Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 919: Removing The Tumor

Date- 3 April 2321

Time- 18:43

Location- Sun Blossom City, Card Creationist Association, Auction house, West Wing Hall

As I was about to start the surgery, my grimoire notification kept buzzing, it was Ann, considering the intensity of the miss calls and unread messages she sent to my grimoire I guess it must be urgent. But I chose to ignore it as I had an idea of what Ann was trying to tell me. I did not speculate or guess it, unable to reach me Ann contacted Agatha, who informed me why Ann was trying to contact me so urgently, it was regarding Cole.

That was all Ann could share with Agatha as who Cole was working for was a top secret and what he was up to was very sensitive information that would shed light on the top secret nature of this particular case, so in order not to leak too much to Agatha, Ann asked to me call her immediately as soon as I get this message.

I wanted to call Ann and hear her out but I was in the middle of a procedure under the watchful eyes of Eliza, so calling Ann right now would look unprofessional, and unethical, which may even alarm Eliza into pulling the plug on this entire procedure and forcefully dragging Lucy home. So I choose to delay calling Ann until after the procedure was done.

Eliza stood in the corner of the hall and watched the boy shave a part of Lucyʼs hair and mark her scalp. Eliza was contemplating what would have gotten into her for her to agree to something like this. While every fiber in her being asked her to call the procedure off and take Lucy home but she stopped herself from doing so remembering Lucyʼs resolve when she climbed that operating table. She felt if she were to follow her instincts and stop the procedure Lucy would never forgive her because it must have been a lot for Lucy to put herself out there and try something so risky despite no one supporting her decision. Considering Lucyʼs condition it would not have been easy for her.

Putting everything aside, I decided to begin cutting and pulling a part of Lucyʼs scalp where the procedure was going to be performed. The blood flow and the number of blood vessels in the scalp of a person were high, even a small laceration to it will cause a lot of blood to pour out while I cut open a part of the scalp. Which would be very troublesome during a procedure, surgeons back home had many ways around this but I had my own around this. So I used my blood rule power to stop the blood from rushing out as I carefully made the surgical cuts on Lucyʼs scalp following the markings that I made on her scalp. Though I did not comprehend the blood control meaning of the blood rule, stopping the blood flow from the surgical incisions was within the limits of the blood rule I had mastered.

Usually, after cutting open the scalp the surgeons would pin the flap of the scalp to stitch it or staple it back together after the procedure was done but I straight out cut the scalp and disposed of it, as with the healing cards that Rami had on him, for Lucy, recovering the missing part of her scalp could be regrown in minutes.

After cutting through three layers of the scalp and pulling it out, I then used a surgical saw to cut open a small patch of Lucyʼs skull. This process was very nerving and brain wrecking because while cutting the skull if the saw were to go even one millimeter deeper it would start bleeding inside the brain which would make my procedure more complicated than it had to be. With the healing cards, I did not have to worry about the damage to the brain but the blood would accumulate within the brain between the time the wound was inflected and the healing card was used, which could later start to clot.

Therefore I had to be very careful and precise as I cut a small part of Lucyʼs skull, Hive AI was a big help. If not for it I do not think that I would get it right on my first try to cut open a personʼs skull. After I carefully removed the small part of the skull I stored it safely as I would need it later to close the skull after the tumor was removed.

With a small part of the brain exposed, I could see the abnormal growth of mass next to the brain. Fortunately for Lucy, it stopped growing before it attached to any of the important nerves. But I still needed to be careful while I cut and remove it as it was adjacent to the brain. One slight slip and I may end up cutting one of the nerves or blood vessels in the brain. Therefore, I had the Hive AI guide me through the entire process, the AI precision was seamless. It did not talk me long to detach the tumor and dispose of it. I made sure to remove all the roots of the tumor in hopes that the tumor would not return in the future.

Once the tumor was removed, all that remained was to patch Lucyʼs skull and scalp back together. But before that, I took another thorough scan of Lucyʼs brain to make sure that the tumor was removed from its roots and that I didnʼt accidentally injure Lucyʼs brain during the procedure. Only when I was sure of these two concerns did I dare to patch Lucyʼs skull and the scalp whole again.

I took the piece of skull that I cut off from Lucyʼs skull earlier and held it in the position to join it back to the skull. Mortal Medicine spoke of joining the piece of the skull to the skull using metal plates and bolts. With the medic cards available I did not have to worry about that.

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