Damian had done it, he had managed to get in touch with the traitors in the bandit camp and was providing them information about the alchemy lab production.

It had taken several months for him to find the contacts of the previous master Alchemist and to earn their trust. But now he was working with them. Of course, he wouldn’t try to sabotage the production, that was a stupid move and he couldn’t fathom how Massim had thought it would be a good idea. No, Damian would simply provide his contact with the list of Mikhaïl’s productions. Hopefully, that would help whoever was higher in that chain of command.

Damian thought of two possibilities of who he was now working for. They were either another group of bandits planning on seizing the Blood Sand Bandits’ assets or officials from the caliphate preparing to exterminate Karim and his bandits. The Gardener hoped it was the second, but either possibility would provide him with the chance to escape.

He didn’t truly know how useful the information he provided would be, but if it could help these people plan their attack on the encampment, then all the better.

Of course, he had to be extremely wary of Mikhaïl and Silvia. The Alchemist was the easiest to dupe, he was so focused on running his lab and experimenting on the devilish plant that he was putting too mutch trust in his assistants. But the Slave was a dangerous counterpart, Damian knew she was reporting everything that happened in the lab to Sarah and therefor Karim, plus she was fanatical in her studies and will to please her masters.

Sometimes, Damian’s will faltered a bit, but then he looked at Sofia and each time the look in her eyes reinforced his convictions to undermined the bandits. He couldn’t fathom how someone could still have the will to live after enduring so much but it was giving him strength.

---

Mikhaïl was also happy. He had finally completed his test period and earned his ‘freedom’, he was now considered a member of the bandits and not an autonomous slave.

This promotion had come with a raise in the lab’s budget and that was fantastic. In addition to the benefits of his side sales to people in the bandit camps he now had a good flow of cash and had managed to order some higher quality utensils and products.

The sproutings from the mother plant were producing plenty of potatoes he was selling to the kitchen. The aphrodisiacs, contraceptives, cosmetics, and other products he was providing to the brothel or other bandits. The poison he was extracting from the plants’ thin bark and other parts he concentrated and sold to unscrupulous bandits. Not that scrupulous ones abounded in the place. A lot of gold flowing in Mikhaïl’s pockets.

So he was now waiting on seeds from rare plants to entrust his Gardener. He was also waiting on some glassware that would replace some of his current tools and allow him to make even better products. Better products would mean more gold, then better ingredients, then more gold. It was a virtuous circle.

And all of that would make it so Mikhaïl could experiment more on his treasure plant, and maybe resume some old experiments he had to drop back home.

All that was without speaking of the two assistants that were improving and being more useful to him every day.

---

Antoine had managed to do it!

Finally, after all this time he had refilled the stock of potions as well as the reserves and the secret stock. With so many potions on the racks of the warehouse, the bandits could sustain a siege with no problem.

And that was without taking into consideration the surplus of higher quality potions and other alchemical products at their disposal. Really, having Mikhaïl working in the alchemy lab was a dream come true. And the Beorn had said that with better glassware he could do even better!

---

Silvia was ecstatic. She too had managed to accomplish something. She had finally brew her first healing potion from start to finish by herself.

Sir Mikhaïl had praised her and told her she would become a real alchemist before the end of the year. She only had to memorize and master all steps for brewing healing, mana, and stamina potions. Silvia’s teacher had explained to her that it was the moment an assistant usually qualified for working under low-grade Alchemist, but he was himself considered a middle-grade one by official channels. By unofficial ones, he was rated better than that, but that had apparently brought him bad things.

Being so happy in her job was strange for her sometimes, she was still a bit upset by how Sir Mikhaïl treated the slaves he used as test subjects for his experiments. Since he worked here, the Slave girl had seen several of them tied on the experimenting table. Usually, they lasted a few weeks before being given to the horrible plant. But Sofia, the one who had the more shocked Silvia’s beliefs, was still alive. Thankfully, Lady Sarah had helped the young woman see the truth of it.

Sofia, unlike Silvia, could not understand her rightful place in the world and would rather take what she wanted from others rather than work for herself and her masters. Sir Mikhaïl had also explained to her that Sofia’s place was to serve as a test subject since she couldn’t uphold her duties as a slave.

In the end, it was all Sofia’s fault if she ended up in this place. Silvia made sure to tell it again and again to the older girl when she cleaned her, day after day. In time she hoped the poor girl would understand her place in the world and finally accept to serve faithfully, like herself.

Serving and being a good a girl was so good and right.

---

Sarah was glad, once again she had managed to get her master and lover Karim to fell asleep after a good time.

It was never an easy feat as the red-skin Tarim was extremely enduring and could get hard almost on command. On some nights she had to get help to be sure to wear her man down. She had no particular problem allowing another woman, or eventually a man, in her bed to help her in pleasing the bandit lord. But it was always gratifying when she managed to do it all by herself on days like this one where Karim had had no other lovers before.

---

Bazil had mixed feelings looking at what it managed. Even if the ensemble was mainly positive.

After all those weeks and months of growing inside the walls of the bandit town, it had managed to gain several levels in multiple Skills and even a level for its Class but some of its plans had fallen short.

Mainly its special dicktatoes used for holding potions. At first, it had worked pretty well. The sapient plant managed to transfer potions to its prepared reserves and stock them there. But after a week or two, the potions would lose their effects. Bazil guessed it was due to the fact that it didn’t have any kind of impermeable wood to coat the interior of the dicktatoes and the potions had slowly drifted their effects in the plant.

It was too bad, but only a minor setback. Bazil would simply need to find a way to improve its dicktatoes or to get hold of better potions. In the meantime, Bazil would still stock the magic liquids, it was better to hold onto them as long as possible for emergencies than simply consuming them on the spot.

On the other hand, Bazil had grown a tremendous root system throughout the whole place and found several places to grow its bug traps. Those were netting the sapient plant a neat amount of prey. But still, the problem on this front was that for the moment, Bazil could not take care of rodents with traps.

Some little critters Greeny had confirmed to be rats had tried their teeth on Bazil’s roots. The pests were able to nimble between the thorns and directly used their teeth on the tender parts. Fortunately, the root nets surrounding the dicktatoes were too tightly woven the rodents could not get to them without getting pricked on one of the many more numerous and closed thorns.

In any case, the most enterprising rodents ended eating too much of Bazil and poisoned themselves. Sometimes Bazil roots managed to reach those poor critters, and then the sapient plant would get its revenge and eat which who thought could eat it. The Grass quite liked the irony. And in any case, the damages done to Bazil were easily fixed by the weakened healing potions it had in its meager stocks.

Bazil had also started preying on other beings. Bugs of all kinds were fair play and rodents were slowly but surely taken out, but anything bigger was too strong for the current abilities of Bazil. No, the sapient plant had started feeding on something much closer to it, plants.

On several occasions, Bazil’s roots had found moss or small flowers, each time it had snuffed the life out of those. The former Human had decreed it was the only plant allowed to grow in this place and every other would be considered as trespassers and exterminate.

Before doing so, it had consulted Greeny. Bazil didn’t want to bring the anger of the girly entity on itself by taking the life of beings under her care. But she had assured it that if Bazil could kill them, then they weren’t that interesting and were of better use feeding her favorite plant. After more discussion and consultation of its Botanic Skill, Bazil learned that plants preyed on each other just as much as anything else preyed on them. Simple examples were stuff like ivy and other parasitic stuff that grew on bigger trees and could asphyxiate them. Carnivorous plants were also examples of ‘hunting’ plants, even if they mostly preyed on moving creatures. Some plants were modifying the soil acidity in order to restrain the competition of other plant species and favor their own.

All in all, Bazil had no personal interests in restraining itself from killing other plants if Greeny gave it the green light, so It went to work and started decimating the green life hiding in the walls. Bazil would be the only green being around!

Unfortunately, all of those were quite slow things to do as a plant. So Bazil worked on all of its mental Skills a lot and on its language lesson. Along the time it worked on learning the local tongue, the plant came to love even more its Meditation Skill. The Skill not only helped the former Human clear its mind and focus on what it was doing more easily, it also helped in memorizing all kinds of stuff and general learning. The Visualization Skill was also helping in this regard but to a lesser extent.

Unbeknown to Bazil, having those two particular general Skills to improve the working of its mind was slowing the formation of other Skills of similar usefulness. But even though, having those two particular Skills working together would be a great boon for every practitioner of magic, too bad Bazil had no access to any magic yet.

---

The spies too had managed something.

They had managed to obtain great amounts of information on the Blood Sand Bandits. They could finally hand over a complete rapport on the situation in the camp to other people. Those other people were much more capable in their specialties and would therefore be better placed to prepare the attack on the bandits’ camp.

Just a few more months and the caliphate would be rid of the stain Karim and his men had been for years.

---

Finally, someone else had managed something.

Gronarityuerocjequa The Purveyor’s chosen agent on Hirt had exited their place of slumber and started their search of the strange plant and the gift they were supposed to bring it.