Rocky took a deep breath. He had urgently tried to stop the hemorrhaging of blood. Then he strung the high-toughness ligament which was acquired from a granary rat beast onto the bone-made needles. Once done, he started to close up the ruptured aorta.
Every single procedure required a high-level technique, which meant that every move took a considerable amount of effort. Rocky had only begun to put in a few stitches and yet he already began perspiring heavily.
It took two whole hours before Rocky was able to stitch the ruptured aorta together. He then checked the wound carefully before cautiously restoring the blood supply. He waited another fifteen minutes before he was sure that there were no leaking points around the suture. With no leakage, he let out a relieved breath.
Rocky finally began stitching up Verdanim's lower abdomen again. And eventually, the first operation was completed.
As this went on, Verdanim was visibly improving, particularly with the supplementary blood supply. His breathing was no longer labored.
With its condition looking better, Rocky took advantage of every moment and began the second operation. Compared to the first one, this would be even more challenging, but even more delicate. And the skill level came with higher requirements.
If Rocky were to fail this stage, Verdanim may never stand on his own feet again. But if he did not go through with the operation, there would be no other way for the dragon to ever stand up again. The chances of success and failure were fifty-fifty. And it was all up to Rocky now.
Rocky lifted the badly twisted left limb onto a pile of straw with great care, where he studied the injury with great care. With the help of Stroking Evaluation Skill, he determined that the extent of the fractured parts took up about 70% of the whole left limb, gathered mostly on the upper extremity.
"It looks like there is only one way to cope with this situation. Two iron plates will be needed to replace the support function of bones. Then, magical saliva will be used to promote bone regeneration. But we still don't know whether the bone would ever fully heal afterward." Rocky had no idea what might happen after this, but there was ultimately no choice.
After he steeled himself for what he was about to do, he made up his mind and began operating its left limb right away. He carefully slit an opening o
ness and was starting to act more at ease. Even he could not have achieved such a success.
An odd smile appeared on Rocky's face. Of course, he had no plans on telling anyone the truth.
Marin's voice rose again with a fresh flow of righteous anger. "Rocky, I'll want to know what you did to Verdanim yesterday or there'll be serious repercussions!"
"You're so annoying!" Rocky glared at her. Here he was having spent so much time and effort kindly saving Verdanim's life and Marin couldn't even show appreciation. All he got was suspicion and disrespect. No good deed goes unpunished, apparently.
"Marin, please, just calm down. Look, Verdanim's doing well, and it's fine! The young man is certainly worthy of being my apprentice. Ha-ha!" Sheridan laughed in response.
"But why is there such a big wound on its abdomen? It wasn't there before! What if it leaves a permanent scar?!" Rocky gaped at her in utter disbelief, unable to fathom how Marin could be focusing on operation wounds and scarring right now.
He finally decided to just ignore this ridiculous girl and told Sheridan, "Verdanim's wound can't get wet no matter what. No one should allow any water to come in. That also means no baths, no scrubbing for a while. And it can only have grass and water for the next three days." And with that, Rocky pulled the basket onto his back and strode out of the stable, planning to leave the farm.
"Marin..." With that admonishing tone, Sheridan made a gesture to Marin. Seeing this, Marin hesitated before she got to her feet. "Wait!" she shouted as she sprinted after Rocky.