Chapter 23

Aura had finally returned, and after giving a short greeting to the little demon girl, he began to work on preparations.

Even in a world with advanced spells and all sorts of fantastical items, it's still recommended that you not eat for twenty-four hours before a major surgical operation, like say, the replacement of every major internal organ.

That would also give Aura some time to dissect his dragon-fish combo, as well as plan out how he was going to fit some gills on a girl's body so that it doesn't look ugly.

In Aura's mind, pale skin wouldn't mesh well with gills unless he was a truly gifted surgeon, and Aura most definitely wasn't that.

He had done plenty of transplants and alterations to human bodies before, it was an excellent way to make money in Ascendance, but most who came to him didn't come to get a facelift, they came to get upgrades, and didn't care if they looked a bit out of place.

The best place would probably be just below her armpits, and since they wouldn't be constantly in use, he would have to restructure the gills accordingly, which was something he actually knew how to do, given that gills were a basic way to enhance a player's explorative capabilities.

At some point Aura planned on giving her wings, so he would have to be careful with the muscles and bones towards her upper back.

Fortunately there were spells for every force that could erase scars, which is one of the main reasons that people in this world are so damn beautiful, so cutting her up a bit wouldn't be a problem.

Aura was going to turn Fiona into an ATD (all-terrain demon) with high combat capabilities, but he had nowhere near enough materials for that at the moment, and he was already rushing things.

Fiona needed a new eye quickly, because it would be easier to adjust if she regained sight before she forgot what it was like.

What's more is that Aura couldn't just slap together a new eye and leg, he needed time to carefully craft them, so waiting until everything was done was not an option.

Aura's preparations for Fiona's upgrade went something like this:

1. Dismantling

2. Shrinking and alteration of parts to be transplanted

3. Letting the clone fruits copy healthy organs (facsimiles made from stone and a few spells)

4. Planning out the surgery in as many ways as possible, to cover for any unforeseen circumstances that may occur.

5. Laughing maniacally while setting out his instruments in as dramatic a way as possible

6. Prepping a room to be as sterile as possible, which isn't strictly necessary with spells and all, but helps Aura focus

7. Making potions to help Fiona sleep and not feel pain, both of which are absolutely necessary, since people still feel pain while asleep

8. Constructing an IV pole as well as some bags and tubes, because he didn't actually have any

9. Making sure that everything works and triple checking

10. Putting on baggy, plain clothes that are easy to move in and won't get in the way

11. Washing hands a few dozen times, just to make sure they sparkle

12. Casting some protection from water spells, just to make sure he didn't get any of Fiona on him

13. Final check to see if he could remember the stasis spell from the necromancer spell list, since without it, Fiona would definitely die

Now that there was a lucky number of steps taken, Aura could safely proceed to the final step, which was stripping a woman of all her clothes, laying her down on a table so that she lay at his elbow height, and drugging her so that she fell asleep and didn't feel pain.

No, this was not a crime.