This adventurer is overly righteous.

"Someone has touched the contents of the bucket..."

Adrian examined the contents of the silver bucket. He had to admit that the other party was indeed very careful and meticulous, having only taken a very small portion before restoring it to its original state. If Adrian's brain were as old as his appearance, he probably wouldn't have noticed.

In addition to this, there was another reason that enabled him to discover this anomaly—

He has extremely high standards for the arrangement of items; they must be neat, symmetrical, and not messy at all.

Even in this temporary dwelling in the cave, he arranged all the furnishings according to the above principles. Even his bathtub, which he used to clean himself, had to be placed on both sides of the room, as did the bed, bookshelves, and table.

He also required others to store the supplies in the silver barrels according to the above principles. The person in charge of transporting the supplies was his subordinate, who would not be unaware of this and had done a good job in the past.

But now he noticed that the borderless soft bread, which should have been square, seemed to have become rectangular, and the shape of the ham was also slightly different from what he had specified. The deviation was very small but should not exist. He could only be certain that someone had tampered with it, and that person could only be the little thief who had sneaked into the cave not long ago.

It seems the other party's methods are more sophisticated than the previous one.

"It's just stalling for time." Adrian frowned slightly, but his tone remained dismissive. "Just a few more days?"

What's the point then?

There's no need to pay too much attention to these crawling spies; just block off the entrances and exits, and they'll be done for on their own.

This was a truth Adrian had only recently come to understand, specifically after Logan showed up and surrendered to him. At that time, he realized that these petty thieves were like rats locked in a cage, destined to die on their own in time. There was no need for them to go to great lengths to search for them; he was the one who held the initiative.

Vampires are better at waiting than humans, and they also have a longer lifespan. Ten or twenty days is a short time for them, but it can be enough to kill petty thieves.

All that's needed is to keep an eye on the altar and your own room to prevent them from ruining the plan.

"But you're quite sensible." Adrian took the red wine out of the barrel, examined it carefully, and confirmed that the other party had not poisoned the wine.

Adrian then summoned the goblin leader. All the food, except for the red wine, belonged to him. The leader was the most intelligent of the many offspring he had conceived by mates with human women and goblins. Only by relying on his power could he control such a large group of goblins and make them work tirelessly for him.

  

However, because it has human blood, it inherited the human's fragile stomach and also has preferences that are closer to humans, making it impossible for it to eat ordinary goblin food.

"Wait." Adrian stopped the goblin leader from reaching out, and the leader bared his teeth.

Dirty goblins!

Adrian bared his fangs, and the goblin leader immediately slumped in fear.

"Let your guards have a taste first." Adrian suspected that the food might be laced with poison. Although he genuinely despised these goblins, he still needed their help to complete the plan. The goblin leader could not die before the plan was finished.

"Non-toxic." After a moment, Adrian made the judgment and let them leave with the food. However, he remembered the arrogant look of the goblin leader at the beginning.

"Does it seem like I need something from it?"

So you started to think that this filthy goblin could stand on equal footing with me, a noble vampire?

Adrian sneered and made a decision: once it was done, he would kill the guy; it would be easy.

That time will come soon, Adrian estimated, feeling it would be incredibly fast; the extensive preparations he had made had left him physically and mentally exhausted.

In his room were two maps, one upright and one reversed—even maps, Adrian insisted on being placed symmetrically—that recorded all the underground waterways that had been explored in the area. Adrian had to carefully check the routes in order to transport goblin food in barrels.

Raising over three hundred goblins underground is no easy task, and even Adrian, a magician, found it exhausting.

The goblins originally ate and slept together in the mine, but the stench from the fermentation of their excrement and food was so terrible that he had to create another underground space for them to live in, and he even had to deal with the huge latrine himself...

Adrian has a severe case of mysophobia. After ensuring that the goblins can live normally, he rarely goes to the living area. Even if the stench is cleaned up with magic, he still cannot accept it psychologically.

"But it's almost over."

Adrian was delighted at the thought that all his past hardships were finally about to bear fruit. So he opened a bottle of red wine, poured the wine into a decanter, and prepared to please himself by drinking.

"I wonder how that petty thief is doing now?"

Adrian thought of the petty thief again. The thief had some skills to steal food, but he was too timid and took a chance, trying to deceive him.

"We can only eat scraps amidst the stench of goblins."

Adrian was secretly excited; this was such a delightful thing.

"He can't escape, this is all he can do, this is all he can do..."

"Ha ha..."

Adrian the vampire, an undeniably cruel man who takes pleasure in the suffering of others, pours the wine from the decanter into a glass and raises it into the air.

"To those cowardly, treacherous reptiles!"

"..."

Kroya sensed that someone was talking badly about him behind his back, but since there were quite a few adventurers in the Adventurers' Guild who were not friendly to him, he couldn't figure out why for the time being.

He found a secluded spot with a milder odor and began practicing his magic.

He had a general grasp of the principles, and he wanted to use the blank pages of the forging experience to try the simplest way of casting spells.

"It's somewhat similar to the method of forging magical equipment..." Kroya thought to himself. Both methods involve inscribing magical runes onto external objects, so they are related to each other.

His fingers began to glide across the white paper, magic forming patterns beneath his fingertips. This was his twelfth attempt, and he felt everything was going exceptionally smoothly.

"It's a success."

Kroya's eyes lit up. He tore off the page and placed it in the lining of his clothes. The spell on the page contained a spell that allowed one to stop breathing, and its effect could last for an hour. Kroya tried it out and found that when he stared at the other person carefully, he only needed about sixty heartbeats to complete the spell.

"It's like when you're reciting a poem, and the teacher has written the original text on the blackboard behind you..."

It feels quite subtle. If you look at it this way, the first stage of casting spells is like reading from a textbook, while the second stage is like being able to memorize it with your eyes closed.

As for the third stage, Kroya can't think of anything comparable at the moment, so he'll leave it for now.