Chapter 356: Magical Means to Remove Intestinal Polyps

Garrett Nordmark’s room was crowded.

Little Larry lay on the bed, while Garrett sat in front of it, operating an endoscope—or rather, a contraption made of vines and the Arcane Eye.

The boy’s father, shopkeeper Borlu, stood to Garrett’s left, leaning forward, ready to hold down his son’s legs.

Havardan—the young man who delivered the Crow Flag—stood on his left, curiously staring at the screen. His fingers stretched out and then retracted, itching to poke it.

After Archmage Serrano provided the Arcane Eye, he naturally took the best spot for observing on Garrett’s right. Mage Simond stood beside him without hesitation, while others, even high-ranking, short priests like Master Talbert, had to stand further back.

The mages were greatly dissatisfied. Not daring to protest against the Archmage, they started jostling among themselves:

"Hey, make some room!"

"You’re blocking my view!"

"You’re tall! Go stand at the back!"

"My eyesight is bad, I can’t see clearly! Let me move a bit forward!"

They squabbled and jostled, everyone wanting to get closer and see more clearly—using the Arcane Eye to look inside a human body was unprecedented!

No one here had seen such a thing before. Those curious about the interior of the intestines were mostly necromancers who would cut open to look; those not curious wouldn’t think to insert the Arcane Eye. It was a rare operation, successful or not, everyone was eager to watch.

And indeed, they saw the images!

"Everyone out!"

Archmage Serrano finally lost his patience:

"Go outside if you want to watch! Use your own Arcane Eye if you want to see the images!"

This woke everyone up. The mages grouped together, left a few Arcane Eyes aimed at the screen, and retreated to their rooms to watch the broadcast quietly. At Garrett’s side, the two mages watched the screen but gradually frowned:

They couldn’t understand it.

A red, sticky mass was spinning and advancing crazily. Occasionally, a glimpse of a deep dark hole could be seen.

But even this little bit of imagery wasn’t something one could continuously watch. The images fed back by the Arcane Eye got darker and darker…

"Cough cough, Mage Nordmark." Archmage Serrano hesitated before reminding Garrett:

"The Arcane Eye can’t see anything in the dark, you…"

This kid might not know that? Although he was a key talent cultivated by the Thunder Horn, the Arcane Eye was a third-level divination spell, and he might not know some details…

"Hehe, don’t worry, I’m prepared." Garrett smiled easily. He had memorized the limitations of the Arcane Eye, but electronic endoscopes always come with their light source. He had thought of preparations beforehand!

He extended a vine, coiled around a small light orb, and sent it into the boy’s body. Soon, the screen of the Arcane Eye overflowed with bright light.

Garrett manipulated the vine, advancing and retracting it gently, slightly rotating, pointing at the screen, constantly explaining to shopkeeper Borlu:

"Look here—see a polyp? It’s protruding on the surface of the intestine… Moving forward, here—wow, this stalk is very long! It’s very prone to entanglement! At such a low position, it must protrude from the anus during defecation, right?"

Little Larry: "T-T yes…"

Garrett operated with ease. Performing an endoscopy is a skillful task, and the endoscope tube cannot move on its own; it entirely depends on the doctor’s technique.

Advancing the scope, retracting it, rotating it, pulling it—all sorts of maneuvers through the curves.

When encountering strangely curved intestines, or tumors, adhesions, or particularly large abdomens, it’s easy to puncture through if not careful…

Specialization requires expertise. In his past life, Garrett wouldn’t dare perform such a procedure with an endoscope. But now, vines, these things grow on their own!

Too easy!

He was at ease, but the patient’s family was not. A large screen swayed, filled with red polyps, covering half the screen. Just one look could make one dizzy.

Honestly, without professional training, ordinary people couldn’t understand this. Fortunately, Garrett was there to explain:

"My suggestion is to cut off these polyps, especially those that have grown stalks. Only by removing them can the symptoms improve. If not removed, stomach pains will frequently occur."

"I don’t want that—"

The sharp child’s voice instantly pierced the air. Shopkeeper Borlu pressed down on his son, hesitantly looking towards Garrett:

"Just pain, we Northerners can endure it, right?"

Cutting flesh, cutting flesh from

inside the intestines! Does it mean the stomach has to be opened to remove them?

Even though there are healers and divine magic at hand, opening the stomach—

Garrett could tell what he was thinking just by looking at his face. Surgery is scary for anyone. Although the appearance of barbarians differs from humans, the difference in some aspects isn’t so significant.

"Pain is not the most severe consequence." He patiently explained:

"Think about it, an intestine is so thin. If several stalks twist together, it could block the intestine. In bad luck, the entire intestine could rot, it’s not impossible."

"But—"

Borlu was still hesitating. On the other hand, Mage Simond turned his head towards Garrett, full of interest:

"Cutting the intestine? I haven’t seen you do that yet—I heard you dissected dozens of intestines during the last plague, and no one died?"

This was a way to comfort the patient’s family, probably because the mage was also curious to see Garrett perform surgery. Garrett coughed awkwardly:

"It’s different this time—last time, it was about cutting off rotten intestines and repairing perforations. This time, it’s about cleaning the extra stuff inside the intestines…"

"I see." Mage Simond nodded repeatedly. He glanced at the barbarian, who was still undecided, coughed discontentedly:

"If you don’t want to cut, then don’t! We’ve seen enough anyway, and we still have to travel. Garrett, pack up and let’s go!"

"No no no! Master Mage! Please wait—" The barbarian lunged forward, grabbing Garrett’s robe, desperately showing a pleading look:

"Wait for me to think! Let me think it over! The accommodation fee for last night, I’ll waive it for you! Waive it for all of you!"

"Who’s short of money?" Mage Simond continued with a stern face:

"If I really wanted your money, the casting fees for these few spells would be several times the accommodation fee, right?"

"But—"

Garrett was truly not used to this. Mages in this world might be high and mighty, with commoners holding them in high esteem, but Garrett never felt that patients’ families were beneath him.

He thought for a moment, first calmed Mage Simond, asking him to sit down and rest, not to get angry. Then, he turned to Archmage Serrano, full of expectation:

"Your Excellency Archmage, that—about the improved version of the magic weapon, have you got any idea?"

Archmage Serrano caught his gaze, finally realizing. No wonder the request was so tricky, adding effects to spell creations, waiting here for it!

He snorted coldly. Why ask such a difficult question, giving him such a big challenge, and expecting results in less than ten days? Change, change, change, as if it’s that easy—

"I’ll bless it for you!"

All this fuss, a mere enchanted weapon, turned out to be more difficult than a higher-grade enchanted weapon! As for how to lower the casting level and teach Garrett to do it himself, Archmage Serrano still had no clue…

"That would be great!" Garrett was overjoyed. He immediately turned to shopkeeper Borlu, quickly explaining:

"Don’t worry, no need to open the stomach. We’ll just extend another vine inside, cut off the polyp. With healing spells, there won’t be much bleeding, and the patient won’t suffer too much."

"Then—"

"Look, it’s like this." Garrett raised his hand, and another green vine grew out, swaying in the wind. Archmage Serrano casually pointed, and half a foot from the tip of the vine was instantly covered with a layer of faint silver light.

Then, the vine formed a circle, pulling hard on a makeshift short stick.

The head of the stick broke into two, with a smooth cut surface, as if sliced by a sharp blade.

With such a demonstration, plus Garrett’s gentle and persuasive explanation, shopkeeper Borlu finally agreed to the surgery. Soon, four vines advanced side by side in the intestines:

Vine one, providing light;

Vine two, moving the Arcane Eye for visualized operations;

Vine three, the one blessed by Archmage Serrano as a magic weapon, extended inside, coiled around the base of the polyp under everyone’s gaze, and with a pull, cut it off;

Of course, there was also the fourth vine, which formed a pocket above its head, squatting neatly below to catch, and then—pulled out for everyone to see.

The operating room fell silent. In the nearby rooms, mages and dwarf priests, tsk tsk tsk, kept discussing:

"So it can be done like this?"

"If it can be done like this, messing with the stomach’s contents becomes much easier…"

"Wake up, you need to find someone who can play

with vines! Is that called—a priest of the God of Nature? Do we have one in our tribe?"

"We can go find one!"

The surgery went exceptionally smoothly.

Garrett didn’t even need to find a bellows to inflate the intestines—after all, the vine was alive and could widen the intestines if necessary.

Apart from the actions on the screen, only the fourth vine was seen busy moving in and out:

Bloodied polyps dropped into the basin one after another. By the end of the surgery, the copper basin brought specially by shopkeeper Borlu, a foot in diameter and five inches deep, was already half full of flesh.

"…It’s done." Garrett, with his eyes closed, weakly advised:

"Although there are healing spells, and the bleeding in the intestines has stopped, still be careful in the next few days. Don’t eat hard foods, eat less fish and meat, and let the intestines rest…"

Shopkeeper Borlu thanked him profusely. After repeating his gratitude to the point of running out of words, he finally asked the most concerning question with trepidation:

"Then… will Little Larry be okay?"

Garrett fell silent. With his eyes closed, sweat dripped down, and after a long while, he finally answered:

"…He’ll be much better. At least, for the next few years, he’ll be much better…"

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