A Hospital in Another World? C.294

Garrett Nordmark was ecstatic. He dashed out of the first floor’s dissection room and raced towards the P4 laboratory upstairs, casting enhancement spells on himself as he went:

Grease the Soles!

Cat’s Agility!

Jumping Spell!

"Enough already!" shouted Andrew Lynn, a mage trailing behind, who had only managed to climb one flight of stairs before being left half a floor behind. Watching Garrett, he couldn’t help but shout:

"There are only two floors! And you’ve cast three spells!!!"

With a meow, a black cat leaped into the air, swelling and swelling again in mid-jump, transforming into a giant black panther standing 1.8 meters tall at the shoulder. Lowering its head, it picked up Andrew Lynn by the collar of his robe and hurried up the stairs.

Garrett simply couldn’t contain his happiness. From the moment he initiated this research project, from his time gathering melons all over the world at the laboratory’s original location, or even earlier, from when he saved an old dwarf in the forging area and cultured tuberculosis bacilli from the dwarf’s phlegm, he had been waiting for this day—

Penicillin!

Or any other antibiotics that could secrete lysozyme, like streptomycin, terramycin, or even a bit of gentamicin would be great!

The only things holding him back were the caution inherent in being a doctor and the fear, as a researcher, of a massive outbreak of infectious bacteria!

Even with his hands trembling with excitement, Garrett meticulously followed the safety protocols: wearing a mask, gloves, washing hands, and donning protective clothing. Only after all the students were similarly equipped—right, Mr. Troka, as usual, was grabbed by the nape by a golden skeleton and taken outside—did he open the door, enter, close it behind him, and open the inner airtight door, proceeding layer by layer into the core laboratory.

The P4 laboratory in the Mage Tower had undergone significant modifications compared to Garrett’s original design. A crucial change was the transformation of a single passageway into a three-zone, two-passageway layout, with separate rooms for animal breeding, dissection, bacterial culture, and experimentation, with clean corridors for entry and contaminated ones for exit.

Wanting to revisit the red zone and then retreat to the clean corridor as the review committee members did last time?

Impossible, with doors allowing only one-way traffic, controlled by the Tower Spirits!

A large group marched directly to the bacterial culture area. Guided by a reporting student, Garrett picked up the petri dish and examined it closely against the light. Without needing to take additional samples, make slides, stain them, or use a microscope, he could see with the naked eye the anomaly on the petri dish:

Among the pale yellow colonies covering the bottom of the dish, a large area appeared semi-transparent, like glass. Outside the blank area, large patches of golden staphylococci clustered together, unable to cross the boundary; at the center of the blank area, a small patch of greenish mold stood tall and proud!

This was it!

This was what he wanted!

Garrett suddenly turned around. Even though his voice was muffled by the protective suit, his excitement raised his volume:

"Which group did this experiment?"

"It was us!"

A crisp female voice answered. Garrett turned to see a tall student, only half a head shorter than himself, stepping forward from the crowd. Considering there were only two females in this batch of apprentices, and the other was a short girl of 1.5 meters, it had to be the one who brought in the wild boar, no question.

"Excellent," Garrett nodded vigorously, trying to control his racing heartbeat:

"Your group will pause all other work and focus entirely on studying and purifying this greenish substance in the petri dish.

—I want you to culture it, purify it, find out why it can keep bacteria at bay, and produce that substance in large quantities!

Ladies and gentlemen, congratulations, you might have found a new method to combat the plague!"

The room, filled with 24 students, vibrated in unison. Especially the eight from Black Crow Swamp, who breathed heavily and instinctively stepped forward.

Unfortunately, not everyone could participate in the project...

The third batch of students who passed the assessment were labeled as underperformers by Garrett and didn’t qualify to join the project. They could only work harder, practice more, and hope for a new exam to turn their fortunes around. This alone eliminated a third of them.

Not everyone from the first and second batches could touch the project either. Among the ten from the first batch who passed the assessment, the five working on tuberculosis bacilli were to continue their original tasks—

Tuberculosis bacilli are not sensitive to penicillin but are to streptomycin. These five, along with three more from the second batch who joined their work, had to keep their noses to

the grindstone. Want to try something new for a change?

Wishful thinking!

In the end, only a young lady from the God of Nature cult, along with two Necromancers, a healer mage, a War God priest, and three later joiners, were left working tirelessly on penicillin. Under the young lady’s command, they first prepared various culture mediums and cultured in large quantities—

Then, for two days straight, Garrett listened to their varied and creative complaints.

"It died..."

"Corona, mine died too... Give me a bit more..."

"It’s barely alive... Corona, why is yours growing so well..."

"Is it because we’re Necromancers that we can’t grow this thing? Too much death aura! I can’t even keep catnip alive at home!"

"Don’t be ridiculous, you managed to keep bacteria alive, didn’t you?"

"Bacteria are plague! It’s expected for Necromancers to keep plague alive! But this isn’t plague! It’s supposed to combat plague! It’s normal that I can’t keep it alive, if I did, it would be the end of me!"

Garrett chuckled to himself on the sidelines. Culturing mold was not so simple; if the nutrient ratio in the culture medium, its pH, or the oxygen content in the air was off, the mold either wouldn’t grow, would grow poorly, or wouldn’t ferment properly. Without fermentation, it would produce less penicillin, making all the effort for naught...

In history, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928 and switched to sulfa drugs after five years of struggle;

In 1938, German chemist Ernst Chain began purification experiments, and by the winter of 1940, he had managed to extract a small amount of penicillin;

In 1941, Australian pathologist Howard Florey increased the yield of penicillin from 2 units per cubic centimeter to 40 units;

It wasn’t until 1942 that penicillin began to be produced on a large scale. Therefore, those spy movies where penicillin was sought after during the Long March, cough, might want to redirect their focus to sulfa drugs...

After so many top scientists around the world took turns, they managed to produce penicillin in mass quantities. If it weren’t for Garrett relying on divine magic to work wonders, he wouldn’t dare take on this project.

In conclusion, keep up the good work, young men and women!