20
The situation was abnormal!
Gavin expanded the range of his detection spell.
Regrettably, it couldn’t cover the entire hospital, but within the building, no patient equipment or other operating rooms were affected by the short circuit—only his.
Moreover, every hospital should have lightning rods installed.
The electricity should ground itself unless it struck a power plant causing the entire city and the hospital to lose power.
And then there was the issue that only the devices in this operating room were damaged while others remained unscathed.
Coincidence?
If not, it was a setup.
Someone was sabotaging this surgery.
Who would want Uncle Sun to die!?
Who would target an old servant?
‘Maybe I’m overthinking it,’ Gavin mused, yet he trusted his instincts.
‘There are many sorcerers here for treatment.
To orchestrate such a scenario using thunder magic to cause a short circuit isn’t impossible, but it would require a master sorcerer level.
Only two sorcerers are in this room, both medical, with no one possessing electric elemental power.
So, it wasn’t done here.
Could it be a sorcerer under treatment or an outsider who plotted this disruption and escaped once successful?
They played their hand well, but they’ll be disappointed to face me,’ Gavin cast a detection spell, connecting his gaze to the devices and wiring.
There was a difference between natural lightning and magical.
Gavin retrieved a crystal from his alternate dimensional magic.
If it reacted, it indicated magical interference.
He discreetly sent it out, and soon enough, the results were confirmed.
There was a reaction.
Someone was seeking death!
‘Some filthy rat is obstructing my surgery,’ Gavin fumed internally.
They dared, not knowing the patient belonged to the Ice Witch, Kariette, is she so ineffective?
‘Who dares touch my woman’s servant?
Once the surgery’s over, I’ll hunt them down.’
“What do we do?
The equipment is crucial for the surgery, and it’s destroyed.”
“At least the pulse monitor is intact, thankfully.”
“Should we cancel the surgery?”
“Hmm…” the surgeon pondered.
“Continue the surgery,” Gavin commanded.
“Are you sure?”
“We must go on!
The magical lozenge is nearly spent.
We can’t leave a single parasite in the patient; we don’t know their reproductive methods.
We can’t abort now; otherwise, it’s all for nothing.”
And I wouldn’t use my precious magical ginseng candy on an outsider again!
It might not be a rare treasure without healing powers, but it was a strength-boosting lozenge from the magical world.
Gavin reactivated his diagnostic eyes.
He couldn’t afford the luxury of resting now; it was a marathon of observation, pushing him to his limits.
Things drastically slowed down until finally:
“The patient’s muscles are contracting.”
“The heartbeat is irregular.”
“The blood pressure is rising.”
“We must stop the surgery.”
“No!” Gavin protested.
After all this effort, to end in vain?
Unacceptable.
He cast a spell, multi-layered magical circles enveloping Uncle Sun, stabilizing him temporarily.
Only temporarily!
Because Gavin needed to sustain the magic and use his diagnostic eyes simultaneously.
Normally, one couldn’t manage two spells at once, but now Gavin was juggling four to maintain Uncle Sun’s condition and another for his diagnostic eyes.
Unfortunately, Gavin’s magical power wasn’t as great as before.
Now, he was only a second-level sorcerer, capable of sustaining a spell for at most ten minutes!
“Hurry up!”
Everyone nodded, recognizing the remarkable skills of this medical sorcerer, who could normalize a comatose patient in less than ten minutes.
They genuinely wished to hire him as a hospital’s permanent physician.
After about nine minutes, the last parasite was successfully removed.
The total surgery time was about one hundred and eighteen minutes, with three surgeons taking turns.
The total number of parasites extracted was fifty-eight.
The parasites were successfully removed, but the patient was far from out of danger, having undergone extensive surgery and suffering severe organ damage.
He needed close monitoring and long-term treatment.
But one thing Gavin could guarantee was that Uncle Sun’s condition wouldn’t deteriorate further as long as he was under his care.
Magical cuisine would bolster his immunity, enrich his blood, and repair wear and tear.
However, the problem was,
‘Why should I expend magical ingredients on this uncle?’ Gavin pondered.
Nowadays, he shared magical cuisine with Kariette’s family because he wanted to earn their trust and show he could care for Eris and Kariette.
But Uncle Sun didn’t fit into this category.
He was just a servant, and Gavin had already spent one precious lozenge on him, equivalent to twenty plates of magical cuisine.
Exhausted, Gavin collapsed on the floor.
He had nearly used up all his magical energy in his first human-world surgery!
Even though he wasn’t the surgeon, his role was as crucial, if not more so, than the surgeons.
Gavin emerged from the operating room with the other medical staff.
The moment he stepped out, the Coford family’s eyes were all on him.
“How did the surgery go, brother?” Kurt was the only one bold enough to address Gavin directly.
Gavin nodded and said,
“All parasites are out.
What’s left is the standard recovery process.
Unless something goes wrong, his condition won’t worsen.”
“Fantastic…
absolutely fantastic!” Kurt sighed with relief.
“Thank you, thank you so much,” Holly expressed her gratitude.
She knew that without Gavin, Uncle Sun would surely have died today, adding to the respect the medical team showed him.
With X-ray vision, hand speed like a demon that even surgeons would envy, and magic that could revive a comatose patient in a blink, if this world didn’t know a man named Jokerface, then this guy would be deemed a divine doctor.
While many senior doctors disagreed, the younger ones all thought the same.
However, Gavin wouldn’t dare accept the title.
His true capabilities were not in an operating room at all.
Just this show of skills being hailed as divine was laughable, degrading the reputation of medical sorcerers in the magical world.
“Eris, where did mommy go?”
“Mommy said she had some errands,” Eris smiled faintly at her father.
Gavin sighed.
“Papa, Mari sushi,” Eris raised her hands, which made her father burst into laughter.
He had turned his daughter into quite the little glutton.
Who else could make their father cook delicious food like this?
‘Better make Maki sushi with rolled omelet, it’s the most ingredient efficient.’
“Papa needs to go out for a bit with mommy.
Eris, be a good girl and go home with your uncle, okay?
Once I’m done, I’ll rush back to make you some delicious Maki sushi.”
“You promise, Papa?”
“I promise.”
“Hurry back, okay?” Eris waved goodbye.
“Alright,” Gavin smiled before nodding to Kurt.
The surgery was complete.
There was no way Uncle Sun would wake up soon.
Staying at the hospital wasn’t beneficial.
It was better to take Eris home, especially since they didn’t feel entirely secure having their precious gem outdoors for too long.
Gavin took the same type of crystal to trace the source of the magic used against them.
He ran swiftly until he reached the back of the building, where Kariette stood with a grim expression amid the downpour, her aura chilling every drop of rain, turning them into icy pellets.
Her gaze, cold and sharp, was focused on the spot the offender had been minutes before.
Her reaction wasn’t much different from Gavin’s during the surgery.
Someone intended to disrupt the operation, targeting Uncle Sun specifically, or perhaps, to provoke her.
‘I am the Ice Witch, the strongest Ice Sorcerer in the land of Tier.
My family might not wield much clandestine power, but I’m not someone to be trifled with.’
“I knew you’d be here,” said Gavin.
“I am furious,” Kariette stated, her voice even.
“I know.
When you’re angry, you tend to freeze everything around.
Look at the ground; it’s become an ice rink.”
“Hmm.”
“What will you do next?”
“I want to catch them and punish them,” Kariette turned back to look at the spot where the culprits had been.
“I painstakingly traced them here, but they’ve erased all traces.”
“I want to punish them too.
Not because they dared to provoke you, but because they interfered with my surgery.
It’s so irritating.”
“But what now?
The trail is gone.
I’m clueless about how they erased all traces so thoroughly, even I, adept in analytical magic, am out of ideas.”
“I’m out of ideas too, but I know someone we can rely on.”
“Who?”
“My friend!” Gavin smirked, rolling up his sleeve to reveal strange runes before turning them into a ring on his hand.
The young man bit his nail, letting blood flow, then flicked his finger to activate it.
“Summoning spell,” Kariette uttered.
Immediately, in a dimly lit room of Gavin’s rented house, within his kitchen, a corner covered with a white cloth stirred.
Something beneath it writhed along with heavy breathing, causing the cloth to unveil itself.
A creature was lazily slumbering underneath until a surge of power awakened it.
The white cloth was flung aside as the entity soared out the window, transforming into a streak of light and reappearing before its summoner.
In front of Kariette materialized a being she never imagined she’d encounter again.
Its eyes shimmered golden, its skin was covered in hard, crimson scales, bat-like membranous wings unfolded, two horns like those of a goat jutted from its head, a spear-sharp tail, talons sharper than a hawk’s, and fangs more fearsome than a lion’s.
Kariette was nearly scared to death by it.
Despite its formidable appearance, it was only the size of a toddler.
“A dragon?”
“Yes.”
“How did you manage to bring a dragon into the human world!?
I can’t even bring my Ice Avian here.”
“It cost a bit…
It used to be two hundred meters tall.
To bring it here, I had to revert it to an egg first.
From a magnificent dragon lord, now it’s just a baby dragon.”
“I recall you don’t keep dragons…
they are notoriously hard to raise.”
“True.
I kept it during my decades of solitude there.
I had to study animal taming for about ten years before I could even find a dragon to train.
This little girl took five years to tame.”
“Little girl…”
“It’s female.
The daughter of a dragon queen.
It was incredibly difficult to acquire her.
I had to sneak into the lair to steal the egg and was chased for nearly a year and a half.
I often wondered why they were so protective over just one egg.
Now I get it.
I’d hunt down anyone who dared to kidnap Eris across the green expanses of the sky.”
“Good to see you have some conscience.
How did you finally settle things with the dragon queen?”
“I shared her bed for a hundred nights.”
“…”
Whoosh
All the raindrops instantly turned into ice pellets.
“Just kidding!
I just helped her ascend to a level-three emperor sorcerer.”
“What you do in your bed is none of my concern…”
“Ahem…
let’s leave that aside.
We both know dragons are highly sensitive to magic.
No matter how well someone erases magical traces, facing a dragon makes it meaningless, right, Happy?”
Happy…
Kariette massaged her forehead.
She thought she might have been fortunate not to have him around when Eris was born because she couldn’t bear if her daughter ended up being named [Happy]!
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————Read ‘The Return of Asura Who Suddenly Becomes a Father’ before anyone else with more chapters at http://www.jinovel.com/en