In a haze of painless respite, Andrew's eyes flickered open, still brimming with life. Out of pure habit sitting up, even as his eyes adjusted to the light of the rising sun coming in through the window. Confused thoughts flitzing through his mind, he held his head with his hand- Or at least tried to, finding only a stump of a right arm.

...

His mind quickly cleared as memories returned, as he attempted to feel his right hand.

It seemed that this was reality, and it was one he'd rather not accept; but he still had to. It was difficult to ignore the complete lack of feeling in his hand and the sight of a bandaged stump instead of his young hand, and as it was said to him a thousand times; 'A pessimist is a loser, an optimist is a loser too; only be accepting reality do you have a chance at not being a loser.'

It didn't rhyme, it didn't sound nice and he had no clue where the quote was from, but the elders kept repeating it when he was ever doubting something obviously true. Like when one of his old friends were talking badly about him to his parents- A reason why they were 'Old friends' and not friends- And he didn't want to believe it.

Andrew had to just say something, even if no one would hear, just to sate the little part of himself panicking about it "It sure feels weird not to have a hand."

Feeling his mana pool, he couldn't find any problems when he tried to take out a batch of mana. At least that was fine, if he couldn't draw out mana his time as a {Mad wizard} would have come to an abrupt and disappointing end, though his lack of a right hand would still be troublesome since chants with hand motions were usually shorter for the same amount of skill; even if he hadn't really gotten to that point yet.

"Ah, you're finally awake." He heard from outside the room he sat in, the grand master revealing himself the source after opening the door.

Andrew, taking a small glance at his hand "Elder, could you tell me what happened?"

"I think you know what happened, you lost a hand." He said with a laugh as he walked to the side of the bed and pulling a stool to sit next to it.

"Yea, yea, I obviously know that," Andrew shot back, gesturing towards the subject in question with his head "I'm asking about what happened, remember; knocked out. A quick refresher would help, how long have I even been out?"

It seemed that his quick rebuke had taken him off-guard, seen from the elder's pause before thinking "I don't really have an entire explanation prepared for you, so this might be a bit lacklustre; don't blame me if it is."

"No worries." He one-handed patient affirmed patiently.

"Well," Lest said while taking out a string-bound book obviously cheaply created by the lumberjack because he wanted to increase his skill, him begining to read from it "Remember; don't expect a perfect summary."

"Yes, I won't..." Though he couldn't understand why he was messing with him, it wasn't that big of a deal.

As the arcanist began to speak, he took out a pen and began to write- Was he actively trying to mess with him?

"First of all, a dragon flew over to a nearby village. I think you went there once, though I'm not entirely sure. It blew it up with a single breath of fire, shaking the earth and causing a local earth quake from what I can tell," He explained, writing rapidly all the while. If not for knowing his class, Andrew would've expected him to be a {Scribe} of some sort "Because of this multiple of the houses created in the last few weeks with lesser quality collapsed and lead to a good few people to being heavily injured, and this continued to the dungeon as well; spooking it into releasing a new slime variants.

One of which made you lose a hand."

Okay, he was definitely messing with him. Andrew could already feel his blood pressure rise slightly, completely forgetting about his loss of a hand and tensing his left hand into a fist along with his phantom right hand "Yes..."

"So, in response to this terrible situation. The heroic and brave guild master Thalos steeled his heart and began to manage the disaster relief efforts without a second thought, heroically bringing together all adventurers and the like together under his honourable banner to save the unrightfully injured populace. He himself taking centre stage in the process, bravely wretching out the wounded though sadly unable to save those too far gone. His loyal side-kick Zera helping all the way through, showing her great heart and why she is worthy of being his assistant."

"Wait," Andrew quickly stopped with his right hand- Before realizing he didn't have a hand and instead stopping the old man with a stump "Is this propaganda? Why are you making propaganda?"

"Shut up, brat!" The dutiful propaganda writer instantly snapped back "I'm getting paid for this!"

"With what?! You're rich!" Andrew couldn't help but follow the footsteps of his master and snapped back in turn, Lest von Balis had been quite the adventurer back in the day and had amassed a good sum of money for his retirement. How did he know? He bragged about it to his parents once while he came over to guide him in .

The grand elder stared at him for a moment before stating "One's wealth cannot be determined by mere coin - I'll kill your entire family, the mad god. Once you get older, you'll realize the truth of these words."

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"Isn't it just an addition to 'I hoard weapons, my neighbour hoards food, my neighbour is my food supply'? The quote came from a book titled 'I'll kill your entire family', I think it's pretty obvious violence is what he's talking about." He asked, using one of the more common quotes to increase the power of his argument.

Though Lest could only shake his head in disappointment "And this is why you'll only understand when you're older."

"Sure, whatever." Andrew gave up on the topic, it didn't seem that he would make any headway anyways.

Seeing that he no longer had any contest, the old man continued "As all who could be saved had been brought to safety and healed as best as they could've been, Thalos and Zera united the people with a grand rousing speech, dulling their panic and bringing forth the courage of humanity. With tearful heart, Thalos once again began forming an expedition to the depths of the dungeon. Though he was saddened by the loss, he could not let it get in the way of progress... And now that's that, you've been out for about a day."

"...That's it?" Andrew thought he was going to write an entire novel about how cool the guild master was.

Putting the book back to where he had stored it, he explained "It's just the synopsis, I'll write the actual content of the book after this."

Andrew's blank face was enough to show his response, at least in his own opinion.

"Alright, so, with that done. Let's talk about the most important topic." He said gravely, putting away his means of writing as well "Your split of the slime core money, 200 andrus was taken off for transportation to the surface but because I myself healed you along with funding the other healer that took a look at you nothing else is taken out, leaving you with 12700 andrus."

With the metallic sounds of coins slamming against wood, Andrew's eyes passed over the money and asked the question he was expecting an answer to "So, about the hand."

"What about it?"

"It's gone, I don't have my right hand anymore." Andrew pursued.

"Yes, that is kind of obvious. Talking about that, when you think about your lost hand do you happen to see flashes of something unpleasant or start to sweat? Anything strange at all."

"N-No? But, my lost hand, is there any way to get it back? Is it find to not have it?" Andrew once again tried to get answers about his lost hand.

"Hmm, really? When you think of what happened, does your heart beat start raising and you feel like something is watching you? It's pretty important for me to know."

"No, not really. I'd rather not remember it since it was a very painful experience, but no. Wait- Why are you asking this?" Andrew asked, very confused.

Lest smiled "Well, to make sure you don't have shell shock."

"Shell shock?"

"Yep, shell shock," He explained "I don't know where it was originally discovered or where the word came from, but shell shock can be extremely troublesome for anyone. Whenever you think or are reminded of a trauma all kinds of bad stuff happens, I'll explain it better later. But just know that if you had shell shock, when you next see a shot of acid coming from a slime you'll instantly fall to the ground or run away in panic and fear- Maybe, it's different for different people, I can't be sure; I'm not someone who researches it."

"Okay?" Andrew accepted quickly in an attempt to start talking about the hand "It's good that I don't have it then; but the hand."

The grand elder though, did not follow Andrew's lead and continued with what he was talking about "Well not exactly, I can't be certain if you have shell shock or not without going back into the dungeon to test it out. Even if I don't you should be going back inside, it's best to be certain there aren't any weaknesses in your mind."

"Okay, I get it, sure: But the hand, talk about the hand please."

...

"Fine, since I'm done making sure, sure. You're lost hand," He paused in the middle of what he was saying, unknown to Andrew what was going on in his mind "Is not that big of a deal. You're a mage, specifically a wizard. Not a warrior, so you don't really need to use weapons. Not a builder or anything else menial or auxiliary, nor do you have nor can I teach it to you even if you wanted to learn it. There's not a single actually important skill that requires both hands, or even just one for that matter."

The words relieved Andrew, he had seriously been worried about that. He knew very well about the troubles one of his neighbours, mr. Then, had gone through just because he lost his left pinkie finger- Mostly because he was extremely angry about it even after having killed the person who had done the heinous deed- He was the one who owned the Guest house, Andrew could imagine him at least a bit cheery considering houses had apparently fallen apart.

Though he couldn't be sure about that, he didn't have any details about how many houses got ruined by the dragon's, probably accidental, destruction.

But that did not mean he was happy about the whole situation "Is there a way to get it back?"

Again, the old {Mad arcanist} thought for a moment "...Yes, there are even a good few methods; with many more I probably don't know. Though each comes with a draw back, you could go to the a priest variant from the god of life and give a very, very, very large amount of money as donation, you could go to a mage that could do it and pay more directly, you could learn a magic skill that could regenerate limbs and train for a long time, you could maybe find an artifact that can do it if you're lucky, maybe make a deal with a demon?"

"What magic?"

", , , , maybe, , , , , there are a lot." He quickly listed out a few magic skills that could maybe do the job if brought to a high enough level.

"Well, which one is the best?"

Though in response to the question Lest shook his head "It's not that simple, affinity and talent play a role in it. There's a reason the few that can barely use usually can't use too. But if you're asking about the quintessential skill for the job, it would have to be , even if it's actually a combination of multiple different aspects instead of a singular aspect school it is very obviously the best for the job. But, it's [Epic], so I'd say it's better to go for the merely [Rare] instead, it'll have good viability even if getting the hand back doesn't work out."

Andrew took a moment to properly understand the words "...Then I'll learn that one."