After the wooden spider descended to the bottom of the steep, rocky slope, Byron, under his own direction, set up several tents a short distance from the base of the mountain.
If all went according to plan, they would be spending at least the next month—possibly even longer—here.
Once the tents were swiftly pitched, Byron called on Saul to begin assembling the experintal equipnt.
To catch wraith, they first had to determine their approximate location.
What Byron was now setting up was a soul wave detection instrunt, brought from the wizard tower.
Saul had never seen, let alone used, such a device, so all he could do was hand over materials and help from the side.
Since it didn’t require any thinking, Saul handed things over while taking in the surroundings.
“Senior Byron, why are there so many holes in the ground here and at the base of the mountain? So of them look like they were dug by people.”
“That’s right. The actual ground level here used to be far lower. Legend has it that a Third Rank wizard once moved half a mountain here, burying all the enemy’s reinforcents underneath it.”
“Half a mountain?” Saul was stunned. He couldn’t begin to imagine what kind of ntal and magical power it would take to lift a whole mountain.
His current Mage’s Hand could barely lift a chair.
“So of the wizards buried under the mountain didn’t die. They dug tunnels to escape upward, but even those who made it to the surface mostly didn’t survive. Later, treasure hunters ca looking for valuable materials. Over ti, this whole place was dug into a ss of holes.”
Saul glanced at a nearby tunnel barely ten centiters in diater. He couldn’t imagine what kind of person could crawl out or treasure-hunt through that.
At that mont, Nick returned from scouting.
“I did a preliminary check—there’s almost no spiritual presence around here. If we want to catch any wraith, we’ll need to go deeper in.”
Byron brushed the dust off his hands and asked, “How much deeper?”
Nick whoosh—unfolded a map.
The map hovered in the air on its own, needing no table to support it.
Saul leaned over as well. The map depicted the area around the steep slope at the entrance of Hanging Hands Valley.
“Are we going to search around here? Are we splitting up, or working together?”
Byron and Nick both turned their heads to look at Saul.
“What?” he asked.
“I’ll search with Nick. You stay and watch over the equipnt,” Byron said first.
Nick chid in as well. “You’ve only just reached Second Rank, and you’re not yet proficient in your spells. Better to stay here and review your knowledge.”
“…Alright.” Saul had hoped that his promotion might earn him more involvent in the expedition.
At that mont, Byron finished setting up the detection device. “That should do it. It’s portable now, too.”
“Have others tried capturing wraith here before?” Saul looked at the mirror-like surface at the center of the instrunt and stepped closer to examine it.
The mirror didn’t seem flat—it reflected a distorted image of Saul’s face.
Seeing Saul’s interest, Byron explained.
“The surface isn’t flat, so people always appear twisted in it. But once the device is activated, any clear human figure you see reflected is a spiritual entity.”
“Can I try it?” Saul curiously touched the mirror.
Strangely enough, the mirror felt perfectly smooth.
Could the unevenness be due to the silver coating on the inside?
Byron gave him a short demo. “This part adjusts the wavelength. You can try it out yourself later—but don’t go past this threshold.”
Saul looked down at the red-marked scale. “What happens if I go past it?”
Nick, folding away the map, made a blooming motion with his hands in front of Saul’s face. “You might end up seeing sothing you shouldn’t. Could be good, could be bad.”
Wizards were nothing if not efficient.
Byron and Nick quickly decided on a direction for their search and left the temporary base.
Once they were gone, Saul didn’t idle.
Having just been promoted to Second Rank and absorbed so many soul fragnts—fragnts that couldn’t be stored long but could stimulate soul resin to increase mana—he still didn’t know exactly how much his mana had increased.
With all kinds of instrunts readily available at the temporary base, Saul seized the rare opportunity to run a full body scan.
The results were full of pleasant surprises.
His mana had shot up to 53 Joules!
ntal power couldn’t be asured in exact numbers, but Saul could faintly sense that it had grown denser, more refined.
That Shelly wizard must’ve spent years gathering all those vengeful spirits, and in the end, they were wasted on soone who didn’t even know how to use them—ultimately, it all ended up benefiting Saul.
But to ask Saul to imitate Sherry and start creating his own vengeful spirits? Not a chance.
Even if those fragnts provided trendous growth, the impurities within them could bring terrifying consequences.
Just look at Soniel, for example.
After the scan confird that his body hadn’t suffered any adverse effects from the promotion, Saul let out a satisfied breath.
If a promotion resulted in minor injuries or contamination of body or mind, it could still be redied.
But Saul had no desire to ss himself up on his very first advancent.
Setting aside the black crystal, Saul once again confird that he was alone, then pulled out a small silver sphere from his chest pocket.
It was no more than half a centiter in diater, occasionally flickering with starlight inside.
This was the Nightmare Butterfly Cocoon Saul had extracted from Penny’s eye.
What he had retrieved were two silver hemispheres.
But once held in his palm, the two hemispheres fused into a seamless sphere, and no amount of force could separate them again.
Saul had never heard of a Nightmare Butterfly before.
After reuniting with Byron, he’d combed through every book he had on butterflies—but there wasn’t a single ntion of it.
Clearly, this wasn’t sothing a First Rank apprentice should know about. And yet, Saul was deeply curious about Penny’s ability to enter other people’s dreams.
“I wonder how to activate this cocoon—maybe it’ll let enter dreams too.”
He gently tapped the silver cocoon with his fingertip, while jotting down ideas on paper with his other hand.
Swish swish swish…
1. The simplest thod—sleep while holding the cocoon. Start with a few ordinary people nearby to ensure experint safety.
2. Embed it in the eye, then sleep. Replicating Penny’s thod, though a steep cost… restorative magic for eyes isn’t cheap. But if I get rich, maybe worth a shot.
3. ditate and synchronize ntal energy with the cocoon. Try activating its powers that way…
Tap. Tap. Tap…
Saul suddenly stopped writing and straightened up.
He thought he heard sothing.
Resting a hand on the table, just as he was about to stand, a shadow darted past underneath.
Saul looked down—and his eyes widened in disbelief.
A head.
A head with two feet was waddling out from beneath his table.
It was the head of a middle-aged man, humming idly to himself.
The head had no body—just a pair of legs attached to the neck. The ankles were stubby, making the gait resemble that of a penguin—or maybe a duck.
It might’ve been funny, if the face weren’t so deeply unsettling.
Before Saul could react, he heard another voice.
“There you go slacking again.” Another head erged from under the tent flap.
This one was a middle-aged woman, with chestnut hair dragging on the ground, stirring up pebbles.
She didn’t seem to notice, her focus entirely on chasing the male head.
“Lord Morden is organizing the ranks. We’re about to depart.”
But the man-head ignored her and waddled off through the far side of the tent.
The woman-head followed him out.
Neither of them spared so much as a glance at Saul.
Byron had never ntioned anything like this when he briefed him on Hanging Hands Valley.
A faint unease crept into Saul’s heart.
He stepped to the front of the tent and yanked the flap open.
And then, his skin erupted in goosebumps—from the soles of his feet to the roots of his hair.
Outside the tent—across the hills and fields—was a swarm of creatures.
A mountain full of bizarre monsters…
Each one was just a head—a human head with two legs.
(End of Chapter)
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