Kayn walked back to his room in Elder Loren's home and his workplace after saying his goodbyes to Kinzie and Rowen. While he was a little sad that he most likely wouldn't see his only friend again anytime soon, it was for the greater good. He had given her a communication crystal, so they could keep in touch at the very least.
Elder Loren watched as Kayn entered into the house and could only shake her head at his missing hand. She wasn't able to regenerate a hand, otherwise she probably would have offered to help him out, for a reduced price of course.
Kayn gave her a slight bow out of respect before opening his mouth to tell her his plans. "Elder, thank you for allowing me to stay here for the last year and a half. However, I'm missing my family a bit and will be traveling home. If there is anything you'd like for me to do for you before I leave, please feel free to ask. I will probably leave in about two weeks, so feel free to ask anything of me until then."
After saying what he wanted, Kayn walked to his room, closed the door, and immediately fell asleep on his bed. He was exhausted after everything that had happened and only now, was he able to fully relax and let his mind drift into dreamland.
…
The first thing Kayn did in the morning after waking up was to take a long warm bath. Of course, he could use magic to clean himself up a bit while he was out and about, but relaxing in a warm tub was a much-deserved luxury in his mind.
After drying off and changing into a clean set of loose white clothing, he sat down and pulled out his communication crystal to call his mother.
"Well, well, well, look who finally decided to call his mother after over a month with no communication! You have quite the nerve mister." Zerana wasn't very happy with Kayn as he didn't keep his word to keep in touch with her at least once a week. But inwardly she was just happy that he was okay.
"I'm sorry Mom, I know I disappointed you, but I have a good reason! I haven't even had time to heal my missing hand!" Kayn hurriedly replied without thinking. 'Ah shit, I didn't want to tell her that.'
Before his mother could speak, he quickly tried to ease her worries. "Ah don't worry though Mom, I'll have it healed soon. In other news, I'll be heading home soon. I'll probably take a few months to get back, but I'm coming home none-the-less!"
"Ah good, just in time actually. I was going to ask you to return before your 16th birthday, so as long as you're here before that you'll be forgiven for not contacting me. As for your hand, don't think you're off the hook, I want a full explanation, now!" Zerana responded with a cheerful voice that quickly switched with a voice that made Kayn fearful for his future freedom.
"Well to make a long story short Mom, I went to find some goblins for a mission. I found said goblins, they captured a family. Instead of returning and reporting it, I decided to just cull the goblins myself since they were just goblins. Turns out the boss goblin was actually a hobgoblin leader class monster and he caught me by surprise. But now he's dead and I'm only missing a hand after facing and killing a B-class monster!" Kayn quickly explained what happened during his mission so his mother would leave it be, but things never went as Kayn wanted.
"You made me aware of your mission before, but that was over a month ago. Surely my capable son didn't take that long just to find and kill some goblins. Why have you not healed your hand yet if you're so able to as you say?" Zerana's stern and somewhat sarcastic voice was clearly transmitted through the crystal making Kayn shiver.
"Well, after I got back to town the guild receptionist mentioned that Kinzie, you know my mission partner on occasion, was missing, so I went to find her. Turns out she got captured by slavers and injured quite badly. I just got back from eliminating the slavers, healing her, and bringing her back home." Kayn said quite proudly since he figured his mother would be proud of him for saving a friend.
However, "Bringing her home? I thought I told you not to get into a girl's pants before you turned 16!"
"It's not like that Mom! I have only even seen her naked once! Fuck! That's not what I meant! She was already naked and I had to heal her before we could leave the slavers' camp." Kayn kept stumbling with what he was trying to explain, making things sound worse in the end and even shouting a curse.
"So, let me get this straight. Not only did you touch and ogle a naked and defenseless woman, you didn't even dress her up before doing so?"
"I did not ogle at her! And I couldn't dress her up first! Ugh, I can't explain this in a way that you'll let me off, can I?" Kayn gave up and just sighed.
"As long as you know. Be careful when you start your trip back. Since you'll be traveling, I'll only require two calls a month. I'm being nice, so be sure to follow my rules this time young man."
"Of course Mom, I'll keep in touch. I love you!" Kayn replied in a hurry so he wouldn't get scolded anymore today.
"I love you too, Kayn. Be careful." Zerana replied before disconnecting her mana from the crystal, thus ending the call.
'That's not how I wanted that conversation to go.' Kayn sighed as he could only regret his mouth opening on its own and saying stupid things.
However, Kayn quickly focused back at the tasks he needed to complete before he could begin his journey back home, and first was to heal his hand.
…
After collecting one of the basins that he and Elder Loren would use to collect blood and other gunk from patients, it was time to start the healing process. Kayn knew it wasn't going to be a pretty process and would surely be quite bloody, hence why he prepared the basin.
Since Kayn didn't have enough mana to heal his entire hand in one go, his plan was to slowly grow it over the next week to two weeks. This meant slowly growing the muscles, skin, bones, blood vessels, and so on all the way out to the finger tips over time.
He was hopeful that one day he could just regrow a limb instantly, but for right now it was simply impossible for him as he didn't have the skill, mana, or experience.
Since he had thoroughly studied his own anatomy and had dissected several hands during his college years on Earth, he was confident in being able to correctly grow and correctly orient his bones, muscles, and tendons. The problem for Kayn would come when he was growing blood vessels and other intricate parts of the hand.
For this, Kayn would need to rely on his diagnostic spell to analyze his one good hand and try to copy it to the one he was growing, or at least use it as a basis.
However, the part Kayn was dreading the most was having to cover whatever stump he had regrown every day with skin so he didn't bleed to death, and then remove the skin the next day to start growing it again.
'I swear to myself I'm not a masochist.' Kayn closed his eyes as he prepared himself for the days to come.
…
The next days were relatively repetitive for Kayn. He would wake up, put on a long sleeve shirt to hide his progress from Elder Loren before heading to the kitchen to eat breakfast.
Kayn would then return to his room and work on restoring his hand until evening when he would cover his wound, eat dinner, and practice his Void Star technique before going to bed.
Finally, after two weeks of this routine, he once again had a functioning right hand. On top of that, he wouldn't need much rehabilitation time since he grew the muscles in detail and copied his right hand in reverse. Since he could use both hands equally in this life, he assumed he wouldn't notice a difference if he just copied the right hand's proportions.
Now that his hand was back to its full capacity, it was time for Kayn to pack up his things and begin his return journey home. Although he planned to take his time with traveling back by training and taking care of some bandit and slaver camps if he could find them, he was excited to finally be going home.
Even if he enjoyed this time of independence, he still missed his family greatly and was excited to see them. Not to mention he would be able to discuss his findings in person with Lydia so they could collaborate together.
'Time to go home!'