The first light of dawn slowly chased the shades of night away like adding water to ink. It was still a bit dark for Angor to see the faces of those two. It was only until the shorter one walking in front approached him, showing both joy and anxiety, that he recognized his visitors.
“Sailum?”
The shorter one was covered in a white bedsheet. Only his tiny head under the lamplight helped Angor recognize his name.
“It’s you, Angor! You’re okay! We were so worried!” Sailum quickly fell into tears.
Angor found a handkerchief and handed it to Sailum. “Hey, little one, we haven’t met for some days and you turned into a crybaby? How will you spend all the years before you become a wizard? Learn to grow up!” Angor mimicked Sunders’ tone, and he felt it awesome when lecturing someone younger.
“Good to see you well, Angor.” The taller woman behind Sailum joined them. Angor sensed her enthusiasm from her plain voice.
“It’s been some time, Nausica.”
“Have you recovered from your wound, Angor?” Sailum exclaimed, “I saw you bleeding like hell. It was scary!”
“Wound? What wound?”
“Stop acting tough. I know, Toby is… cry if you want, it’ll make you better.” Sailum pretended to be an adult and spread his arms out as he said, “Come, cry into my shoulders.”
Angor pushed him away. “Toby’s fine, right here sleeping.”
He took out the bird from his pocket and placed his tiny body on his hand.
Apart from some lost feathers, Toby had completely healed. The small creature’s chest was raising regularly and healthily.
“Toby’s alive? But I saw Lady Twilight-” Sailum stopped his words and put up a smile. “I’m glad he’s okay.”
“Twilight…” Angor realized something when he heard the name of the woman again. “You two went to the grand auction too?”
Sailum nodded. “Yeah, but we stayed in the outer hall and watched through the screen. I saw Toby showing up in there when a slave was brought for sale, then there was you, and Lady Twilight attacked you… Man. Thank lords that you’re both alive.”
Nausica put her left hand on Sailum’s shoulder. “What did I say? The screen was blocked when Twilight was going to kill you, I thought someone was there to save you.”
Angor sensed something strange coming from Nausica, although he did not question it.
“My professor saved me.”
He only explained the result while omitting all the details.
“I thought so. Mister Sunders is the only figure I know who can interfere with Twilight Auction,” said Nausica as she revealed a jealous look. “And Sailum never believed me. The kid forced me to wait in front of your door during the last two days.”
“You waited here for two days?” Angor felt touched and a bit sorry for them as well.
“Stop exaggerating things, Miss Nausica! We weren’t always here. We came to get arranged so that we can live in apprentice town,” said Sailum. He pointed toward two side-by-side yards several hundred meters away. “We rented those. I wanted to be your neighbor so we can have lunch together or something, but your villa is too remote, and we’ll never have enough money to build a new house. Those two houses are the closest we can find.”
“It’s okay. Just walk a little. I happen to plan to give up those instant rations these days. Don’t blame me if I drop by at your place to have free lunch,” said Angor with a chuckle.
“So, why did Toby go to the auction stage back there?” Sailum grew too curious.
“Oh, that… Let’s talk inside.”
Angor beckoned his friends to enter his villa.
Inside his house, Angor first went to the attic and carried Toby’s tiny bed downstairs to place it in his bedroom. He then placed Toby down to rest on the bed before joining his friends in the guest room.
He told them about Toby, about Greya, and Barbie’s Restaurant.
His guests spent a moment in silent to digest what they heard.
Nausica exhaled a smoke ring and snickered, “I can see why Toby was so reckless when he saw the eyeless man was enslaved.”
“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?