Chapter 47 - Anatomy Teaching

The following morning dawned bright and clear, as if the sky had been washed by water. In the forest, the myriad animals, after a night of madness, returned to normality.The sound of rustling could be heard as the forest animals emerged and lined up by the water at the foot of the hill to drink. Many bore the scars of the previous night’s frenzy, some missing limbs or ears.

Pandora stood quietly by the water, showing no particular reaction, even though she had been attacked by many crazed animals the night before.

In fact, the animals that now came to drink were mostly those that had not taken part in the battle on the hillock; otherwise, they would have fallen by her trunk or in Gregory’s flames.

After a night of madness, all the animals behaved–even the boars, usually so prone to cutting in line, waited their turn.

Pandora looked on, nodded in satisfaction, and turned to leave but suddenly sensed something and whirled around, just in time to see a boar “huffing,” ready to push forward. It looked cautiously in her direction as they locked eyes…

This time, without Pandora making a move, the boar that was caught red-handed sheepishly left the line and walked to the end with its head down.

Pandora stood still, staring straight at the boar until it made the creature uncomfortable; finally, when its turn came to drink, it gulped a few mouthfuls and scurried away with a “splat.”

Satisfied, Pandora then turned and walked back to the hillock.

On the top of the hillock, Richard was busy at work. The Beast Tide had receded without leaving many corpses behind–some consumed by their kind while others were burned to ashes by Gregory.

However, the damage wrought by the Beast Tide was significant. The structures built on the clearing were destroyed: the windmill had fallen, the hybrid kiln had collapsed, the shallow pool was trampled flat…

It was unavoidable; after all, given the circumstances then, defending the entire hilltop had been impossible.

This was a problem.

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

Although it was unclear how frequently the Beast Tides occurred, they posed a threat to his research. The current damage was bearable given the few constructions. But in the future, should extensive technological buildings be built and a Beast Tide hit in Gregory’s absence, resulting in total destruction, that would be unacceptable.

While pondering this, he sensed something and turned around to see Pandora standing to one side.

His eyes flicking, Richard spoke, “About last night’s animal tide, I have some thoughts. Although I don’t know how often these Tides happen…”

“Once a month,” said Pandora.

“Ah, once a month,” Richard nodded with some clarity, “Then it’s once a month. That is quite frequent, and each occurrence is a disaster. Although it may not compromise our safety, it’s still more than an annoyance. Even with Gregory intervening, we can’t completely prevent it. Just last night, several structures I built were damaged. Rebuilding them will take considerable effort.”

Pausing briefly, he pondered then continued, “We need to find a solution to this. My idea is to build a wall using Shaping Earth Magic to encircle the entire hillock. However, entry and exit could become problematic, and if the crazed beasts are numerous enough, they could simply pile up and climb over the wall.

In that case, offense might be more effective than defense. The Liquid Oxygen Bomb from last night worked reasonably well; although it didn’t match Gregory’s Flames, it could still clear the field instantaneously. In fact, we could use some methods to make bombs with even greater power, like cluster bombs, for instance. But time and materials are issues.”

“Actually, both methods are only temporary fixes. To truly resolve the Beast Tide problem, we need to identify its source. Last night, I sensed that the cause of the Beast Tide probably lies in the mountain nearby,” Richard said, pointing.

Pandora followed the direction Richard was pointing, blinking her eyes.

“Really?”

“I’m sure of it,” Richard said. “But the specifics are still unclear. I plan to sense carefully during the next Beast Tide. By then, if we can figure out the real reason, we can find a way to solve the problem once and for all. However, we’ll need Gregory present because I can’t be affected by the Tide while I’m sensing.”

“He’ll be there,” said Pandora, her face stern.

“That’s good,” Richard nodded without saying much else and turned towards the castle, noticing Pandora following him with a flash in her eyes, “I am about to dissect a magical creature that I killed yesterday. Are you sure you want to join?”

Pandora didn’t answer, nor did she deny.

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

This was a room that had only recently been cleaned and was now being used by Richard as a dedicated laboratory. At this moment, the body of a Silver Rabbit lay flat on the laboratory table.

Many creatures had been affected by spiritual power yesterday, but there were very few Magic Creatures. Richard even suspected that the Silver Rabbit on the table might be the only one. Getting the body of this magical Silver Rabbit was somewhat lucky, but the key point was to research and learn something from it.

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

His eyes glanced at Pandora, who stood at the door with a curious look, but Richard didn’t think much of it. He grasped the knife in hand and positioned it at the rabbit’s neck, then made a cut.

Gently severing the outermost layer of the rabbit’s skin, Richard saw Pandora suddenly step out.

So she really couldn’t accept it after all.

Richard thought to himself.

Just as he was about to continue dissection, he saw Pandora reappear, somehow having brought over a stool more than a meter tall. She walked into the room, placed the stool next to the table, and sat down on it.

Pandora was originally only 1.2 meters tall, significantly shorter than Richard, but now she sat perched on the stool with a sort of commanding presence. She propped up her chin with both hands, looking at the Silver Rabbit that Richard was working on, her gaze seemingly saying: I’ll just watch, carry on.

Richard felt a headache coming on.

He usually didn’t like having someone nearby when conducting experiments, thinking, and researching; he disliked being disturbed. Of course, this was different from when he was in the Blue Lion Kingdom, explaining to maids while performing experiments, as that involved teaching.

“Are you very curious?” Richard asked.

“Huh,” came the non-committal reply.

Richard couldn’t help shaking his head; his knife sliced down again as he began to explain, trying to see if Pandora was indeed curious, “What you’re seeing now is me cutting through the skin layer of the Silver Rabbit, a main component of the skin itself.”

Pandora nodded.

“Huh,” he let out a breath, pausing momentarily in his explanation before continuing, “Generally, the skin layer can be divided into three parts: epidermis, dermis, and subcutaneous tissue. The epidermis lies below the fur and directly above the dermis; it’s a thinner layer but has many structures within it, like the stratum corneum, stratum lucidum, stratum granulosum, stratum spinosum, and the basal layer.

Beneath the epidermis is the dermis, often used in making leather and furred pelt. It generally consists of fibers, matrix, cells, and so on. Its main function is to provide elasticity to the fur and serve as a site for metabolism.

The last one is the subcutaneous tissue, typically made up of loose connective tissue and adipose lobules, lying close to the fascia. It functions to prevent heat loss, store energy, and protect against external mechanical impacts.”

After explaining all this, Richard glanced at Pandora again and saw no significant change in her expression—she was just nodding from time to time.

Well, okay then…

With force, Richard opened up the entire thoracic cavity of the Silver Rabbit, pointing as he continued to speak, “This is the trachea, connecting to the lungs and ensuring breathing. You can see, this Silver Rabbit has two lobes on its left lung and four on its right—left two, right four. This is different from humans who have left two, right three. Why Silver Rabbits and humans, both belonging to the class of mammals, have this difference can only be attributed to natural selection in the evolutionary process.”

As Richard spoke, he cut out the entire lung section of the Silver Rabbit and placed it into a container. Pandora sat on her stool, continuing to watch and listen, nodding constantly. Her expression was neutral—she did not seem particularly fascinated nor disgusted. In fact, Pandora was usually just like this.

Richard shrugged and continued with his work.

“Next to this is the heart, here’s the left ventricle, this is the left atrium, and this is the left auricle. Well, generally speaking, the auricle is considered part of the atrium. So, it doesn’t act independently but participates in cardiac electrical activity and the secretion of certain hormones. This here is the coronary artery. It’s called that simply because you can see it’s almost encircling the heart, quite like a crown worn by the heart. Then this is…”