"You can't possibly consider releasing that thing right here?" A face, his, facing someone, familiar and twisted into a scowl. Cego- he remembers the name even in this dream, where he's only in a half-conscious state, the man had created a monster and he wanted to let it loose on the battlefield, starting by releasing it within the bandit camp they were both on- which he is sure won't get wrecked by his abomination because he is confident he can control it.

Yavneck wasn't convinced however, because as much as he knew that Cego is somewhat competent in making monsters, the man couldn't be bothered to learn how to control his creation, and so far, he did nothing to even put a sliver of control over his creation, and releasing it would mean that the monster would be nothing more than a wild beast, set free of any rein and leash. If Cego couldn't control it, no one would and it would rampage through their camp, killing everyone within.

And it would start with them first.

"I am not considering it, I will do it." replied the madman, keys reaching out towards the lock of the binds chaining the monster down, "just watch, I can control it-"

And before Yavneck could stop him, he had unlocked the monster's shackles and flipped the lever of its cage, releasing the beast, and true to his expectation, the first thing that it did is glare at him with eyes full of hate and started lumbering forward, its large frame shaking the earth with each step-

Yavneck twisted the surrounding mana and pushed the energy into the necklace hanging around his neck, he felt the energy turn the spell stored within the accessory come alive and when mana filled it to the brim, he released it into the world, casting [Shield] and forming a blue barrier in front of himself. Yavneck moved to the side until he faced the entrance of the tent directly, then hurriedly, he grabbed his wand and raised it, preparing to bind it with vines and put it to sleep with spores, plans be damned, he's fighting the monster in front of him to save his life, he channeled his mana-

FIREFIREFIREFIREFIREFIRE

His eyes snapped open- darkness and silence.

Those had been the first thing that greeted him when he woke up in the middle of the night. He pushed himself to sit up, trying to use both hands before his left hand, now a stump, couldn't hold onto anything and ultimately caused him to make a fall that sent him hurtling back to his pillow.

He groaned, then another attempt at sitting up was done, this time he was more aware that he no longer have his left hand and so, he bit down the feeling of dread he got from losing a hand and used his remaining one to stabilize himself and used it to force his body up.

When his back was straight and his lungs went free, he started sucking in air, breathing heavily over and over again until he started panting and his breaths turned ragged.

He was feeling sick, that realization came the moment his headache turned into a painful bolt that ran through his head- just sitting up alone is a taxing action that sapped at his energy every passing second.

Focusing on touching the woolen mattress beneath him led his mind to catch up that it felt as hard as a rock yet somehow capable of being pressed, those two opposing facts made him feel queasy and his muddied mind decided to do something stupid; he removed his hand from the mattress- and as expected, gravity took over and his body fell downwards.

Stabilization came back to him when he pushed his ribcage against the nearby wall, and sat there, breathing heavily, and bit by bit, his consciousness started to fade.

And in that tiny corner of his mind that was wide awake, he was aware that he felt weak and powerless, everything hurt and little aches assaulted his body like little pinpricks digging through his skin, cramping his joints and hurting his head- he didn't like his current state, in fact, this is his worse experience up to date.

He breathed, a simple action yet doing so made his lungs feel like they'd been set on fire.

Sucking in air hurt his head- it was- what-

“Ow,” His hand grabbed his head, clasping his scalp as though it was a desperate lifeline as he grit his teeth to fight against the pain- he- what- he didn't know what to do, everything hurt, his body wasn't listening to him- his head felt like it was being smashed by a hammer whilst being fed to a colony of fire ants- he sucked in a deep breath as his eyes closed without his command-

Everything went dark.

Yavneck blinked once, then twice. The room was now slightly visible, either his eyes adapted or the moon has shown itself outside. Yavneck considered that it was the latter as he took stock of the state of his body, unlike before, where he was slumped against the wall, fighting for a semblance of bodily control, in the split second that he closed his eyes, his body had slid downwards and was back on his bed.

No- he didn't blink- he had fainted. Yavneck realized that quickly and he moved on just as fast to push himself upward, once again, he was sitting up and he couldn't be more glad that he was, his prior position had been bad and left his body twisted, when he lay like that, his breathing was been difficult and blood was rushing to his head.

Now that he was up, a bit of order had returned to his weakened body, just enough that he could think straight without a headache making him feel like hell.

Having this much clarity in his mind once again felt nice, and Yavneck vowed to never take it for granted ever again.

Mind clear once again, a second quick look around the room was the first thing that Yavneck did, and things were visible this time. Hence, he inspected everything he could, from the shelves full of herbs, tables filled with colorful rocks and incense, closed cabinets that reeked of food, to the sleeping apothecary in the corner.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Everything seemed to be well in order and Yavneck didn't feel the need to quickly escape and thus, he let himself relax and the effects were immediate, his head felt lighter and the beating of his heart became audible in his ears.

He had been panicking without realizing it.

Yavneck wiped his forehead and then lowered his palm to his face. Cold sweat. As he expected. Waking up in the middle of the night usually meant that he had been heating up while sleeping and that he had a fever which... his eyes landed on the sleeping form of the old man, so much for being a healer.

Still, it's not like Yavneck himself saw the need to wake the old man because he was feeling fine.

So... with that being said, what should he do? Go back to sleep? He had already fainted once, and sleep would probably come easy but that's assuming that his fever wouldn't make things hard for him. Escape? It is night but he can't even sit up, let alone get out of bed and stand up, hell, walking is probably impossible with his current health.

Think and plan? That does sound like a good idea since it would both make his mind tired, allowing for sleep, while also giving him a course of action to take come morning.

But... what should he plan about?

Nothing- as far as he's aware. There really isn't much to think of or even prepare about, well, he could think of a plan to get himself a prosthetic so that he wouldn't have to live with using only one hand but from what he could spot in the darkness, there's one sitting alone on top of the table. Yavneck sighed one of frustration and relief and assumed that planning for a prosthetic would most likely be unnecessary. And it's not like he had the funds to buy a proper prosthetic hand or know anyone who would offer him something like that for a favor.

Yavneck's eyes focused on the silhouette of the prosthetic, he couldn't quite see it because of the darkness but even from here, he knew that it was of low quality- which he sadly had to do with for now given that he had no better options. Beggars can't be choosers.

He looked away- so a prosthetic for his lost hand is no longer a problem, what about other magical items? Ones that would preferably fill his combat arsenal once again? Subconsciously, his hand reached out for his chest and his fingers found nothing more than the feel of soft wool.

His necklace is now gone, the very same one that had saved his life. For something that stored a simple [Shield] spell, the necklace had cost him an arm and a leg to purchase- which is rather ironic given the necklace saved more than that.

Come to think of it, how did it even happen? Yavneck had no clue, though a haphazard guess gave him the impression that the [Shield] that he had cast back then had blocked the sudden wave of force responsible for removing his hand, which he, unfortunately, held out during the time of the explosion. Why?

He... forgot, sort of, all he knew was that he held some sort of weapon to hold back Cego's monster, and when he was about to activate it- IT came down on them like Dragon Breath and wiped out the entire bandit camp.

Yavneck's body shuddered. Fuck plans- he needed to purchase or find another necklace like that first. Any other magical item can come second.

Great, the magical item plan is now up in flames, which is both good and bad, good because he doesn't have that much money right now, which means that he can't get another magical item even if he needed it.

Bad because well, his arsenal had been the only thing that gave him the smallest chance in winning fights against people with better classes than him, [Scholar] isn't exactly considered a combat class, but it does give him a decent amount of

Cognitive Stat, which gives him a small amount of magical prowess.

A course of action then? What does he want to do come morning? Escape? That isn't an option, not when he's effectively crippled. And it's not like anything bad has happened to him during his single day of stay with the apothecary, which means that the man can be trustworthy enough that he won't need to worry about things for the time being.

So... that means he has to play along with the people of this village until he recovers, and then after that, leave this place and set off on his own, he could start anew somewhere, find a place to continue his goals or even another bandit group to join, the possibilities would be endless right as long as he's recovered enough to move from place to place without collapsing.

For now? He closed his eyes and allowed his tired body to faint.