Chapter 7: New Sights in the City

Joshua found himself outside of the front of the hospital walking towards the center of the city alongside Grace. After her bombshell about creating a new role in the field of medicine known as field doctors, Joshua's mother got another call that she was going to have to take. She seemed excited by the idea that her apprentice had come up with, and told them both to go out and roam the city for a while to discuss things. Grace had no problem with it and Joshua ended up getting pulled along with the flow of the two women that quickly shoved him out of the room and forced him into his current circumstances.

After waiting for Grace to change out of her work clothes into some casual clothes that consisted of some jeans, a plain shirt and a light jacket they both made their way out of the hospital. Grace seemed to be excited to talk to Joshua about her ideas for her role as a field doctor and explained to him why she had come up with the idea in the first place.

Field doctors weren't anything new from what had transpired throughout human history. There had been several cases where doctors were forced outside of establishments to do their work on the injured and diseased. Even in modern day it was something that was rather common in all sorts of forms that ranged from emergency care units, to specialty doctors, to army doctors that were trained to do their work in the field of combat. The reason it was a surprise to Joshua that the idea would come up again now was the fact that things were far more dangerous for someone without a combat job.

The value of a field doctor however would be enormous. There were people like Joshua that had doctor as their sub-job, but he would never get the max benefit out of the job like someone who had it as their main role. He might be able to fix some issues, but in the future when they encountered things that were outside of his expertise it would be a great benefit to have an actual doctor around to help out. He wasn't sure about bringing her along for dungeon dives just yet, but for the moment he believed it would be perfect for her to run the hospital he was having set up in James Town until they had a clearer idea of how to make field doctors work out in such a dangerous environment.

"So how did you come up with the idea of becoming a field doctor anyways?" Joshua asked as he and Grace started to explore the city. It had been a while since he had simply looked around the place and now that he was going to be a full time guild leader he was going to need to know what was going on in the hub city.

"Well working at the hospital all the time has forced me to come across situations where the people that were brought in could have been helped out if there was a doctor on sight, instead of them having to rush all the way back to a safe area then teleport back to the hub city." Grace said with a frown. "A lot of people have either died or gained a lifelong injury because they didn't get help fast enough."

"I see…but even if that's the case it isn't exactly safe for none combat job holders to be out in the field. Just about anything and everything could be dangerous. Especially since we don't know enough about all of the types of new dangers that are out there." Joshua responded with a sigh. He turned to look at Grace who was tapping her chin with her index finger as she thought over his words.

"Well then if that's the case once I reach a high enough level to take up another job then I hope you won't have an issue with training me up so that soon I can come along for dungeons and territory wars. In the future I hope it gets to the point where field doctors are a common thing outside of just your usual healers." Grace explained with a smile. Her expression was surprisingly carefree for someone that came off as so serious and fierce early on.

"Well then I have no issue having you join the guild. You are now the Fenrir Guild's twelfth official member. We will have to get you registered soon, but for now how about we just take my mother's advice and do a little exploring of the city. It's been a while since I've been around the place." Joshua said as they made their way towards the market area.

"I'm surprised you went along with your mother's idea. It's fairly clear she's trying to play match maker." Grace said with a teasing smile causing Joshua to chuckle a bit.

"I'm sure she is, but I don't have a problem getting to know you as a friend. Anything beyond that isn't something that would happen so quickly. Besides I've been nonstop busy lately and I'm not sure when I'll be able to think about those kind of things." Joshua responded.

"Good well then I'll take you up on that offer." Grace said with a smile before turning and pointing in the direction of the auction area. "There has been something different over there that I haven't checked out. A lot of members of the staff at the hospital have been talking about some changes happening at the auction house."

"Well then let's give it a look." Joshua replied as they made their way through the crowd in that direction. As they walked through the crowds of people Joshua noticed how a lot of people were looking in their direction. Joshua was used to standing out because of his height, but several people were also checking out Grace because of her beautiful figure. She didn't seem to mind which only proved how confidant she was in herself as she simply focused on chatting with Joshua about some of his exploration trips and the other members of the guild she was joining.

The two of them spent a lot of their time discussing medical knowledge which was a breath of fresh air for Joshua. Outside of his mother he didn't really have anyone else to discuss these types of things with. He wasn't surprised by the fact that Grace was ahead of him in the knowledge of things regarding mana at this point. She had been rather balanced with her studies and had far more time to focus on them. Joshua however spent more time focusing on learning about aura since it was more beneficial for him than other medical knowledge. He still planned to learn everything else, but he had other things to deal with.

Joshua was able to learn several things as they talked and made their way over to the auction area. When they got there they noticed a massive crowd standing outside the front of the auction house. The place was enormous and out of place as ever in comparison to all of the other stores around it, but this time around there was a glaring difference to the place. At the front of the auction house there was a large billboard like structure that was set up which was unusual. There was always a screen set up on the inside that showed everything that was being auctioned along with the current bid, but this billboard had never been there before.

When Joshua got close enough to use observe on the large blank billboard he realized that it was actually a massive screen instead of a billboard. In the center of the screen the moment he used observe on it he could see a number counting down. From what he could tell by the speed of the countdown there was a little over ten days before the countdown ended. Judging by the fact the large screen was placed directly over the auction house by the system he was fairly certain that whatever the surprise was going to be was going to be related to the auction house.

"Any idea what this could be about?" Joshua asked as he turned away from the crowd and looked at Grace who seemed to be checking out the screen in a similar way that he had.

"Well it showed up here a few days ago and has been counting down ever since. We don't really know the reason for it to appear so suddenly, but it's not the only thing that suddenly appeared." Grace explained while moving away from the crowd so they could hear each other over all the noise in the area.

"What else has showed up like that? It can't be too many things right?" Joshua asked a bit surprised. He didn't know exactly why things would start showing up so randomly. If anything he was expecting new things to show up soon after they had completed the large town subjugation. That seemed like a changing point if anything. In the past few days there hadn't really been any world first achievements that would have this kind of effect. He would have to ask Thoren or Ysildea about this the next time he saw one of them.

"Let me show you. I'm sure you've pretty much seen everything else about the city at this point anyways." Grace said with a shrug as they made their way over towards the center of the city where the large guilds were stationed along with the job center. When Joshua looked towards the job center he noticed another large screen that was set up nearby, but this time it wasn't a part of the job center like the one near the auction house. This screen had its own space with several people crowded around it trying to figure out what was going on.

Joshua once again noticed the exact same count down number, so he knew that both screens would reveal whatever they were hiding at the same time. "I wonder what kind of additions these things will bring to the city?" Joshua said what he was thinking out loud.

"If I had to guess it would be something entertaining. All though the hub city is futuristic and all that, it's very lacking in the attraction department. Got to have something for the kids to do other than go to school before they go crazy." Grace said as she noticed a lot of kids in the area staring at the screen with excitement.

"That's true. The only thing around worth watching for entertainment is some of the news programs that involve dungeon raids or hunting expeditions. We do need something a bit different to provide entertainment for everyone. Exploration events shouldn't be the only thing people are interested in." Joshua said with a sigh. "If we ever plan on getting back to the point where society can be creative an advance itself were going to need a lot more than just explorers around."

"That's a surprisingly well thought out take from one of your so called explorers."

"Well, I tend to have my head in the clouds when I start thinking about these things too much. For now I'm just interested in seeing what all of these new areas in the hub city are about." Joshua replied with a smile.

"Then follow me. I'll show you to the last spot that popped up." Grace said as she started wading through the crowd and heading to another section of the city. In the past the area they were heading to was a rather odd sight since it was just a massive empty lot. The space was big enough for multiple stadium like structures or a massive nature district so Joshua wasn't quite sure what would eventually be there.

When they got to the area there was another large screen set up just outside of it, but there wasn't as many people around since it was away from the center of the city. It had the same count down as the other screens as well. Joshua knew something was up and he had a good idea of just who to ask.