Chapter Summaries

Gret uncovered his father’s hidden savings and went to Hartland City’s stationery shop to buy supplies for learning to read and write. After discovering how expensive paper and ink were, he asked the shopkeeper to sell him paper, a fine quill, and a large bottle of ink for the money he had brought.

• Gret counted the hidden savings and took two gold coins, five silver coins, and seven copper coins.
• Gret hurried to the paper shop near the lord’s manor and asked about buying paper.
• The young clerk quoted steep prices, and the shop’s owner explained the cheaper grades of paper and the cost of pens and ink.
• Gret calculated that copying a whole book would be beyond his means and asked whether bulk purchases came with a discount.
• Gret offered two gold coins and five silver coins for four bundles of ordinary writing paper and a fine Goose Quill Pen, asking to include a large bottle of ink.

Gret saved shop owner Mr. Hogan from choking on a Gold Coin, then explained the Heimlich Maneuver to an alchemist who eagerly sought to learn it. The grateful Mr. Hogan apologized and ordered the shop’s goods delivered to Gret’s home as payment.

• Mr. Hogan accidentally swallowed a Gold Coin while examining it and began choking.
• Gret pushed aside the clerk and performed the Heimlich Maneuver, freeing the coin despite the doorman striking his shoulder.
• The alchemist asked Gret to teach him how the rescue worked, and Gret explained the technique while healing his shoulder.
• Mr. Hogan realized Gret was a healer, apologized for the shop’s rudeness, and ordered paper, pens, and ink delivered to Gret’s home as thanks.

After saving Knight Xiluo, Gret received valuable paper and pens from the grateful shopkeeper, along with his wages and a 10 Gold Coin payment. Knight Flynn then asked Gret to examine Knight Balen’s old wrist injury, and Gret agreed to see him the next day.

• Gret counted the stationery the shopkeeper had given him and estimated its value at 425 Gold Coins.
• Knight Flynn and Knight Xiluo visited Gret, and Flynn paid him his wages at the squad leader rate.
• Xiluo offered Gret 10 Gold Coins for saving his life, and Flynn persuaded Gret to accept the payment.
• Flynn asked whether Gret could treat Knight Balen’s wrist injury, and Gret said he would need to examine him first.
• Flynn promised to bring Balen to Gret the next day.

Gret examined Knight Balen’s wrist and diagnosed a radial flexor tendon rupture from an injury three years earlier. The knights and Bishop awaited his answer on whether he could heal it.

• Knight Flynn and Knight Xiluo brought Knight Balen to Gret, while the bald Bishop insisted on joining them.
• Gret questioned Balen about his injury and examined his wrist, noting that he could extend it outward but not bend it inward.
• Gret tested Balen’s wrist, arm, and fingers while the Bishop repeatedly asked what each test meant.
• Gret diagnosed Balen with a radial flexor tendon rupture and snapped at the Bishop for interrupting.
• Balen cautiously asked Gret whether his wrist could be healed.

Gret explained that Knight Balen’s wrist injury might be treatable, but warned that repairing the snapped tendon would require proper tools and careful surgery. The bald bishop took Gret’s anatomical diagram, while the knights still awaited treatment.

• Gret told Knight Balen, Knight Flynn, and Knight Xiluo that he was about seventy percent confident he could heal the injury, but needed to check whether he had suitable tools.
• Gret explained that Knight Balen’s tendon had snapped and described how surgery would require opening the wrist, retrieving the retracted muscle, and stretching it back into place.
• Knight Balen urged Gret to begin immediately, but Gret objected that a dagger and an improvised operation could damage muscles, blood vessels, and nerves.
• Gret drew and explained a diagram of the forearm’s muscles and bones, arguing that the knights could not simply hold Knight Balen still for the surgery.
• The bald bishop snatched Gret’s diagram and tucked it into his robes while Gret watched.

Gret struggled to explain his surgical treatment to Knight Balen, so he brought the knights to a tavern and demonstrated the procedure on a live sheep. The Bishop helped restrain and illuminate the animal as Gret began operating, leaving the tavern staff amazed by his skill.

• Gret proposed demonstrating his treatment on an animal after Knight Balen questioned how he would separate the muscles.
• The Bishop took Gret and the knights to a tavern, where he searched for a suitable leg to use.
• After finding no lamb's leg, the Bishop brought in a live sheep and bound it to the butcher's block with magic.
• Gret instructed Knight Balen to shave the treatment area and made a careful incision in the sheep's skin.
• Gret directed the Bishop to hold a retractor while he continued the demonstration, impressing the tavern owner and staff.

Gret demonstrated how to repair Knight Balen’s severed tendon using a lamb’s leg, then proposed that the Temple of the God of War fund a proper set of surgical instruments. The bald Bishop agreed to make the instruments, opening the way for Gret to treat Balen and other warriors with old injuries.

• Gret used toothpicks to mark the lamb’s muscles and showed Knight Balen how his injured tendon had snapped and retracted.
• The bald Bishop tried to retrieve the tendon by hand but tore the lamb, so Gret improvised with iron strips and retractors to bring the tendon ends together for a healing spell.
• Gret explained that the lamb still limped because they lacked proper tools, then asked the bald Bishop to review his drawings of surgical instruments.
• Knight Balen hesitated over his injury, and Gret asked the bald Bishop to provide instruments so he could treat Balen at the temple.
• Gret persuaded the bald Bishop that the Temple of the God of War could attract wealthy, injured warriors by offering treatments other temples could not provide.
• The bald Bishop agreed to make Gret a set of surgical instruments, joking that Gret would have to teach the temple how to use them.

Gret planned a surgical procedure for Knight Balen and continued copying books at the Magic Tower. A boy caught him copying and exposed him to Magister German, who demanded to see the rest of his notes.

• Gret warned Knight Balen not to smoke after he left, then drafted plans for anesthesia, bleeding control, and sterilization for the surgery.
• Gret rode to the Magic Tower and worked on copying a dictionary, pleased that his increased pay let him afford a horse and plenty of paper.
• A boy arrived with Magister Eliot, rummaged through Gret's backpack, and found his copied notes.
• The boy shouted that Gret was secretly copying books, drawing Magister German into the library.
• Gret defended the papers as notes to help him remember, but Magister German ordered him to bring out the rest.

Gret was allowed to copy the dictionary after Magister German covered up his unauthorized copying, and Eliot used Comprehend Languages to help him read Magic Script. Gret studied Basic Meditation before the spell wore off, then began reconstructing the book from memory so he could try meditating at home.

• A boy accused Gret of copying the dictionary, but Magister German pretended Gret had only failed to organize his assigned work and ordered him to copy two books.
• Eliot explained that the Magic Tower’s upcoming assessment and poor research made Gret’s dictionary useful, then cast Comprehend Languages on him.
• Gret recognized the Magic Script and hurried to read Basic Meditation while the spell remained active.
• The spell wore off halfway through the book, and Gret lost the ability to read its text.
• Gret used the illustrations and remembered fragments to copy the meditation instructions, preparing to try meditating that night.

Gret attempted Basic Meditation and used his medical knowledge to reshape the mental figure he created into a detailed model of the human body, greatly strengthening it. He sensed the Four Great Elements and believed he had reached the level of a Mage Apprentice, leaving him eager to begin analyzing magic.

• Gret bathed, changed clothes, and struggled to find a comfortable posture before beginning Basic Meditation.
• Gret entered meditation and constructed a luminous figure that he recognized as his mental strength.
• Gret corrected the crude figure using his knowledge of human anatomy, making it more detailed and apparently more powerful.
• Gret extended his mental perception and sensed four forces that he identified as earth, water, fire, and wind.
• Gret concluded that his mental strength might have reached the Mage Apprentice level and wondered if he could begin analyzing magic.