’ll withhold descriptions this time.

Director's journal-20🜍

Supplier-100🜍

Shop-100🜍

Storeroom-80🜍

Reception Desk-100🜍

Staff facilities-100🜍

Lost and Found-30🜍

Information System-100🜍

Communication services-90🜍

Surgical facilities-100🜍

Pharmacy-100🜍

Domain control-60🜍

Continuous operation-120🜍

Remote operation-90🜍

Upgrade to Tier 2 facilities (locked)-600🜍

Along with these, I noticed some small text on a corner of the screen that said ‘Startup period’. Clicking it, a message appeared saying that once 400🜍 had been spent on the hospital the startup period would end and all facility prices would double, except the upgrade to tier 2, and monthly upkeep would double to 100🜍 and start increasing based on the number and resource drain of facilities.

It showed that I invested 220🜍 on the hospital so far, so the prices would rise after 180🜍 more… I purchased the storeroom and placed it next to my office since I already made a contract so I couldn’t avoid this purchase. With 155🜍 left and only 100🜍 until the startup period ended, I had to make a decision.

My original plan was to buy Continuous operation to avoid an emergency like today from happening again, but that would end the startup period. Alternately… I could get Domain control or Remote operation and I would still be in the start up period. Then I still could get Continuous operation at the base price of 120🜍.

Continuous operation was a vital ability, and Remote operation would be useless with the hospital closed. However, considering today, my biggest flaw was my anti-magic field. It hindered my allies more than my enemies, and I couldn’t even approach the fight because of that. We were still being hunted down, as well, so it was the most immediately useful upgrade.

I had no reason to hesitate and bought it, bringing my savings down to 95🜍. However, I soon noticed a flaw in my logic. The fact that I didn’t fully understand how the hospital worked.

Backing out of the menu, I saw two new additions to the main menu:

Manage Patients / Staff

Procure hospital supplies

General shop

Personal items

Item Transfer

Mail [+1]

Storeroom

Domain Control

I didn’t think about it, but could I only control my ‘domain’ from this menu? Then I could only set it at night? The same was for the storeroom, wasn’t it?

Clicking into the storeroom, I could see a 3d view of an empty, featureless concrete room. There were dimensions on the side that marked it as a 1 meter x 1 meter x 2.5 meter room. It wasn’t the size of a large, but it was big enough since I just needed it to move things back and forth between the hospital and the real world. Rather, the ‘material plane’. The size explained why items more than a cubic meter couldn’t be transferred, the room was just too small. There was a button to expand the size, but it was locked and a pop up said ‘not available during startup period’ when I moused over it.

There was an inventory list, but it was empty. There was a button to add items to the storeroom, and it seemed I could select any object in the hospital that wasn’t brought in by a patient or anything within ‘my domain’ in the material plane.

As a test I chose to move my spear into the storeroom while it was on my desk, and it disappeared before my eyes! I could freely move it in the storeroom, and I could place it anywhere within the hospital or my domain in the material plane. Moving items within the hospital was free, but the 0.1🜍 per item cost applied when I placed it besides my body.

It was a very useful ability, and if I made it a bit bigger it could help me move beds and other heavy equipment around the hospital in an instant. However, if I couldn’t use this when I was awake, then it would be a bit limited.

Looking at the Domain control option in the main menu, it was just a picture of a human silhouette with a bubble around it, a number to measure distance, and a simple slider. Using the slider, I could reduce the range of my antimagic or extend it. However, expanding it caused a somewhat staggering drain of 0.1🜍 per second! Over the course of a minute that was 6🜍. For an hour that would be 360🜍. Even if I just woke up and went back to sleep to come back to the hospital, that would be a massive loss. Completely unusable. Both of these facilities were clearly designed to work alongside Remote operation. The fact that they didn’t come attached in any clear way felt like a scam.

I was annoyed even though I didn’t feel any emotions, that was quite the experience. I needed some way of adjusting these outside the hospital, which meant I HAD to invest in Remote operation. There was no way around it, I need to survive today to get to tomorrow. Buying the facility brought my total savings down to a measly 4.9🜍. It also marked the end of the Startup period, doubling the prices of all of the facilities, and even the price to add new rooms. Luckily the prices of all the medical supplies hadn’t changed. I might have cried if that doubled too, emotions or not.

Oddly, there was no new menu option for the new feature. No hint on how to use it either. Did it work? Everything else worked as written so far, so I had no choice but to trust that it would be fine.

“I’m done!” Vildost called out, breaking me from my thoughts. There wasn’t time to spare, I could figure out how to use this new feature later. For now I transferred the potions to the material plane then gathered everyone to leave. Arashi had donned her full armour again before I noticed and Kanako was on her feet, though unsteady and needing to use the other woman for support. Ideally she wouldn’t be walking at all for a few more hours, but we neither had the luxury of time nor was this hospital handicap accessible.

While seeing the three of them leave, I idly glanced at the reception desk computer, only to see the message “remote connection in progress” on it. I couldn’t help but wonder how that devil had somehow gotten a better grasp over this world than me… and was probably better at modern technology than I was. I had no idea how to remote connect two computers.

As I thought about asking her, I once again fell through the world as it receded into darkness. Waking up from the hospital had quickly become the worst time of my day.

Before I even opened my eyes, I was hit by a horrific mix of emotions like a flood. I couldn’t breathe, my stomach churned, and my heart thumped like it was about to burst. Had I made the right decisions? What was I doing picking a fight with a devil who could kill me the moment she wanted to!? My body was still wet and shivering from the cold, and I couldn’t even hear or see anything clearly for god knows how long. Jesus, I can’t even describe how awful it was. If I had to use an analogy… it felt like I had a hundred rats squirming inside me.

“-okay? Are you okay?” I felt a warm hand touch me, calming me down a bit as I realised I was already sitting up. “I… I’m fine.” I lied, letting out an exasperated sigh as I steadied myself to stand up. I tried to distract myself by looking at the people around me. Nisha and Kanako looked really worried, which was touching. Arashi had a complicated expression, and Vildost was looking at something else. Either way, I managed to calm down to some extent, though these damn feelings continued to churn in my guts like some kind of volcano. I hate this.

I had to focus on something else, so I looked at the potions and handed it to the two patients. “Use these, we need to move. Fast.” I barely managed to sound somewhat normal, before forcing myself to stand up. Maybe it was because we were in a rush, but no one asked any more questions, even if some of them looked like they wanted to.

Vildost and Kanako rapidly improved after drinking the potions and we immediately set out into the pouring rain again. Arashi stepped forth and made the decision that we should avoid using the waiting room and decided on a formation for us with Kanako leading the front and Vildost at the back, effectively having scouts on either end while she and Nisha brought up the flank. “You can’t retract your anti-magic, can you sir Fischer?” she asked, sounding much more composed than normal. “I fear our enemies can track your antimagic if they use their sensory magic appropriately.” she explained as we moved, widening the formation so she was outside the reach of my ‘domain’. She couldn’t move properly under anti-magic, which was worrying. A crippling flaw, even, but I didn’t have time to ask about that.

Instead, I tried to focus on controlling my domain… to no success of course. I wasn’t some kind of fantasy hero, I couldn't feel any strange power inside me. It was strange enough that I couldn’t feel a large dissonance from how different my senses were between my body and Millar’s! I wished I could have some kind of status screen or helper voice like some other isekai story, it’d make things a lot more convenient. Seriously, was I scammed? I bought that remote connection thing, and there’s nothing!?

“Remote connection.” Exasperated, I called out the name of the new facility, and lo and behold, it actually did something! There was no floating screen or a voice that answered me, but it felt like I suddenly had two overlapping videos playing. I could see the hospital and the rainy streets as we rushed down them. I tripped over my own feet and almost fell, but the tall bronze skinned elf caught me. Seeing him up close, he was the most visually impressive member of the team. “Thanks.” I said, steadying myself. He and Arashi said something after that, but I couldn’t listen. I was too focused on figuring out what I was even seeing.

It took a few more seconds before I realised that one of my eyes was seeing the real world, while the other was looking at the hospital! Then I realised that it was the eye that still had my original green colour that could see the hospital. Was this something planned out from the start? If this was a sick joke from that Endro entity, what a twisted sense of humour… Either way, I asked everyone to stop for a second as I closed my blue eye and stared into the hospital. Despite the horrid winds and rain, I could hear the deafening silence of the hospital. All the lights were off and even though I could ‘move around’ by imagining it, I couldn’t touch anything. The only thing that still worked was the computer in my office, but even that didn’t completely work. The only thing I could touch was the Storeroom and the Domain Control, so if I wanted to get any more use out of it I needed Continuous Operation. I really needed every tier 1 facility to use the hospital properly… who even designed this?

Still, I awkwardly tried to ‘operate’ the computer, but I couldn’t wrap my head around how to control this new view properly. “Domain Control.” frustrated, I called out the feature out loud and it was selected. If voice controls work, I guess that’s good enough. “Set range to zero.” and just like the slider moved all the way to zero, though I didn’t feel anything. “It worked! The antimagic’s shrunk.” Kanako exclaimed, before I felt her touch my arm. “Oh, you still have anti-magic on your body.” she added, showing that I couldn’t turn off the antimagic completely, at least yet. “Storeroom. Store item.” I called out, and the sword of truth thankfully disappeared from my hands. This ability alone was truly wonderful, and had endless possibilities. Could I store something another person was holding if it was in my domain? What about automating it so I could store arrows? There was much to experiment with.

I called out to close the remote connection and looked around in reality. Everyone seemed interested in some way, but was quick to accept that I gained more control. However, I did notice that Vildost’s eyes were particularly sharp as he stared at me.

He was the most suspicious person here, and impossible to read. But if what he told us about working for a dragon was true, I suspected he was used to acting as a spy and possibly an assassin. I already saw his fighting skills under anti-magic, and even with my mediocre martial prowess I’m well aware that this guy is a league above everyone else in the party.

As we started running again. I thought about every member of our party. Vildost was the best fighter here given his adaptability and wide range of skills. Arashi was exceptional at fighting people, but there was clearly an issue with her body given that she couldn’t properly hold her own armour under anti-magic. Kanako didn’t go into every detail of her past, but I’m sure she’s either a thief or an assassin from everything I know about her skills. Nisha… is the absolute strongest one here, at least physically. The way he fought against those temple guards was like a feral beast. Explosive strength, perfect control, but he seemed to have no experience fighting against trained humans. He fell for basic feints and couldn’t read any complicated techniques. But his body was incredibly strong and he had good senses.

I never thought about it before today, but elves and dwarves… or all long living races had a distinct advantage over humans because they could have decades or centuries of experience and training while not being affected by their bodies deteriorating from old age. Considering the other side had that dwarf (or whatever the race was called here), what if they had someone else with many years of experience to track us down? Why did we have to go through all of this?

As I thought that, deafened by the roaring winds and rain, I saw something whiz past my head, nearly taking my ear off! I couldn’t see what it was as it landed in a puddle, but glancing back as I ran I saw Vildost holding an arrow as he ran. How did they catch up to us already!? Dammit, there was no way we could reach a shelter now! Kanako and Nisha seemed to notice the arrow, but Arashi didn’t seem aware.

Damn it. I thought up a few different ideas and decided to exploit my abilities as much as I could. There was no time to talk with the others so I quickly whispered out commands to open the remote connection, closing the eye that looked into the hospital, and expanded my domain to the normal size. “Arashi, Kanako, get in!” I barked out an order as the waiting room door opened. “And hide from the door. Vildost, can you find us?” I didn’t slow down as I moved the door behind them, one after the other, nearly tripping over my own feet as another arrow shot past me and grazing my side. He said he could, so I gave the order to split. I knew he was much more agile than I was. Then I turned the corner and asked Nisha to let me climb on his back. We had to stop for this, wasting precious seconds as the gap between us and our pursuers lowered, but I decided to trust in Nisha’s inhuman strength to run faster like this than I could.

With this, our group became two individual targets instead of a group of five. And then I added the craziest element of my plan, positioning the door to the waiting room behind me where the arrows were coming in from. Would this help? Possibly. It would at least give us a little bit of cover. For the last part of my plan, I told Nisha to run into the woods as quietly as I could, hoping the storm would drown out the sound for anyone using magic to listen in. I could only hope he heard me properly when he nodded.

And so we ran. I tried to focus on my keen hearing and struggled to distinguish between the sounds of the storm and our pursuers. I tried to behind me from the waiting room door with my remote connection, but I could only see darkness. It was worth trying, at least, but I did see an arrow fly into the waiting room and clatter against the opposite wall. That meant it worked! I had a way to block arrows! Jesus, this was such a powerful ability- AH! SHIT!

Another arrow hit me! Nisha bent forward at the last second, so it only hit the edge of my shoulder, but it still gouged a bit of flesh off. Shit! These archers are ridiculous, and I have my anti-magic field so that wasn’t just some magic trick!

I desperately focused on my hearing to find the direction the archer was shooting from so I could move the door to block, but it was crazy hard! Like, I couldn’t do this on a good day, how was I supposed to do this in this ridiculous storm. How the hell were they able to shoot so well with this storm, my door in the way, and my anti-magic!?

More arrows came, even as I could feel the distance between us and the pursuers increase. Vildost was nowhere to be seen, but he could run faster and catch these damned arrows barehanded, so he was fine. Shit! Another arrow came and hit Nisha’s shoulder, imbedding itself in it, but he shrugged it off like it didn’t even hurt him. Then another arrow cut into my leg a bit. And the waiting room caught three more arrows, so it helped a lot. At some point Kanako ducked out from the waiting room and threw some darts. I think one of them hit.

Either way, the arrows missed by more and more distance as we ran, and I couldn’t help but admire the elven barbarian I was on. Despite not being able to see behind him, he instinctively dodged several arrows and even made the ones that hit me miss by a bit. And all of this while running as fast as a horse while carrying me. The wounds still hurt, and the cold rain battering me didn’t help numb the pain much.

Finally, the arrows stopped coming. It took until we reached the woods, which meant they pursued us to the extreme. In fact, they didn’t stop chasing us. The moment we entered the woods with its uneven basalt tile-like ground and the many trees and overgrown vegetation, Nisha entered his element. He wonderfully navigated the uneven ground, using pillars, rocks and bent trees as footholds to run at a smooth pace. Anyone else would have to slow to a fast walk or trip over everything underfoot. I guess he wasn’t an elf for nothing.

We kept running for a bit. The sounds of the storm were especially awful here with rain pattering against leaves, trees and branches swaying, and the countless critters and animals taking refuge. Combined with the pain and the adrenaline starting to fade, it was way too much. I still didn’t understand Millar’s body or his senses, did I?

Our desperate escape finally came to an end as we reached a cave hidden away from the storm. With the taste of safety, adrenaline faded and my grip lost strength. I nearly fell off Nisha but he grabbed me. Jesus, we lived. It hurt, but I was still here breathing… ha. This was a truly shitty day.

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