Soft, fragnted murmurs echoed in Saul’s ears, but no matter how hard he listened, he couldn’t make out their aning.
He unconsciously took another step forward—then quickly realized it was the corruption luring him in.
Saul firmly shifted his gaze, weakening the corruption ’s effect, but the whispers in his ears suddenly grew louder.
He looked up toward the cliff face.
From every part of the cliff—regardless of whether there was a cave there or not—countless white arms stretched out, densely packed.
Those arms constantly extended and retracted, waving with outstretched fingers, grotesque in shape.
Saul furrowed his brow. Now he was certain—these arms were reaching for help.
Through them, he seed to glimpse the countless corpses buried within the mountain, the once imnsely powerful apprentice wizards and true wizards who, faced with even stronger and more bizarre entities, had still ended up buried—despairing and helpless.
At that mont, Saul finally understood what a wizard’s graveyard ant. He understood what it ant when people said the western region had beco a vacuum of wizards.
The brutality of it all had never been conveyed in Byron’s few offhand remarks.
And the dead now appearing along this cliff—were likely only a tiny portion of the whole Hanging Hands Valley.
Those arms couldn’t speak. They could only flail desperately, trying to attract attention, yearning for redemption.
But Saul was very aware that these arms weren’t even fragnts of souls. They were just polluted remnants of resentnt, left behind by the dead under the radiation of sorcery.
The longer he looked, the more it felt like he wasn’t standing at the bottom of a valley looking up a steep cliff, but hovering in the air—coldly observing the helpless dead trapped beneath the earth.
Saul shook his head. His ntal body was starting to destabilize.
“Saul? Saul?”
Suddenly, soone called his na. Saul snapped out of it and saw the others all watching him.
It was Nick who called him. “What’s wrong? They’re about to head out.”
Looks like Byron and the others had already picked an entrance.
Saul rubbed his throbbing head and turned to the three upperclassn. “There’s sothing off about the caves on that cliff behind us.”
Byron, who knew Saul’s abilities best, imdiately returned and began carefully observing the cliff he’d initially overlooked.
Wright glanced at Saul, then at the tranquil mountain, and asked skeptically, “Weren’t those wizard corpses supposed to be underground? Why are they off to the side now?”
“Saul is very good at detecting spirits,” Byron replied, pulling his gaze back. “I trust him.”
Bill chuckled, eyes narrowing. “That’s not really my specialty, but if you guys can figure out which cave is more likely to hold spirits, we’ll go with your call.”
Byron handed the decision over to Saul directly. “Saul, which cave shows the clearest signs of corruption ?”
Saul wanted to say the entire cliff was strange.
Still, he focused once more on the caves before him, suppressing the restlessness of his ntal body as he carefully looked for differences.
Bill narrowed his eyes slightly, watching Saul’s expression, seemingly deep in thought.
Wright clapped softly and muttered, “Is he observing spirits? I heard that people with especially sensitive ntal energy can detect lingering souls without instrunts. Could Saul be one of them?”
Byron didn’t reply—his silence spoke volus.
Saul scanned several nearby caves and finally locked onto one.
He raised his hand, pointing to a cave about three ters off the ground, its diater just over a ter.
“This one. The corruption is stronger here. More likely to contain a wraith.”
Though Wright still couldn’t see anything, he let out a sincere sigh. “Saul, just now you looked exactly like my ntor inspecting petri dishes.”
“Your ntor?”
“ntor Anze,” Wright said with a complicated look, as if recalling sothing traumatic. “I’m good at fighting, but terrible at experints. The way Anze looked at my lab reports… it was terrifying.”
Bill burst out laughing. “Maybe if you spent less ti with won, your brain would work better.”
Wright rolled his eyes. “I’ve never toyed with won. I always communicate very sincerely with them.”
Nick was still fiddling with the sensor in his hand but couldn’t detect anything. He sighed. “Next ti soone says a wizard with only ntal talent and no magic talent is useless, I’m definitely bringing you up as a counterexample.”
Bill, always the most impatient, said, “If we’ve confird it, what are we waiting for? Let’s move!”
Byron walked to Saul and patted his shoulder. “Stick close to .”
The four of them bent down and entered the cave three ters off the ground, leaving Nick alone at the camp.
As the last figure—Wright—disappeared into the cave, Nick remained rooted in place.
His hands were tightly clasped, far from as calm as he looked on the surface.
Because Bill and Wright were Third Rank apprentices, Nick couldn’t use a communication spell in front of them.
“Saul…” he whispered inwardly, “Stay close to Byron.”
…
The cave Saul had chosen wasn’t very spacious. Traveling within the mountain was even harder than he had imagined.
After all, this wasn’t a passage built for travel. So parts were roomy, others so narrow Saul couldn’t squeeze through.
Whenever they hit a tight spot, Wright would step in.
He specialized in earth magic and moved easily underground.
After a short, gentle stretch along the mountain’s side, the tunnel suddenly angled sharply downward.
In steeper areas, Saul had to dig his hands deep into the soil to keep his balance.
Their feet were surrounded by pitch darkness. It was impossible to tell how far the tunnel went.
Bill, walking second, maintained a faint glow spell, but it only lit a few ters around them.
Beyond that—even with Saul’s vision—he could only make out vague shadows.
After about half an hour, Wright suddenly stopped.
“No good. Up ahead is a steep downward shaft—nearly vertical.”
He tossed a stone down.
The stone clattered endlessly as it tumbled.
“We’ll have to fly down. Climbing would take way too long.”
“Fly?” Bill’s voice rang out. “No need to ask Saul. Byron, have you learned Featherfall?”
Byron’s entire body jolted—then suddenly shriveled.
His throat split open. “I can float down.”
Before Saul could process what Byron ant by “float,” he saw the withered, skin-like figure’s mouth suddenly stretch long. The lips opened and shut a few tis—then he inhaled sharply.
Hsssssss—
In just a few seconds, he swelled up.
His skin stretched to its limits, expanding and expanding until he looked like a humanoid balloon.
Then, he raised two swollen, hoof-like hands and tied a knot in his own mouth.
Even Bill and Wright were stunned speechless.
Byron ignored them, awkwardly shifting his bloated body. He waved his mouth at Saul.
“Mmm mmm.”
Strangely, Saul imdiately understood what Byron ant.
“Senior… you want to grab your mouth and float down with you?”
“Mmm!”
“Pfft—” Wright was the first to break. He clutched his stomach, laughing so hard he could barely breathe. “Byron, Byron—how did I never realize you were this funny? If I had your ability…”
Wright abruptly fell silent, stroking his chin, deep in thought.
Bill gave the musing Wright a push. “Since you’ve got a way down, get moving already!”
Wright didn’t react in ti and got shoved into the shaft. Judging by the sound, though, he didn’t go into free fall.
Bill glanced at Byron. “If you can’t carry Saul, I’ve got another way.”
Byron shook his head side to side.
Bill smirked, said nothing more, and jumped in.
(End of Chapter)
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