Louie sighed as he looked at the missing hand.

"Damn."

He ran his fingers through his hair and moved to the vendor as he heard Sher whisper but know it won't work. The system considered the wound healed and won't work.

He knew it's his fault that Joe lost his hand as he accesses the vendor and paid the 1copper piece for the catalogue tablet.

Sher has been staring at Joe's arm hoping that it will regrow but nothing happened, she reached out to touch his arm while trying to will Mana into his system the same way she uses when suddenly, and all of a sudden the burnt flakes of skin and damaged clothing turned into dust and floated away.

Good but not what I need.

She closed her eyes and remembered what Loo had told Joe to do when he taught him how to get the skill.

She started thinking of his arm and missing hand.

She thought of how it must look like inside, based on the x-rays she had seen while working in the old-age home, and the pictures she remembered from biology class in school, the different scans and medical programs she saw on tv.

She thought about all of that and the intend also, the fact that she needs to see, to understand what was happening inside his arm, and her intention to heal the damages,

Suddenly she could see right through his arm, through the skin, concentrating harder her sight travelled deeper, through the fat, the muscle, veins and the nerves, all the way on to the bone.

She could see the blood running through the veins, and sculpted muscle to round out his stub.

Suddenly in the left of her vision appeared a picture and detailed description of Joe, all his stats and afflictions, she saw that he had a (-25% ) next to the word debuff. She could feel the mana drain from her the longer she used the spell so she leaned back releasing the spell and relaxed.

She was slightly disappointed, she had hoped for a regeneration spell, but was resolved to try again later.

She got to her feet and stumbled towards her bunk and a couple of minutes of rest.

Louie had moved to the table and started going through the tablet looking for a potion or something that can be used to regrow the missing limb, after an hour of the search there was clearly nothing that could regrow missing limbs.

He had an inkling of an idea but will have to talk to Joe before starting with it.

Pain! Ow God, he silently screamed, the pain . . . is gone?

Slowly he moved his legs and the rest of his body. I'm alive?

As he opened his eyes. He smiled. Then he froze for a second, and his smile died. Struggling to accept what he is seeing.

The right arm with the missing hand was his own. Fear and panic threatened to take over, so he shut the whole thought process down.

Breathing deeply, he repeated a single sentence over and over until he felt himself calm down.

Everything is okay, and I am still alive. He said it at least five times before opening his eyes again.

“I have a stump for a right arm, but at least I'm alive.” He said aloud, looking at his situation once more.

He knew that fighting would be a tremendous task. But there was no alternative. In this new world if you can't fight you die. He knew he would gain more strength by practising every minute even if he had to strap a shield on his right arm and learn to fight with an axe in his left hand.

He is strong he will survive this. he turned to Louie and suddenly all his good intentions went out the window and he just lost it.

He screamed at Louie.

“What the fuck were you thinking? we could have all died fighting that fucken thing, the whole day we have been preparing every site to give us every advantage and you go and throw it all away, how the hell am I going to fight without my hand?”

Tears started flowing as he lowered his head and Sher jumped up from her bed and rushed to Joe's side.

“How am I going to survive in this new world, the weak get chewed up and spit out,” he whispered.

"I'm sorry I fucked up, I know you deserve an explanation."

Joe waved his stump in the air. "Really, Your stunt ruined that fight and that cost me my arm."

"Yes it did,” Louie said with remorse.

"As you can imagine, I have some anger issues, among other things."

He took a deep breath.

“But first, I would like to explain why I jumped the gun. I know we don't know each other for long but my gut tells me that I can trust you guys, even call you friends and that's rare. I don't have a lot of friends and I would like us to be friends and be able to trust each other."

Continuing to look at his friends until he had gathered his thoughts, he took a deep breath. He realized that there was a part of him that wanted to talk about what happened, that needed to talk about it. The therapist had urged him to do so and that he would get to that point eventually.

"If you would rather keep your secret, we can wait till you are ready."

"No, it’s fine, Sher. It’s not… a secret. Just something that I don’t like to talk about. I have… had a family... Wait let me start from the begining."

"I will start at school. Did you guys have Kadets when you were in school?" When they shook their heads he returned to his story.

"I grew up in Parow and was popular in school, played rugby, had a lot of friends, this was during the apartheid. We as children didn't know anything about politics, hell two of my best friends were coloured kids, Jim and Jacob van Rooien."

"Good people, we spent many a weekend in the veldt gooing kleilat and liked their sister too. Liked her a lot."

"Somehow the story got out that I have 'Kafir' friends.”

He shook his head while they gasped.

“How I hated that word. I was headstrong and quick to anger. Nobody tells me what I must do or who I must befriend when I'm at home. A couple of fistfights later I suddenly lost my place on the rugby team and the other school sports. I decided, fuck them, I will keep my friends. I started studying more and dated Cindy, I didn't care what the kids in school said. I was the only non-virgin in my class, thanks, Cindy." he laughed softly.

"So one day during Kadets, that happened every Wednesday, the whole thing seems so unreal now. All the white boys from grade 7 to 12 dress up in military uniforms once a week to do drills and learn to shoot rifles. Well, the school counsellor was tasked to ask each boy what he wanted to do in the army, which was compulsory for all white boys when they leave school, it doesn't matter if you are sixteen, if you leave school then you go do your 2years of mandatory service in the national defence force."

"I have been very ignorant of the world and told the counsellor that I wanted to be a recce, everybody laughed their asses off, damn that caused me a lot of grief for the next two years of school. After matric, I went to do my service, but unlike the other kids in my class, I was sent to artillery school in Potchefstroom because I had said I wanted to be a recce but I failed to meet the prerequisite to join, so instead of sending me to the nearest base to my home like the rest of the kids in school I was sent to Potch."

"So there I was, the only Capie in a camp full of Vaalies. one of the hundreds of 16-18-year-old kids. I worked hard and I liked the army, follow orders, do what you were told and you had the time of your life."

"I lost a lot of weight and became very fit. First, seven-day pass I got after 3months of basic training I went home and Cindy loved the new fit and slim me."

He smiled as he remembered the good times. "After the year I asked and got permission to try out for Artschool. This was heaven except for the fact that the Sergeant of our Battery was a sadistic asshole."

He saw them smile. "No you don't understand, he literally loved to give and receive pain, he was a sadist, later found out he loved to hurt things and people, like girls, and my dog." He took a deep breath.

"I had a small dog while we were in Caprivi. It wandered into camp one day and we adopted him. Brought him back to Potch when we came back, but I considered him mine cause the rest of the guys went home every weekend and I couldn't."

"First time I saw red and went into a Rage was when I found the asshole stomping my dog to death. He got demoted and transferred to a base in Durban. I got a month of extra duties and written up on my record."

"A year after that incident we crossed paths again. He orchestrated a little get together with me and I don't remember much but he ended up in hospital for a month and I was discharged, they called it PTSD from my time on the border, and then the Sandf was practically disbanded and things in South Africa went from bad to worse."

"I went home. My parents had sold the townhouse and used their life savings to buy a farm, a small farm but still a farm, the farm was nice, I still had a Rage problem but I could take my anger out chopping trees. Many a day I woke up in a cell for drunk and disorderly."

"I had a lot of anger towards the government with the way they treated us former soldiers, and me. One moment we were decorated soldiers and the new government came in and suddenly we were ostracized on TV and people spit on us in the streets.”

He stopped and got up from the table taking deep breaths as he started walking around in the room till he had calmed down and came back to the table.

“Sorry, as you can see I have some issues with the government or the pre-pulse government. I love this country and I hate what people with their greed has turned it into."

"So I'm at home and Cindy is helping me with my anger issues, she was staying on the farm with me and we got engaged. Jim and Jacob and I went away for some weekend bro bonding, fishing and hunting if you can call shooting guinea fowl with a 22 hunting, ending with drinking. We got back late that Sunday evening."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"We walked in on a bloodbath. I broke down, Jim phoned the police and as we were sitting outside I hear a couple of officers labelled it as just another farm murder and so the newspapers called it."

"Jim had some contacts and got us a couple of guns while I tracked them through the back of the farm to a nearby plakkerskamp (shantytown). I was fighting the rage the whole time, Cindy would have been proud of me. Jim and Jacob went in and after a couple of hours of talking to people, they found them."

"We were just going to restrain them and call the police. When we entered the shanty there were about twelve kids between thirteen and twenty-five inside, they pulled knives and shit."

"We explained that we want them to put down the knives, they laughed at us then started bragging and then one said how he had cut Cindy open and then had sex with her body and I lost it."

"I came back to my senses at Jim's place. The next day the story was all over the news, the township massacre as they called it, it turned out that there were a couple more guys at the back in another room, one had a machete, I was told that I took it from him and used it in the fight and dismembered them."

"Jacob had covered me in a blanket and got us out of there. I wanted to hand myself over to the police, deep down I still believed in the government and South Africa, but the J's convinced me to hold out for a couple of days."

"I agreed. two days later it was labelled as a gang massacre and some official stood up on TV and said that he would personally see that these animals that did this were treated the same as their victims."

"That convinced me that they won't even listen to my side of the story, so I relent and went home."

"I slept in a tent at the back of the house for a couple of months before I started building a new farmhouse in a protected corner of the farm."

"Our friendship slowly fell apart after that, my anger issues became much worse.”

He saw the horror in their eyes, and suddenly Sher stood up and hugged him.

"Huh? What's that for? Not that I'm complaining, thank you."

She took a step back. "Thank you for your service and thank you for sharing, even if it paints you as a scary killer. One day I will tell you my story."

Louie looked over at the dejected Joe.

"I'm sorry about your hand I checked through the vendor and there is nothing that can regrow missing limbs, but I have been thinking and I think I can you a prosthesis, a magical prosthesis."

"Hopefully, it will feel and act like a real hand till we can get somebody with the power to regrow your hand."

Joe looked up, "you think there will be somebody that can regrow it?"

"Yes I do, we are only into the apocalypse a couple of days now and everybody is still low level at the moment, but there might be more powerful spells unlocked as people raise their levels."

"Here are a couple of options."

He removed the golem arms that they have inventoried before they harvest the cores. There were 7 in total.

"As you know we were only going for weapons and only took the arms that were still clutching them." He moved two arms closer to Joe.

"These two are the closest fit, or you can hold off for tomorrow till we can find you the perfect one. Once we find the perfect lower arm I will hollow it out so it will fit over the arm like a gauntlet."

"I have been using this glue in holding my armour together so I can use my spell on it and I think that this will eliminate the need for straps to hold it in place and instead bond the protheses to your arm."

Everbonding Glue This viscous, milky-white substance can form a permanent adhesive bond between any two objects, a container contains 5 ounces.

The glue takes 1 minute to set. Once it has done so, the bond it creates can be broken only by the application of a wish spell.

"The golem parts and metals that we loot from the golems are system generated items so they have a bit of mana flowing through them, but the golem parts, weapons and armours that we take and inventory from the golems, those parts are infused with mana channels that were used by the golems to move."

"I believe that I can use that hand and combine one with an undamaged core, there is a small core that I think will work and there is the added benefit that the core is from an earth mage golem and you have an earth affinity so together with the glue I think that I will be able to fuse the protheses to your arm in a permanent bond that can only be removed with a wish spell."

"The big thing that I want you to think about is that I think we must cut the end of your arm and then drink a health potion the same time as I envoke the spell this will hurt like hell but I think this will give you a better fusion and you will have the full use of your hand again."

"I think that we might want to hold up here tomorrow anyway till I can make us some armour."

"You really think this golem prosthesis will work?"

"I don't know, but my gut tells me that this will work, and I have always trusted my gut."

Sher went over to the vendor and got them a bowl of stew and removed some loaves of bread and Loo took two bottles of nectar out of his inventory. as they started to eat and Joe seemed to perk up, coming to some sort of conclusion.

“Ok, this isn't what I wanted but it's the reality now, so I can either mope around and be negative or I can be positive and be sure that this will work till we can do something better and I'm sure that having a positive outlook will influence the outcome. I will choose this arm."

He indicated a black arm with red highlights around the edge of what looks like scalemail.

“Are you sure about that arm, it has only three fingers and a thumb?”

“Yes I'm sure I remember this golem, it was the one using a shield and big war hammer, so I don't think there will be any problem swinging an axe with this arm.”

“Ok.” Louie gathered all the other golem parts and placed them back in his inventory, his eye caught on the one glowing stone in the corner of his inventory.

I wish I know what the bloody hell that is the only say cornerstone.

He shook his head before removing a toolkit and started working on the arm.

"What's that?" Joe moved across the table from where Louie was busy cutting small pieces of metal out of the elbow of the golem arm.

"This?" He held up what looked like a penknife with a 5centimeter long blue blade.

"This is an ingenious device known as an engraving pen.

This is a beginners level Pen and it is used for engraving runes into surfaces. To facilitate the lack of practice and experience by beginners in the art of rune crafting, this pen has a mana blade that can be adjusted to cut runes up to a depth of five centimetres and a width of up to one centimetre.

Heed your fingers or you might lose them.

"It's used by beginners for 'cutting' runes in any kind of metal, the emphasis being on cut and any metal. It literally removes the metal where the blade, think of it as a laser, touches the metal."

"After I saw it I bought four sets just to get the engraving pens for their mana blades. It's no use in battle, it's slow in cutting the metal, but it's good for making clean cuts through inanimate objects like this arm."

After removing the elbow he took measurements on Joe's left arm to make sure that they would be the same length, he then started to painstakingly cut away the solid insides of the arm.

"I am surprised with these golems, I thought they would be more like robots with an internal structure covered with metal, more like the terminator, but they are more solid metal and it seems that the mana makes the metal flexible."

He marked two spots on the arm and moved it over to Joe for a fitting and transferred the marks over to his arm.

"What are those for?"

"That is where the mana channels are."

"Mana channels?"

"Yes, I was actually waiting for Sher to join us to see if she also needs to do her channels . . ."

Sher grabbed a bottle of nectar from the vendor and moved to the table. "I heard my name and something about channels?"

"Good, earlier today I got when I did breathing exercises trying to refill my mana while we were building those traps and I remembered reading in one of those fantasy books of mine that they regained their magic or mana quicker when they meditated."

"I tried to follow the way that I remembered reading and it worked. I visualised my mana as a lake in the middle of my chest that was slowly rotating. As I breathed in I imagined breathing in the mana that was all around me and it flows into that lake."

"With every breath, I breathe out, I release all the impurities that are in my body and the mana. Building up and restoring my mana levels."

"Then I imagined forming two tendrils of fog-like mana and I directed. . . more like forced, I was in a hurry, the tendrils down my arms into my hands then back up the other side of my arms to my mana pool, forming a channel through which the mana circulate."

"A channel from my mana pool down to my hands and then back to my mana pool, I found that touch spells are easier to use if the mana is right there in my hands. That's why I made those marks on your arms, I want you to start creating a channel from your pool to this mark and then over your stump and through this other mark back to your pool and then keep circulating your mana."

"Ok, I can certainly give it a try."

Joe stood up and moved to one of the other chairs and started to breathe slowly, trying to meditate.

Sher was busy with her status.

"I have , not precisely the way you have it but mine works the same way I think, I just imagined the mana flowing up my arms towards the slingshot when I want to use for a PowerShot, but I think your method might be better than mine."

"I also got a spell <4D scan> It let me see inside the body like an MRI but it also supplies me with details of the person like his age, levels, afflictions and buffs and debuffs, whatever the hell those are, and also a spell called that look like it sanitizes things."

Louie laughed softly. "Buffs are something like a regeneration boost that lasts for an hour or so, anything that gives you a positive boost is known as a buff, where the same is true for everything that affects you negatively for a time and those are called a debuff."

She nodded and wanted to start meditating but Louie touched her hand.

"I wanted to ask you about healing, for instance, if I got a bite from a monster that took a piece of flesh from my arm and I drink a potion or if you heal me, will the wound close up till the arm is whole again or will the wound just close but leave the missing piece of flesh still missing?"

Sher looked like she wanted to pull her hair out of her head.

"That one has me baffled because it heals the wound till there is no indication that there was a wound at all, that makes me angry because that is regeneration, if it generates the missing flesh to fill the hole till the arm are healed, why can't it regenerate a missing hand?"

"The system is strange, and I'm glad it works like that. I think we can work with that, I'm going to talk to Joe because I think I have an idea how to make this arm even better but it might seem a bit . . . I don't know, drastic?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"I'm thinking of cutting a channel on the outside of the protheses from the edge all the way to the palm, and here is the drastic part, I want to ask Joe if we can cut a strip of flesh from the outside of his arm across the stump and leave it attached on the inside of his arm."

He saw the shocked look on her face. "Wait this will only happen if he agrees, then I want to place the prostheses on the stump and fold that flesh over and reattached it in the channel that I have cut securing it tightly."

"Then you can use your spell and <4Dscan> while I will then use and he drinks a healing potion at the same time, think of it as corrective field surgery. On the battlefield."

Sher was very sceptical of this process and looked a bit pale but nodded.

"It sounds barbaric." She took a deep breath and realized that if she wants to be a healer in this new world then she will have to get used to doing things she's not used to.

"But if he agrees then I will help you."

"Good. Thanks, I will explain my thoughts to him before I start with the groove in the inside of the gauntlet."

Sher left to sit cross-legged on her bed and started meditating.

After nearly two hours of slow precise cutting, Louie was done with removing all the metal inside the arm and now all he had to do is fit it and do minor corrections a couple of times to make sure it was a perfect fit, like a metal gauntlet.

Louie went over to Joe and started to explain what he had in mind and why he thought that it would work.

He explained that he thought the strip of flesh down the inside of the golem arm together with the core that he placed just above the wrist on the inside of the hollowed-out protheses together with the mana channels that Joe are creating would theoretically improve the bonding between the two parts and create a fully functional arm, hopefully.

He also explained that the damage that will be done by removing the strip of flesh would be repaired by the healing potion.

"Are you sure you can do this and that it will work?"

Louie explained that he wasn’t a combat medic but he had extensive medical training just based on being in the army and the different programs and qualifications he had to gain when he went to Artschool.

"I have done the training and have assisted twice in field surgeries to stabilise squadmates till they could be ready for tacevac, our biggest problem would be the loss of blood but Sher got an ability to see inside you like an MRI so she will see where the arteries are and we will mark them to bind off with tourniquets."

"We will use the everbonding glue to close the wound that we will create by removing the strip of flesh. The glue will replace the super glue that the medics use on battlefields to close wounds. I also got a salve from the vendor that is used to numb the pain."

He took off his right glove and pushed up his sleeve to show what looked like a metallic tattoo in the shape of a bracelet.

"The bonding will work, I tried it out when I first thought of the plan. This is a spatial bracelet that I got from the vendor, as you know the inventory can store perishables but it won't suspend time, the meat will go bad if uncooked."

"So I liked what Sher's lunchbox can do and I found this. It's called cooks pantry and it is a spatial storage bracelet with a 10sq Crono lock that can stack 99 items, mostly used by chefs."

"I removed a thin strip of skin around my wrist and coated the inside of the bracelet with the glue and when I fitted it on my arm it autofit the size and the glue bonded it to my flesh. I used and it ended like this. I used a healing potion to heal the skin and it still works perfectly."

Joe and Sher looked at the tattoo band, feeling it, poking it and turning the arm around to feel the underside.

Sher was the first one to speak and she wasn't happy that he did this experiment on the sly.

"That was a very stupid thing to do, this could have gone very wrong your hand could have turned to metal and then we had two guys without the use of their right hands."