In the morning, Lilly approached me. I was in the middle of eating a greasy breakfast of onions, eggs, and sausage all baked into a hard roll. She approached balancing her breakfast atop her tome and sat immediately to my right. Rather than eat, though, she opened her tome and pointed a tanned finger at one of the passages. In it, she described and measured one of the mushrooms from the dungeon. “Master, Walker and I have searched through your books on herbs thrice and can find no mention of this type of mushroom.” “Hmm,” I acknowledged while chewing, turning the book closer to me. Lilly began eating as I flipped through the pages, reviewing her work. When I finished chewing, I dabbed my mouth with a napkin and spoke, “You have done fine work here. The measurements appear to be exact, and measuring each sample twice is excellent. However, where are your illustrations?” She gulped a mouth full of food down, “Illustrations, master?” “Yes, what did you imagine the loose sheets of paper were for, but to practice? You have room here, on the back of each page to place your final versions,” I tapped the empty space. “I—yes, master,” she bit back whatever she was about to say. “With regards to any wildlife you are unable to identify, you may work with Walker to collect samples. We will send them to an herbalist or alchemist for identification. Follow his advice on collection, and do not touch them with bare hands. This is vitally important…” I trailed off, as one of my guards, Tond, was pacing nearby in an agitated manner. “Yes?” I asked, not happy with the interruption. He stopped pacing, and saluted, “Sir, we found bodies in your feed pit this morning.” Bodies in my feed pit? What was he talking about? Immediately, I feared that some idiot local may have tried to sight-see my tower and fell into one of my experiment pits. I had plans for those soon, what with the wolf population now large enough to proceed with new experiments. Monsters breed so quickly, I don’t see how the alchemists in the capital could have ever caused the shortage. They must have been more fume-addled than I imagined. Still, a dead villager was the last thing I needed. Oh, I hope it wasn't that stable boy. That would be a disaster! If he was sneaky enough to make it out this way before, he could do so again. “Show me,” I said, rising from the table. Lilly and breakfast, unfortunately, would need to wait. Behind the wall of my tower, between it and the lake, was a pit. I remembered originally placing it there for the pieces of beasts that weren’t a complete body. Pieces I directed the two [Ranger] guards to feed my experiments. Since I hadn’t been using the pit myself, and the view of it was blocked by the wall, I had put it out of my mind. Now looking at it, I realized that my elemental guardians had been busier than I thought. The pit was still filled with beast parts, but they were recent additions. Creatures that must have tried to come over the walls since the beast wave. Dead monsterized owls, cats, frogs, and some sort of insect. It created such a foul odor that I covered my nose with a sleeve. But Tond was right. There on the top of the pile, laid three bodies. Bodies of assassins or thieves, though. It was a relief I wouldn’t need to send a guard to tell the folks of Woodhoot that one of their idiot sons fell victim to his own stupidity. These men wore black clothes, including boots and cowls. In the clenched hand of one, I saw a grappling hook with a rope. It was unfortunate they were dead. I couldn’t question dead men without resorting to necromancy, and I suspected the symbol of Bi would disrupt that. Of course, I could create a barrier to hide my activities, but that would be beneath me. I could only sigh and shake my head in disappointment. “Sir, I was on duty last night, but I didn’t see anything,” Tond freely admitted. Which was noble of him. I only nodded, “They likely had skills or magic to hide from sight. Perhaps Eni could have seen through it if he was using [Beast Sight] or some such skill. No matter, strip them and feed them to the swine. In the future, only notify me if the bodies aren’t burglars.” I had no intention of telling him there was a good chance they were assassins. Burglars this far into the wilds? I doubted it. More like some noble house bore a grievance against me for some slight I’d long forgotten. While he jumped into the pit to carry out my command, I decided it would be nice of me to give him stairs to return by. Something that only took a moment to do, though forming it from compacted mud might not last long. The nighttime invaders did give me some concern. Not for myself or the tower. It was unlikely for anyone below the fifth-tier to enter without my permission. A fifth-tier attacker wouldn’t be after my servants or pupils, and I felt my personal defenses were sufficient at the moment. I would revisit that consideration in the future. What concerned me, as I walked back to finish my breakfast, was the suspicion that these assassins attacked others on their way to me. The type of men that would commit this crime aren’t often known for their restraint. My answer to this, though, could easily coincide with my desire to offer a reward for the good impression my assistants made on me the other day. I also suspected that Walker didn’t take the time to enjoy the last reward I gave him. He likely rushed home with the Baroness’s missive, thinking the matter of great importance. On the other hand, I would be bereft of competent servants to stand guard at the gate. My [Ranger] guards were already working night shifts and feeding my experiments. And patrolling with my assistants, though they wouldn’t be doing that if my assistants were traveling. In hindsight, I maybe should have kept the other two bandits. Bah! I’d rather have too much work for them than not enough. Rewarding those three also tied me to the tower until they returned. While I didn’t think anything serious could get through my defenses, I wanted someone capable of answering at the gate should the Baroness make another surprise visit. Not that I possessed any desire to leave. After a lukewarm breakfast, I made my decision regarding the giant spider nest. I would issue a quest through the adventurers’ guild but have a copy delivered to Baron Llal. That should suffice for now, and if no one took action by this fall, I would remove it myself. While I had other tasks I needed to accomplish, I did what I wanted to do for the rest of the morning. Which was to implement a new experiment on the wolves. The wolf pit that wasn’t subjected to mana infusion was crowding. So, I divided it out into several smaller pits. In them, I placed breeding pairs of wolves, all cubs from recent litters. In the past, I had some success with animal husbandry using rats. I had bred them for longevity, succeeding in getting the vermin to double their natural lifespan. That experiment ultimately failed when the rats monsterized and turned cannibalistic. These wolves, though, were already monsterized and they showed no sign of turning cannibalistic. I wasn’t yet sure that I could implement a breeding program that encourages human lifespan extensions, but I could consider that after I proved successful with the wolf pits. Again, this was only a side experiment. Something to curb my desire to throw myself into my work. After lunch, I was walking upstairs when Walker and Lilly approached me with a question. They caught me on the first floor and directed me over to my new table. “Master, could you have a look at this?” Walker asked, pointing to a monsterized beetle in a stone cage resting on the table. Lilly opened her book, “I think I can do the normal mushrooms and creatures, but I am uncertain how to do the clinging mushroom. It looks different on each insect.” She opened her book and showed me an illustration of a different beetle with mushroom-like growth coming from its back and legs. Then she held the illustration against the beetle in the cage, on which mushrooms grew in different places on the body. I was immediately alarmed. The insects in the dungeon were only the size of my hand at most, and I hadn’t paid them much attention when I was down there. Parasitic mushrooms were an adventurer’s nightmare. They sometimes stayed unnoticed all the way back from a quest. Something that could turn into a plague quickly with few answers other than fire. Which is the first thing I did. I tossed the stone crate right into the fireplace. So swift the movement, it left surprised looks on both of my pupil’s faces. “Stand there and don’t move,” I commanded, as I hustled upstairs. There, in a small crate, I own several wands enchanted with [Cure Disease]. Something I had experimented with to try to stop the growths my longevity spell caused. While they worked for a time, the growths always came back. And they came back faster each time. My spell needed something that could stop them from growing in the first place. Still, I had eighteen or nineteen of the wands left. Tond was coming in the front door from his body disposal assignment when I returned downstairs holding three wands. “Quickly, gather everyone!” I ordered, my tone making it clear how serious I was. When all residents of my tower gathered, which seemed to only take a few moments, I lifted one of the wands. “This is a wand of [Cure Disease]. It will not harm you. Stand still until you are dismissed.” I ignored the murmurs and fearful looks, and immediately zapped Rolf. The wand causing the child to radiate with a soft golden light. Soon it faded and left him looking at his mother, Chelsea. A mother who I zapped next. When she stopped glowing, I dismissed them to their quarters. Next came Lilly and Walker, who both sneezed a thick yellow mucus onto the floor when the light struck them. I burned it away with [Fire Manipulation] and dismissed them to their quarters. Kine showed no response but bowed in thanks as he departed unasked. Tond and Mena, likewise, had no response, but Eni did. He bent over hacking and coughing until a leech the size of my finger fell to the floor. Pale white with red dots, it was shaped like a curled wet leaf. The pest hovered and started to drift in the air until I burned it away. “Lung-leeches,” I muttered and turned to zap Meathead. For his part, he giggled a bit. I thought I might have seen his eyes brighten with recognition or intelligence, but the look was gone too quickly. I zapped him again, to be certain, but I didn’t see it a second time. When I stood alone, I zapped myself. I disabled several defensive spells to do so, but the knowledge that I was clear of disease was worth it. Only after I recast my defenses, did I tell the other residents they no longer needed to stay in their quarters. While concerned looks and a host of questions bombarded me, I ignored those. Instead, I gave Walker and Lilly instructions to no longer enter the dungeon. She should have all measurements and be able to finish her illustrations from beyond the barrier. I would personally gather any samples that needed to be sent for identification. That such a thing was in my dungeon worried me. It meant that I would need to remove whatever creatures and plants I wanted to keep and burn away all the other wildlife. Nemon Fargus, plague-bringer, was not a title I wished to have. Still, the barrier would keep it contained. No need to worry so long as no one else went inside.