"Level 3 disease removal cannot achieve the effects of a Lung Cleansing Art! When calculating compensation, the Lung Cleansing Art should at least be considered equivalent to a Level 4 divine spell!"

"Disease removal can cure a person! Lung Cleansing Art only provides temporary relief! It should be considered one level lower, at most Level 3!"

"He performed the spell under the supervision of a high-ranking priest!"

"Nonsense! If it didn’t require a high-ranking priest, it wouldn’t be priced the same!"

Mage Simond and the dwarf elder responsible for trade negotiations sat face to face, competing in lung capacity, banging on the table. Around them, two or three mages cast the Strength of the Bull to help bang the table to bolster their presence...

Garrett, that guy, dove headfirst into the medical room and ignored everything else, surrounded by five or six priests watching his diagnosis, treatment, and listening to his explanation of the procedure; all these conditions and the compensation were for them to discuss!

Who is the Level 4 mage here? Who is supposed to run errands, deliver materials, notify everyone about meetings, and take care of miscellaneous matters?

It’s infuriating!

Oh, right. Garrett’s joining the king-selection team wasn’t for nothing. Besides a "Dwarf Friend" title and the treatment of sitting next to the new king at the coronation banquet, it seems there should be some actual compensation. These matters also needed to be discussed by them...

But fair is fair, dwarves indeed make good negotiating partners, honest and not deliberately underpricing. In the king-selection battle, the displayed technologies like dynamite mining, steam hammers, and oxygen refining, how much are these technologies worth to use once, and how much for a technology transfer;

How much is one Lung Cleansing session worth, including consumables and operation;

How much is teaching the dwarves the Lung Cleansing technique worth...

From the elders to the ordinary dwarves keeping meeting records, everyone had a clear account in their minds. While negotiating prices, their faces seemed a bit guilty. Of course, the reason for bargaining to death despite the guilt is—

"We can’t possibly pay the compensation in gold! We can’t afford it!"

"Of course, of course." Mage Simond nodded in preparation. What use is gold? What does Garrett need gold for? At such a young age, already a Level 4 mage with a high-level mage tower, what does he need gold for?

The resources he’ll need later can’t be obtained with gold!

"Let’s settle on a figure first, then ask Garrett what he wants, and deduct it from that amount?"

"That’s all we can do..."

The dwarf elder sighed. If the Dwarf Kingdom had enough gold, buying food every year wouldn’t be a big problem. Besides, even if they settled the compensation this time, the dwarves would still owe a big favor...

They finally agreed on the total compensation and went to find Garrett. Garrett was deep in a crowd of priests, intently injecting saline into dwarf lungs. Upon hearing the inquiry, he casually "Oh"ed:

"Why don’t you make him some armor?"

He gestured with a finger behind his back towards Bernard. Immediately, three to five thick arms stretched out from all directions, dragging the barbarian out with collective effort. The nearest dwarf hurriedly sat down, grabbed the generator handle, and started cranking it joyfully...

For the barbarian’s armor, the Dwarf Kingdom deployed its finest masters and materials, aiming for Bernard to be able to wear it at Level 7 and still have sufficient protection at Level 10 or above, even at Levels 12 or 13. This was not Garrett’s request, but their goodwill:

After all, Garrett went around consulting magicians, quietly researching, and daily filling several animals’ lungs with water without ever saying once that this was for researching dwarf treatment, at least reimburse the cost of the animals.

This favor had to be acknowledged.

Besides, the barbarian’s body would swell during frenzy, so the armor had to be designed with elasticity while still ensuring defensive power...

Even sparing no expense in design, forging, and enchanting, all material and labor costs combined were still far less than half of the owed compensation. Mage Simond sighed again and, along with the dwarf elder, went to find Garrett:

"What else do you need? Let’s ask for a few more items to balance the account, or else they’ll feel uncomfortable!"

"..."

"Speak freely!" Mage Simond encouraged him:

"Except for artifacts—too expensive, and forging artifacts depends on luck, not something you can just demand, anything else, just name it! Don’t worry, your compensation amount is very large!"

"Right! Exactly!" Beside him, the dwarf elder banged his chest:

"Just say it! Whatever you name, we can forge!"

Garrett silently looked up at him, then lowered his head again. Just say

anything? I’d like to, but can they really make it?

I want a CT scanner, not 64-slice, 32-slice is fine, or even 16-slice if absolutely necessary;

I want an MRI, 3.0T might be impossible, but 1.5T is okay, or even 1T, I could make do;

I want an X-ray machine that can automatically process images, not one I have to draw by hand;

I want a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, an ECMO, or even a ventilator...

Do you have them?

Do you, do you, do you?

Not to mention dwarves, combining the forces of dwarves, gnomes, and barbarians, this kingdom’s entire strength, can you make these for me?

But, Mage Simond’s efforts deserve respect, and the trade deficit of the Dwarf Kingdom needs to be balanced. After thinking for a long time, Garrett silently took out a notebook:

"Make me a set of surgical instruments..."

Surgical knife handles, short, long, extra-long, especially extra-long, bending upwards, bending downwards;

Surgical blades, long, short, wide, narrow, pointed, round, curved, angled, trapezoidal;

Toothed surgical forceps, non-toothed surgical forceps, straight hemostats, curved hemostats, tissue forceps, appendix forceps, lung lobe forceps, stomach forceps, intestinal forceps, large hooks, medium hooks, small hooks, bone shears, bone nibblers, periosteal elevators, bone saws, bone files, bone chisels, bone hammers, drill bows, drill bits...

Mage Simond flipped through the record book and silently handed it to the dwarf elder. A thick book, hundreds of pages, densely packed with drawings and annotations, dimensions precise to fractions of a millimeter.

The handwriting, some new, some old, many pages slightly curled, the paper yellowed. Clearly, Garrett had been thinking about this set of instruments for more than a day or two.

The elder flipped through the book, hands trembling slightly. Such a large set of items, the materials needed were not much—after all, most were small items—but forging them would be very annoying!

Can you believe there are twenty to thirty types of blades alone?

So many forceps, tweezers, hooks, what are they all for, needing so many varieties?

"...Can’t make them?"

Garrett waited a while, but the elder didn’t respond, and sighed. Indeed, these surgical instruments are the crystallization of modern industry, requiring high precision. A tiny difference could lead to a big problem.

For instance, hemostats, if the quality is off by a bit, they either can’t clamp the blood vessel or easily damage the vessel wall. Truly, only those who use them know. If it really can’t be done, I’ll just use Mage Hand instead...

"How could we not make them!" The elder was startled and immediately puffed up his chest. Joking! If dwarves can’t forge the instruments humans request, that would be a disgrace!

"Tell me what materials to use! Whatever you say, I’ll use! I’ll personally forge them!"

...Materials, I don’t know about that. Manganese steel, silicon steel, chromium steel, nickel steel, 304 steel, 404 steel, 504 steel, I’ve only heard the names...

Garrett silently drew circles in his mind. He thought carefully and began to make serious requests:

"Firstly, it must not rust. These instruments are used inside the human body; if they rust, they’re completely ruined."

"No problem! I’ll alloy them with orichalcum!"

"Secondly, they should ideally conduct magic easily, or at least, embed a line for me to channel magic." A surgical knife with built-in electrocautery is convenient and efficient, only those who use it know!

"No problem! I’ll add some mithril! Or embed a mithril wire!"

The dwarf elder took everything upon himself. Material issues were easy to solve!

"The blade must be sharp enough, the surface of the instruments smooth, the strength sufficient, especially for hooks, forceps, and bone shears, they can’t bend while being used..."

"I... I’ll be careful during tempering..."

The dwarf elder, holding the record book, cried and walked away, pulling his hair as he went. Mage Simond followed behind:

"Hey! Hey! We haven’t discussed the price yet!"

Price was something Garrett didn’t care about. He had surgeries to perform, meditation, endless curiosity from the silver dragon girl to deal with, busy every day. He only knew the sound of tinkering, as the surgical instruments he requested were delivered one by one, along with Mage Simond’s response:

"It seems you still have some compensation left, making another set wouldn’t be enough. Take a look, which ones are

more important, have them forge a few more?"

Surgical blades are never too many, hemostats and tissue forceps neither. Also, various hooks, thoracic retractors, abdominal retractors...

He wanted them all. Garrett’s finger moved, then moved again, hesitating among various surgical instruments and tools, and finally sighed:

"Make me a few needles..."

Ordinary hollow injection needles, the Little Demon "Gold Coin" could produce them. Give him a steel ingot and a gold coin, and producing hundreds of needles in an hour is no problem. But for needles with higher requirements...

"Forge me a set of needles, outer diameter 0.6 to 1.6mm, length 15 to 20cm, needle wall thickness 0.2 to 0.5mm, specific sizes are all written in my table... Needle walls smooth, needle tip must be beveled, needle strength... anyway, it must not bend when inserted straight into a wild boar’s back, into the gap between bones!"

"What... what are you going to do with these..."

Clinical four major punctures: abdominal, thoracic, lumbar, bone. Abdominal and thoracic punctures, the needle passes through skin and muscle tissue, ordinary injection needles can manage. But for lumbar and bone punctures, the needle strength required is particularly high, beyond the capabilities of the Little Demon.

Garrett always remembered, when he first arrived at the Black Gate Peninsula, encountering a barbarian who couldn’t revert from frenzy, suspected of intracranial hemorrhage. If he had a lumbar puncture needle, he could have taken cerebrospinal fluid, making the diagnosis more certain!

"Also, another set of bone puncture needles, standards here..."

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