Chapter 467 – Justifying The Means

“Are you sure about this? Have you tested it properly?”

Rastix nodded vigorously at the question, almost dropping his prized new creation. Roland raised an eyebrow at the concoction as he was unable to confirm the short man’s claim. The gnome looked unusually enthusiastic, a lot different to his usual demeanor since most of his previous experiments had failed.

“Yes, yes! Well, as much as I could before the explosion. But the preliminary tests were very promising. Here, let me show you, just let me use some of your equipment.”

Roland wasn’t sure about this but was curious about the new creation, so he nodded. The scene of the experiment was clearing up, and the extent of the damage was about the same as always. A hole had been blown through one of the walls, and several alchemical tools were strewn about the charred remains of a workbench. Fortunately, the area was walled off so that even if an explosion occurred, it would be contained.

To enter this area, one needed to go through a specific gate that required proper credentials. It was there to keep all the kids that lived nearby from getting injured. He had already installed a ventilation system to take in the fumes as sometimes, they were quite toxic. One of the authorized individuals, Bernir, had also arrived at the scene. He brought his runic prosthesis and was in the process of examining the damaged items.

“Leave it for now. Let it air out before you start any repairs.”

“Aye, boss, that might be better…”

It seemed that his assistant had also grown accustomed to these occurrences and was just shaking his head in resignation. The potions he made weren’t selling too well either, as his shop couldn’t offer a better product than what was readily available in the city. At the moment, they were thinking of pushing potions in bundles with runic weaponry to entice their clients, which was a somewhat successful tactic.

“Alright, Rastix, let’s head back to the workshop and see what you’ve got.”

“Let’s just use mine, it’s closer.”

Bernir chimed in, and the three nodded. Soon they were walking, and just as they expected, a few rascals were waiting by the automatic gate to peek at the explosion. The moment they saw the three craftsmen, they giggled and took off running. Roland didn’t react much, but it seemed that the kids had started to like him. Previously, many of them were afraid of his gaze, but once he removed the hood and helmet, they saw that he was just a man.

Roland led the group to Bernir’s workshop, a spacious area that was once an old shed. Once there, he started reminiscing about the good old days when everything was quite peaceful. Back then, it was just him and his assistant, hammering away at pieces of metal. It was a tranquil time, and they spent their days expanding toward a future that had now become reality. Nowadays things were a lot more nosey, with many people running about making all sorts of noise.

“Hey…”

To Bernir’s shock, Rastix started clearing his workbench which was covered in some tools. They all started hitting the ground with a clang, causing Bernir to wince as his carefully arranged tools clattered to the floor.

“Careful with those! Some of those are custom-made!”

Bernir protested, but Rastix was too excited to heed his warnings.

“My apologies, friend! But there is no stopping brilliance, I promise, this is going to be worth it!

Rastix exclaimed, his eyes gleaming with excitement as he placed the flask in the center of the now-cleared workbench. After setting it down like some kind of costly artifact, he started to look around. From the tools available, he picked out some scrap metal along with some leather scraps, which seemed to be there to emulate skin or flesh. Using actual flesh for this demonstration would have been better, but no pig legs were nearby.

Soon he applied a thin layer of the adhesive to both surfaces and then carefully pressed them together. Almost immediately, the adhesive started reacting with the two materials, forming a bond. Roland used his enhanced eyes to look closer and saw that the reagent was causing both sides to fuse with each other before hardening.

As the adhesive cured, the bond between the metal and the leather seemingly grew stronger by the second. However, even though it looked promising from his standpoint some more tests needed to be taken before they could move on to real testing. Rastix was also aware of this so he grabbed a hammer and a small chisel to showcase the strength of the bond.

After placing the chisel in the middle of the two materials, he started hitting it in an attempt to separate them. To Roland’s and Bernir’s surprise, instead of the two sides separating, the tool started embedding itself in the leather. Even after the whole chisel pierced through the middle, and after leverage was used, the two sides didn’t want to come apart. Roland, who had the most strength, took it into his hand and attempted to separate the two parts, eventually ripping them apart.

“These bonds are deep…”

Once the two sides were separated he could see just how far this alchemical adhesive had gone in. There was a thick bonding layer which was not actually glue but some type of new layer of material formed from the reaction between the metal and leather. It seemed to have somehow melted both sides and combined them together to form some kind of leather-metal mix.

“Remarkable…”

Roland muttered while intending to examine this new bond closely. While this was more than he expected in this short amount of time, he couldn’t just use this on Bernir without performing multiple tests. What if after a few days or weeks, the bonds ceased to exist? Wouldn’t parts of his flesh turn into a strange mix of metal that would need to be removed if it failed? Then it could also be rejected by his body and become infected. At this moment, he still had a working elbow with most of his forearm missing, and losing even more due to insufficient data was not something he could allow.

“It does seem that you’re onto something here but, we need to perform some tests.”

“Yes, of course! More tests, that of course means… more funding!”

The gnome beamed with pride, his chest puffing out as he watched Roland examine his creation. A sigh escaped his mouth at the mention of more funding but if this concoction worked well, then the runic prosthesis would be more complete. A fucion between metal and flesh was normally not possible and no one had really tried to perfect it. This was uncharted territory that probably required a more drastic approach.

‘Should I get a few pig carcasses for him to experiment on, or…’

Roland didn’t want to waste too much time on testing the bonding concoction. From what he knew, people worked on animals before moving on to clinical trials. Bernir was the only real patient here, and even if it worked on dead animals or living ones, it was still not the best option. However, in this world, there existed monsters, some of which were quite close to humans in their physiology. There was no reason to work on animals or humans when there were other options available.

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“Alright, Rastix, we’ll need to conduct a series of tests to ensure the durability and safety of this adhesive. Once we’re satisfied with the results, we can move forward with integrating it into Bernir’s prosthesis. Give me some time, I’ll have something prepared.”

Bernir nodded in agreement, and he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of excitement at the prospect of having a more responsive arm. Throughout the week he had tried getting used to the harness but it was quite not the same as having a real arm.

“Can I help with something, Boss?”

Bernir asked as he spotted Roland deep in thought.

“I’m not sure you’d want to see this…”

“Why wouldn’t I? This is about my arm, and shouldn’t I know the whole process behind it?”

“I guess you’re right about that… but you don’t have to force yourself.”

“I’ll be fine.”

Roland was contemplating something unsavory, something that some people from the modern world might consider inhumane. He wasn’t sure if this was the right thing to do, but to help his friend out, he was willing to resort to drastic measures. The loss of Bernir’s arm occurred while protecting him, and Roland wouldn’t rest until he made it right.

“Alright, Bernir. If you’re sure you want to see this, then I won’t hold you back. But I must warn you, it might be a bit… unconventional.”

“Hah, don’t worry Boss, I’ll be fine.”