“I never thought Toby had such a troubled past behind him,” Sailum commented.
“Troubled?” Angor smiled. “His story’s a pretty smooth one. It’s his master who’s troubled.”
“Greya, right? Such a legend. It’s such a pity that she died.” Nausica had been reading a lot about famous witches, and she greatly respected Greya, a great witch on her path of truth.
Angor did not reveal the possibility that Greya might still be alive. He only smiled back to end the topic.
“Burning throat much? I’ll get you some water,” Angor took out two glasses and cast a “Create Water” to fill them.
Sailum moved faster and grabbed the glass so he could attempt the cantrip first.
Compared to last time, Sailum used a much shorter time to cast the spell. In fact, it was almost as fast as Angor. It could be seen that Sailum spent a lot of effort into practicing this particular cantrip.
“Am I good enough?” Sailum picked up the glass, winked at Angor proudly, and gulped down the water.
Angor kept his smile and discarded the water in the second glass. He then refilled the glass and handed it to Nausica.
“Stable model and mana output, just…” He failed to hide a laugh. “Just that, you didn’t notice that the glasses aren’t properly washed for two months.”
Sailum’s smile instantly turned upside-down. “You should tell me earlier!”
“But you seemed so eager to complete your little show.”
Nausica watched the interaction between her friends and quickly forgot about all the negative emotions that developed in her mind recently. She grinned and sipped her own water.
Angor had been keeping some attention on the woman while speaking to Sailum. He already noticed something “out of place” when he saw Nausica patting Sailum’s shoulder. His doubt grew bigger when he saw Nausica holding her glass using her left hand… when her right one was conveniently closer to the glass.
He looked at Nausica’s right side that was entirely covered by her black robe, and he then looked at her right arm or where her right arm should be.
“Hey, Nausica. Is your right hand… injured?”
“Injured? Nah,” Nausica shook her head with a snicker and lifted her robe. “I lost it by accident.”
Lost?
Angor did not comprehend what it meant for a moment, but his gaze froze upon seeing the empty space under Nausica’s right shoulder.
“Don’t worry. It’s just an arm… it won’t affect how I fight,” said Nausica as she smiled brightly behind her smoke. “I’ll just get a new one. Seven out of ten Bloodline Wizards can perform limb transplantation. The auction was selling the right arm of a Golan Gibbon, but it was too expensive and ugly and with all those green hair on it… So I didn’t buy.”
Angor recalled seeing the item which was sold at 1,300 magic crystals.
Nausica was never someone to mind how she looked, which meant she simply could not afford the arm.
Angor remembered seeing more than one body part being sold at the auction, and they were all pretty costly. Some of them easily went beyond ten thousand crystals. However, not all of them were used on wizards since some of them were too powerful, some too weak, while the rest simply did not fit. Suitable organs all required long-term culturing process, but it would not necessarily guarantee the outcome.
Generally speaking, organ transplantation was not something affordable for apprentices. The price went higher and higher when there were spells that required transplanted organs such as a low-leveled cantrip “Canine Nose”. The prices of usable organs on the market never witnessed any drop.
“Once I become a level-2 apprentice, I’ll try my luck at the Abyss Plane. Maybe I’ll find something I can use there.” As a pirate captain, someone without proper limbs was never an uncommon sight to Nausica, and she did not find it bothersome when it happened to herself.
“You never know how long that will take you. Besides, the Moonfrost Passages around Brute Cavern will be closed soon. You have to join their expedition team to get into Abyss Plane again, and we all know how those teams do their business.” Angor frowned.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll wait and see. Maybe I’ll come upon a chance really soon. And if I can’t find one, I’ll just slap a hook on it. There are many pirates who chopped off their arms so they can equip a hook to display their leadership,” said Nausica as she recalled her past life. “Sir One-Eye, Captain Hook, Black ‘n’ Red Beard… A hook is kind of a signature for all pirates back at my place. Now I can use the same thing so everyone knows who I am.”
While Nausica told her story, Angor went over his own thoughts.
Hook?
An idea flashed through his mind.
Speaking of hook… “transplanting” was not the only way to attach a hook. He once saw a sci-fi themed painting in his hologram tablet which presented a man traveling among stars. This character did not wear anything over his top, but his four limbs were cladded in metal. He dashed through the sky, eyes closed, silver hair blowing in wind…
Angor only felt that it was creative when he saw the painting for the first time. Now… it actually provided him with inspiration.
If they could not find a limb of a powerful monster, would it a be a good idea to install a mechanical limb?