In the blink of an eye, many days had passed.
The weather had turned a bit cooler, and the leaves on the trees in the forest turned yellow and fell one by one. Standing on the hill during the day and looking into the distance, one could see a mottled scene, like a child's random watercolor painting.
During these days, Richard did not idle; he continued his research on Magic Rune Spells while busy crafting various things. Although there were plenty of materials and instruments in the suitcase he brought, they would run out one day, so he had to plan ahead.
Therefore, Richard began making lime using chalk, extracting ash and pure alkali from wood ash, obtaining acetic acid, acetone, and methanol by dry distilling wood, and preparing sulfuric acid from sulfurized ore.
During the process of preparation, one by one, simple structures appeared in the clearings on the hilltop, like windmills, a mixed feed vertical kiln, and shallow water ponds.
Regarding these changes, Pandora and Gregory neither approved nor objected, so Richard continued with his construction.
During this period, Richard also noticed some other things. For example, Gregory was not always in the Dragon Cave. From time to time, he would leave and fly to other places. Sometimes he returned in half a day, other times it took several days, and no one knew what he was doing.
As for Pandora, there was still no verbal communication.
Generally speaking, even a truly deaf and mute person would make some "ah-ing" sounds, but after all these days of contact, Richard never noticed any attempt by her to speak. All communication was almost completed with a glance or a gesture, with meanings expressed very clearly and distinctly.
For example, "move farther away," "even farther," "still farther," "don't talk to me."
Richard couldn't help but speculate whether the reason she didn't speak wasn't because she couldn't understand or express herself, but because...
...
That night, darkness surged in like a tide from afar, and the whole sky dimmed quickly, like a beach submerged.
Richard, after a day of studying Magic Rune Magic, walked out of the ancient castle and exhaled a breath of stale air. He found the clearing in front of the ancient castle to be quiet, except for the windmill groaning as it turned.
Gregory had flown away the day before yesterday and hadn't returned, and no one knew where Pandora was.
Even though he knew both of them were peculiar, Richard couldn't help but wonder if they were just that confident in him. Were they not afraid he'd run off with all the treasures in the Dragon Cave? Of course, it was also very possible that in Gregory's smelly Dragon Cave, there weren't any treasures at all—perhaps just trash and rocks...
Thinking this, Richard heard the sound of footsteps, "tap-tap-tap," it was Pandora. But mixed in with the footsteps was the sound of dragging something heavy, "scrape."
"Hmm?" Richard turned his head and saw Pandora, clad in purple, ascending from the foot of the hill, dragging behind her a giant arborvitae tree, decades old, stretching over ten meters long and more than thirty centimeters in diameter, with its roots still carrying a lot of dirt, as if it had just been pulled from the ground. Pandora coldly dragged the tree to the clearing on the hill and dropped it with a "thump."
"What is she planning to do?" Richard wondered. "Preparing to transplant trees to add more greenery to the hill? But... transplanting in autumn doesn't have a high survival rate, does it?"
Pandora did not speak, merely laying down the arborvitae, and furrowing her brows slightly, as if contemplating something important.
After a moment, she stretched out her hand to the root of the tree, snapping all remaining roots with a few "crack, crack" sounds. Then she moved to the tree crown and started breaking the branches off the arborvitae with her hands.
"Crack, crack..."
After a while, there was nothing left in Pandora's hand but the trunk of the arborvitae, resembling a giant stick over ten meters long.
Pandora struggled to hold the trunk with both arms, and with a sudden swing, a whirlwind swept over the entire clearing.
"Whoosh!"
Standing aside and watching, Richard clicked his tongue slightly, already certain that Pandora had not dragged the tree up here for transplanting, but what was it for?
"Whoosh! Whoosh!" Then Pandora swung it twice more, like testing the feel. After a moment, she held the trunk in her arms, frowned at the expanse of the clearing in front of the ancient castle, and disappointedly dropped the trunk, turning again to descend the hill into the darkness.
It wasn't long before Pandora returned, as expected, dragging back another arborvitae, which appeared older and heavier.
In the same manner, Pandora swiftly worked again, transforming this tree into the same shape as before, swinging it again.
After a few swings, she shook her head again, put it down, and went down the hill once more.
Repeating this process several times, there were now a total of four large wooden sticks over ten meters long, varying in thickness and weight, scattered across the clearing.
Picking up the last wooden stick, Pandora blinked and looked a bit satisfied. After a moment, she thought of something, tilted her head slightly, and glanced at Richard standing beside her.
"Don't wander around at night," Pandora said, thought for a moment, and sparingly added two words, "It's dangerous."
"Hmm?" Richard raised an eyebrow, and after a moment of surprise, reacted. Then he understood three things.
First, Pandora indeed could speak, at least like Gregory, she could speak the common language of this world.
Second, the reason Pandora hadn't spoken for such a long time was simply because... well, she didn't feel like it. Or maybe you could call it... aloof? There was also a certain possibility that the peculiar environment had shaped her unusual personality, like autism. In modern Earth, there are such examples, where a person shut in enough wouldn't utter a word for years, whether to strangers or family, completely isolating themselves in an independent world.
In short, it wasn't that she couldn't speak, but that she didn't want to.;
Third, the fact that Pandora hadn't spoken for so long and suddenly did today couldn't just be out of interest. Given her strange actions, it was clear that something was going to happen tonight, something very dangerous.
What could it be?
In the dark, Richard squinted slightly, looking into the darkness below the hill. Long periods of meditation had, to some extent, heightened his bodily senses, and this allowed Richard to keenly notice that after night fell, the forest hadn't settled down. Instead, it had become more restless.
"Oooooow—"
"Roar—"
"Hiss—"
The calls of various beasts rose and fell, all entering Richard's ears.
"Is it going to... a collective rampage? Beast Tide?" Richard's eyes flickered slightly, lifting his head to gaze at the night sky. A great moon broke through the clouds, illuminating the entire forest. For a moment, Richard felt, whether it was an illusion or not, that the moon appeared slightly red compared to before, as if stained with blood...