Natasha only excelled in spiritual healing. Meaning she couldn't perform surgeries or even use band-aids, let alone helping during a surgery. Although she had spells that could take care of mortal wounds, neither she nor Alice could regenerate an arm. It wasn't that they weren't capable of doing so, but such a regenerative spell didn't exist in the world. At least with the people who haven't received the powers of a system. While Arnold contemplated his next move, Alice had her undivided attention on Arnold. However, the best Alice could do was to properly clean the wound and help Arnold ease the pain.

While Alice was tending to Arnold's wound, Nina waited by his side. Alice had to cauterise the wound once again to prevent any chance of infection. Arnold's makeshift solution wouldn't have held the infection out forever either way. But there was an issue.

​​

"Okay... There's a problem." Alice told the couple after analysing the wound.

"What is it?" Arnold asked while casually sipping his beer like he was there for nothing more than a regular check-up.

"Your makeshift elemental 'band aid' has been kinda welded onto the wound."

"So?"

"So... If I try to rip it off... It'll be extremely painful. Pulling it off might also tear some muscle fibres. And lead to tremendous blood loss. But I can take care of the blood loss so that's not the issue. The issue is the pain. I'll use a sedative inducing spell to-"

Alice tried her best to explain the situation to Arnold. Who in return simply chuckled as he couldn't feel any kind of pain anymore. But neither Alice nor Nina knew about it.

"Why are you so dense!?" Nina just couldn't hold it anymore, "YOUR ARM IS MISSING, for God's sake! Do you have any idea how any of us feel right now? Especially me? DO YOU? How can you be so carefree right now? Just what is wrong with you!?"

"Why I'm carefree? It's because I know, sooner or later I'll figure something out. Like always." He replied after putting the beer bottle down, "You of all people should know, I wouldn't do something so harsh like chopping my arm off without thinking it through."

Arnold placed his right hand on her chin while stroking her cheek with his thumb, "I know I made you worried. Every one of you. I made a choice, and now I have to live with the consequences. But I don't regret it. I don't regret anything. If given the choice I might do it again."

He was telling the truth. While Alice was analysing the wound, he had already searched the system shop for a suitable solution, but there was none. Not a single ability or subclass there could regenerate a severed arm. The only thing he could do was to buy a shit ton of large healing potions to get his HP back to the maximum. Magic might not have a solution for him. But where magic fails, technology clears the way.

He had already made his mind. As he was quite an expert in making automatons, so he was more than confident in his skills to make a prosthetic arm for both daily uses as well as combat. However, it would be difficult to make one with just one arm. But Arnold already had a solution in mind. Talos was quite good at creation just like him and so was Devon.

With Devon's brain and Talos' skills, they could easily make the prosthetic for him and then with the help of the prosthetic arm, he could also make a better one for a variety of purposes. But before that, he had a few matters to take care of. Like dealing with Devon. He might not have had a system to aid him but he was the first one to truly enrage Arnold and even indirectly sever his arm. Killing him now would be a mercy and Arnold wasn't a merciful guy.

"I... Get it. But why does it have to be you? When the dragon attacked, you were the one to defend us. And even now, you were the one to save us all. Both of the times you nearly died! For how long will your luck will save you?" Nina tried her best to keep her emotions in check, but at times like these, it was impossible. Especially when her boyfriend kept endangering his life every fcking week.

"You do know I'm retired now, right?" Arnold replied.

The fact hadn't crossed her mind yet. Arnold did inform them about it. The mission to retake the swamps would be his last mission. She always thought Arnold was saying it just to get the media off his back. But hearing those words now made her realise that Arnold had been serious the entire time.

"You're serious?"

"Hundred per cent." Arnold smiled, "However, I'll still train a bit. But I'll only fight to protect the family and you. Moreover, Nicole is more than capable of taking care of everything else so there's no need for a disabled man like me to keep pushing. Don't you think so?"

"You're such a jerk." Nina finally broke a smile for the first time that day, "You'll throw your sister and my best friend to clear up the world's mess while you enjoy retirement? Are you even her biological brother?"

"I'm a jerk you love. And don't worry, everything will be fine, eventually."

"Ahem, now if you live birds are done, shall I proceed with the treatment?" Alice reprimanded them playfully, "You ready? I won't lie, this will hurt a lot."

"I doubt that." Arnold gave her a wink.

"What do you mean?" Alice's finally curiosity got the best of her. She knew Arnold was a man with a lot of talents, so even if she was curious, she wasn't surprised. Not even a bit.

"Let's just say the blast did something to my body and now I don't feel any pain. Not anymore. How do you think I managed to cut my arm off? I didn't feel any pain so... Yeah. That's something new."

"There are people who end up passing away from the shock of thinking they got hit by a truck. Then there's you, not only you survived a nuclear blast, you gained a little something from it as well!" Alice lightened up everyone's mood, "So... You should be okay if I-" (Author's note: Just your run of the mill, hidden reference to make y'all flex your brain cells.)

"Just get it over with, I have a guest to visit."

"Sure."