Anatomy Lesson

The next morning.

The sun rose in the east, and the sky was so clear it looked as though it had been washed clean. In the forest, after a night of frenzy, countless animals returned to normal.

A rustling sound rose as the animals emerged from the forest and made their way to the pool beneath the hill, lining up to drink. Many of them were covered in wounds, while some were even missing limbs.

Pandora stood quietly beside the pool, showing no particular reaction, even though she had been attacked by countless frenzied animals the night before.

In truth, the animals that could come here to drink now had basically not participated in the attack on the hill. Otherwise, they would already have fallen beneath her tree trunk or in Gregory's flames.

After a night of madness, all the animals were behaving obediently. Even the Wild Boar, which usually loved cutting in line, stood properly in the queue.

Pandora nodded in satisfaction and turned to leave. But just as she turned her head, she suddenly sensed something and whipped back around. She saw the Wild Boar snorting as it tried to push its way forward, cautiously glancing at her as it did so. Then their eyes met...

This time, Pandora did not need to do anything. Caught red-handed, the Wild Boar slunk miserably out of the line, lowered its head, and walked toward the back of the queue.

Pandora stood where she was, staring fixedly at the Wild Boar until its fur practically stood on end. When it finally got its turn to drink after a long while, it hurriedly gulped down several mouthfuls and scampered away on all fours with a series of splashing steps.

Only then did Pandora turn around and head back to the hill.

On the open ground at the summit, Richard was busy at work. The beast tide had receded without leaving many corpses behind. Some had been devoured by their companions, while others had been directly burned to ashes by Gregory.

However, the damage caused by the beast tide was considerable. At the very least, all the structures that had originally been built in the clearing had been destroyed: the windmill had fallen, the Mixed Feed Shaft Kiln had collapsed, and the Shallow Pool had been trampled flat...

There had been no way to prevent it. Given the circumstances at the time, it had been impossible to defend the entire hilltop. This was a problem.

Richard inspected the damage to the structures and calculated the time needed for repairs, his brow slowly furrowing.

Although he did not yet know how frequently the beast tide occurred, it posed a threat to his research. There were not many structures built at the moment, so if they were damaged, they were damaged. But if he built a whole stretch of technological facilities in the future, and a beast tide broke out while Gregory was absent, causing all of them to be destroyed, the loss would be unbearable.

As he was thinking this, he sensed something. Turning his head, Richard saw Pandora standing nearby.

His eyes flickered, and Richard said, "I have some thoughts about the beast tide at night. Although I don't know how often it breaks out..."

"Once a month," Pandora said.

"Uh, once a month?" Richard nodded in understanding. "Then once a month it is. That counts as quite frequent. Every occurrence is a disaster. It may not threaten our safety, but it is annoying enough. Even with Gregory taking action, it cannot be completely prevented. Last night, several buildings I had previously constructed were damaged. Rebuilding them will take quite a bit of effort."

Richard paused slightly, thought for a moment, and continued, "We still need to find a way to stop this. One method I have in mind is to build a city wall. Using Shaping-Type Earth Magic, we could construct a wall around the entire hill. But getting in and out would become a problem, and if there are enough frenzied beasts, they could simply pile up and climb over the wall.

"In that case, defense is inferior to offense. The Liquid Oxygen Bomb worked reasonably well last night. Although it cannot compare to Gregory's flames, it can instantly clear the field. In fact, with certain methods, we could make even more powerful bombs, such as Cluster Bombs. But time and materials are both problems."

"Actually, both methods only treat the symptoms, not the root cause. If we want to completely solve the beast tide problem, we still need to find its source. Last night, I sensed that the beast tide was likely caused by that mountain not far away." As Richard spoke, he pointed with his hand.

Pandora looked in the direction Richard was pointing and blinked.

"Huh?"

"It's true. I'm certain of it," Richard said. "But I still don't know the exact situation. I plan to carefully sense it again when the next beast tide occurs. By then, I'll figure out the real cause and find a way to solve it once and for all. But Gregory must be here then, because I cannot let the beast tide interfere while I'm sensing it."

"He'll be there," Pandora said with an icy expression.

"That's good." Richard nodded and said nothing more. He turned and headed toward the castle, then noticed Pandora following behind him. His eyes flickered as he said, "I'm planning to dissect a magical creature killed yesterday. Are you sure you want to come along?"

"..."

Pandora neither answered nor denied it.

Richard walked straight into a room on the first floor of the castle.

It was a room that had only recently been cleaned and had already been turned by Richard into a dedicated laboratory. At that moment, the corpse of the Silver Rabbit lay flat on the laboratory table.

Many creatures had been affected by Mental Strength yesterday, but magical creatures had been extremely rare. Richard even suspected that the Silver Rabbit on the table might be the only one. Obtaining the corpse of this magical Silver Rabbit was somewhat fortunate, though the key was whether he could research anything useful from it.

Thinking this, Richard washed his hands with alcohol, put on gloves, and began the dissection with his tools.

Glancing at Pandora, who stood in the doorway with curiosity in her eyes, Richard did not think much of it. He placed the blade against the rabbit's neck and drew it across.

As Richard lightly cut open the outermost layer of the Silver Rabbit's coat, Pandora suddenly walked away.

So she still can't accept it after all.

Richard thought.

Just as he was about to continue the dissection, Pandora reappeared. Somehow, she had brought over a tall stool more than a meter high. She carried it into the room, set it down right beside the table, and climbed onto it.

Pandora was only 1.2 meters tall, far shorter than Richard, but sitting on the tall stool gave her a slightly condescending air. She propped her chin up with both hands and looked at the Silver Rabbit beneath Richard's hands, her gaze seeming to say: I'm just watching. Do whatever you want.

Richard felt a slight headache.

When he was experimenting, thinking, and researching, he still did not like having others beside him. He did not like being disturbed. Of course, explaining things to the maids while conducting experiments in the Blue Lion Kingdom had been another matter, because that had been teaching.

"Are you curious?" Richard asked.

"Huh." It was a noncommittal reply.

Richard could not help shaking his head. The knife in his hand cut down again, and as he worked, he began explaining, wanting to see whether Pandora was truly curious. "What you see me cutting now is the dermal layer of this Silver Rabbit. It is the main component of the skin."

Pandora nodded.

Richard let out a soft breath. His explanation paused slightly before continuing. "Generally speaking, the skin can be divided into three layers: the epidermis, the dermis, and the subcutaneous tissue. The epidermis lies beneath the fur and tightly against the top of the dermis. It is relatively thin, but it contains many structures, including the stratum corneum, the clear layer, the granular layer, the prickle-cell layer, and the basal layer.

"Below the epidermis is the dermis, which is often used to make leather and fur pelts. It generally contains structures such as fibers, matrix, and cells. Its main function is to give the fur elasticity and provide a site for metabolism.

"Lastly comes the subcutaneous tissue, generally composed of loose connective tissue and fat lobules, lying close against the muscular membrane. It functions to prevent heat loss, store energy, and resist external mechanical impacts."

After saying this, Richard looked at Pandora again and found no obvious change in her expression. She merely nodded from time to time.

Uh, all right...

With a firm cut, Richard split open the Silver Rabbit's entire chest cavity. As he pointed, he continued speaking.

"This is the trachea. It connects to the Lungs and ensures breathing. You can see that this Silver Rabbit has two lobes in its left lung and four in its right, making two on the left and four on the right. This differs from humans, who have two on the left and three on the right. As for why Silver Rabbits and humans, despite both belonging to the mammalian class, differ in this way, it can only be attributed to natural selection during evolution."

As Richard spoke, he removed the Silver Rabbit's Lungs and placed them in a container. Pandora remained seated on the tall stool, watching and listening, nodding continuously. Her expression was cold. It could not be called engrossed interest, but she did not show much disgust either. In truth, this was simply what Pandora was normally like.

Richard shrugged and continued.

"Beside it is the heart. This is the left ventricle, this is the left atrium, and this is the left auricle. Uh, generally speaking, the auricle counts as part of the atrium. Therefore, it has no independent function and merely participates in cardiac electrical activity and the secretion of certain hormones... Also, this is the coronary artery. The reason it is called that is simple: as you can see, it more or less circles the heart once, like a crown worn on the heart. And then this is..."

P.S. The recommendation votes exploded yesterday. My heartfelt thanks to everyone for your support! Thank you, thank you!