Warlock Apprentice

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.”

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?