As Fang Senyan's casual summons rang out, Luzz stepped forward, a cruel light flashing in his eyes, and began unstrapping the great bow from his back. He had always viewed humans with disdain, and this one before him was even more repulsive (a conflict of temperament compounded by Fang Senyan's rather considerable +3 Charisma). Fang Senyan's shout at the Orc only fueled Luzz's rage, pushing him to directly intend to choke Fang Senyan with the bowstring!

Then, he would turn him into the main course for his own dinner. But at that moment, Saruman's projection shook its head. This slight movement was like an iron shackle suddenly tightening around Luzz’s wrist, preventing him from moving—or daring to move!

Luzz let out several muffled roars from his throat, furiously suppressing his anger. Anywhere else, the surrounding trees and stones would have become the target of his venting, but before Saruman's projection, Luzz's only outlet was to clench his fists tighter. Watching Fang Senyan pick up the knife and pliers, skillfully dismantling, segmenting, draining, cleaning, curing, and finally preparing the spellcasting materials from the snow bear in a series of processes.

The expression in Saruman's projection’s eyes began to soften. Perhaps Fang Senyan’s words were somewhat exaggerated, but in this place, a skilled human assistant was certainly far better than these Orcs! Furthermore, Saruman's projection was currently at a crucial juncture in his experiments and indeed required a capable assistant to handle these somewhat technical chores.

"Perhaps letting him stay for a few days wouldn't be a bad idea. I can always dispose of him in the end anyway." Such a thought suddenly surfaced in Saruman's projection's mind. His concentration was genuinely wrapped up in the drudgery of refining spell components.

Handing this task to these Uruk-hai, he had to admit, their brains seemed to possess slightly more muscle than their skulls, and the efficiency gap was simply too vast. Of course, the fundamental reason Saruman's projection entertained such an idea... was Fang Senyan's display of inferior strength.

No one would feel overly cautious when facing a "fly" that could be crushed with a single gesture, especially when that "fly's" surroundings were already layered with inescapable traps! This double security naturally caused the projection's vigilance to weaken to a relatively low level. "You will have clean quarters, but for food, the Orcs can only provide you with processed raw ingredients.

Of course, if your palate aligns with theirs, you may disregard my previous statement," Saruman's projection stated in an emotionless voice. "You may commence your work now. My servants will escort you to the ice cellar!

Sailor, it is four in the afternoon—I require at least ten sets of very high-quality spell components by eight this evening, or you will face punishment." "You shall certainly have what you desire, Master! However, I have one last humble request, which is but a trifle to you." Fang Senyan immediately pressed his advantage. Saruman's projection halted its steps.

"I hope that while I serve you, my friend and the woman I love can also enjoy slightly better treatment... so as not to be abused in that filthy prison cell. Moreover, I would be deeply saddened if I discover they were secretly executed after I exhaust myself working for you." Although Saruman remained expressionless, he felt even more at ease.

What trouble could a weak human, burdened with concerns and hostages, possibly stir up? He nodded his assent quite readily. In truth, Fang Senyan had no intention of causing trouble.

He believed these Orc slave-catchers were not mere bandits looking for ransom; everyone imprisoned likely faced a grim and hopeless unknown fate... Fang Senyan's objective was simply to delay this moment as long as possible. To put it plainly, even if everyone was slated for execution, Fang Senyan would try his utmost to push his and Reef's execution order to the very end.

"Luzz," Saruman's projection lifted its staff slightly and said plainly, "I find the sailor's request rather reasonable." Luzz let out a muffled growl from his throat, then glared fiercely at Fang Senyan and strode out. Then, the powerful mage gestured for Fang Senyan to follow, but he did not lead him up to the upper levels of the wizard's tower. Instead, they went directly downward, into the ice cellar at the very bottom.

The cellar was intensely cold, filled with the frozen corpses of various creatures. Moving through the ice cellar was a strange and formidable species: they looked somewhat like emaciated versions of terrestrial octopuses, lacking bones or a central torso, yet possessing considerable intelligence. Their heads were large, soft, and grey, crowned with a circle of massive eyes.

Beneath the head sprouted seven or eight tentacles, like those of an octopus, which they used with incredible dexterity to walk, live, and work. As Fang Senyan watched the multi-pupiled gaze of these creatures, he felt an instinctual sense of danger; clearly, any battle with these things would necessitate paying close attention to those damnable eyes. Saruman called these tentacled monsters by their scientific name: Hecata's Pods.

Fang Senyan suddenly recalled the giant octopus creature, Hecatomb, that lived in the lake in the original storyline... so powerful that even the Fellowship dared not confront it directly, forced instead to retreat into the ruins of the Moria Mines. Saruman's projection’s term for these monsters seemed to hint at some connection to that octopus.

Fang Senyan thus worked under the surveillance of these Hecata's Pods. Not only was escape impossible, but his personal freedom was severely restricted. He was forced to labor ceaselessly under duress.

Fortunately, his goal was to stall for time, and dismantling spell materials was indeed a technical task, making it difficult for his overseers to detect any laziness. ... The days passed swiftly, three in total.

Every day, Fang Senyan moved in and out of the tower, inevitably delivering the compounded materials to various parts of the wizard's tower, which afforded him the opportunity to observe the layout of different areas. His work efficiency was remarkably high. After finishing, he would return to flirt a bit with the Elf girl and exchange words with Reef.

He was quite carefree. During these three days, Reef also noticed that whenever the weather was clear, several prisoners would be escorted out and never return. He surmised that these individuals were likely sent into the tower for cruel experiments on living subjects.

But Fang Senyan dismissed this possibility. He knew that while Saruman was absolutely ruthless and harbored no psychological burden about using humans for experiments, the creature consistently believed that the frail human body was utterly unsuitable for modification... you could consider it that humans were not yet worthy of being his test subjects—only Orcs were the perfect template.

Thus, the destination of these missing people remained a significant enigma. Although Saruman's projection was extremely wary of Fang Senyan and never allowed him near the deeper levels of compounding work, even dismantling these materials provided Fang Senyan with considerable benefit. This wasn't a direct increase in data, but rather a growth in experience.

Previously, Fang Senyan had only prepared spell components from bears, foxes, and birds of prey, but during these three days, the variety of biological spell components he processed exceeded ten different species! And the total quantity reached hundreds of sets. The implication was this: at least ten types of creatures could be extracted and used to compound various potions.

Fang Senyan currently only knew how to prepare three genetic potions—bear, fox, and raptor—due to incomplete notes, but this absolutely did not mean he couldn't attempt to formulate potions from the materials of other creatures on his own. This recent experience significantly narrowed his scope for screening and formulation. Among the creatures whose corpses he processed in the ice cellar, five existed in the real world, while five were unidentifiable in reality: wolf, common freshwater fish, snake, dog, and mantis.

Once Fang Senyan returned to the real world, he would certainly use these five creatures to prepare spell components for experimental compounding. Whether it worked or not, how would he know without trying? Despite Fang Senyan’s best efforts to stall, the corpses in the ice cellar steadily diminished until, finally, there were none left.

The Hecata’s Pods went to notify those outside. Not long after, heavy "thump-thump-thump" footsteps approached, and then a fierce-looking Uruk-hai strode in, fixing Fang Senyan with a cruel gaze—it was Luzz. "Filthy human, you are no longer worthy of lingering here.

Get out of our sacred grounds! Immediately!" Fang Senyan’s heart sank; he knew his stalling tactics had reached their limit. He sighed faintly, but managing to delay for these four days was better than nothing.

At least half of the Elves arrested with them had been taken away and had not returned. Shortly after Fang Senyan returned to his cell, he suddenly received a prompt from the Nightmare Imprint: "Scanning: Execution Team Mission Number 1018: Survival has reached a time-related critical threshold!" "Warning: Execution Team Mission Number 1018: Survival has reached a time-related critical threshold!" "Warning: The difficulty of your continued stay in this world will increase. Effective immediately, you cannot open or use the storage space of the Nightmare Imprint!" "Hint: The Team Mission: Survival has multiple critical thresholds.

Each time your duration in this world reaches a time-related critical threshold, the survival difficulty will increase accordingly."