Gorsa was fully absorbed as he read, lifting another page from the desk as soon as he finished the last.
Once he had gone through all of Saul’s derivation formulas, he frowned in rare confusion.
“A brilliant idea. No borrowed fraworks, just a direct attempt to integrate… but it’s riskier. How is he so sure he’ll survive the destruction and modification of both body and soul?”
He set down the draft papers, completely unconcerned that he’d disturbed their original order.
Then he walked over to the stone coffin, where he saw the petrified-looking Little Algae.
Unlike Yura, Gorsa wasn’t angered by the creature’s defensive posture, which bordered on disrespect. Instead, he gently patted Little Algae’s smooth, bald head.
“You’re a good kid. I believe Saul is a better match for you than Yura. Once Saul becos a Third Rank apprentice, I’ll extract your seed and give it to him. Sound good?”
Little Algae blinked, jaws parting slightly to reveal a row of shark-like teeth and a black tongue that reached out to gently lick Gorsa’s fingertip.
It couldn’t speak, only respond instinctively with the most basic reactions based on its understanding.
Gorsa’s eyes narrowed with a warm smile. “That happy, huh?”
Little Algae nodded.
Seeing this, Gorsa reached into his “chest,” extracting a red candle from the gap in his bandages.
He pulled over one of Little Algae’s tendrils and wrapped it around the candle several tis. Only after confirming it was held steady did he let go.
With a snap of his fingers, the red candle ignited instantly.
“If Saul hasn’t woken up by the ti the candle burns out, use the fla to burn his palm.”
Little Algae glanced at the candle, then at Gorsa, and nodded obediently.
Gorsa smiled faintly and vanished from the second storage room.
Passing through the eye-covered passage, he accelerated and returned to his personal quarters in an instant.
He stiffly settled into his soft couch, silver eyes narrowing slightly.
“Saul’s concept is fascinating, but what’s even more intriguing is the way he reached it… So many hypothetical pathways suddenly get cut off midway, only for him to switch to a completely unrelated line of reasoning.”
“Is his thinking just that erratic, preferring to run everything in his head… or does he have so way to confirm that the original deductions were definitely wrong?”
…
“Wuu… wuu…”
Saul opened his eyes. He thought he’d just heard soone crying.
But all he saw was a blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds.
“Am I hallucinating?” Saul stretched out a hand and grabbed at the sky. “Feels like wind?”
“Wuuuuu…”
There was that crying again.
“Could this be another illusion caused by the body modification? Like last ti, when the world turned into bubbles?”
Saul turned his head to look at his left shoulder.
The diary was still floating there, which gave him a bit of relief.
“Wuuuuuuuuu…”
The crying grew louder.
It felt like the crying figure was intentionally raising the volu because Saul was ignoring it.
“Tch… Curiosity killed the cat, huh? Even if there’s no life-threatening danger, it might still cause trouble. Best to pretend I didn’t hear anything.”
Even though the sky seed incredibly real and the breeze carried a vivid floral fragrance, Saul was convinced it was an illusion.
He subtly touched the ground beneath him—what he felt was grassy soil, damp with traces of moisture that matched the wetness on his clothes.
“Feels like there was a rainstorm here just now…” Halfway through the thought, Saul cut himself off. “Don’t follow the illusion. That leads to deeper delusion.”
He began channeling his ntal energy, trying to wake himself up.
His spiritual body began to vibrate faintly. Saul focused on recalling the solid feel of the Wizard Tower’s stone floor, forcing himself to imagine that what he was touching wasn’t damp soil, but dry bricks.
Just like a drear trying to jolt themselves awake.
Suddenly, a face appeared above him, blocking his view entirely.
To his surprise, it was an incredibly beautiful face—almost surreal.
None of the beauties Saul had ever seen could compare.
It was like a ticulously painted masterpiece, free of any earthly imperfection.
Saul stared blankly for two full seconds before his reason kicked in: either shut his eyes, or stare harder to find a flaw.
He chose the latter.
He didn’t like passively avoiding things.
But the more he looked, the more Saul began to doubt that this was just an illusion.
Because aside from how impossibly beautiful she was, everything about the girl seed real.
Short, pale green hair hung down—each strand falling naturally in place.
Among the locks of hair on either side, he spotted sothing else—pointed ears.
At the sight of those ears, a word flashed through Saul’s mind—Elf!
“Is she really an elf? Or just my imagination of what an elf should look like?”
“Wuuuuu—”
A tear fell onto Saul’s face. So she had been the one crying earlier.
Despite being stunned by her beauty, Saul’s instincts imdiately went on alert when he heard the sobbing again.
Should he stay quiet, or say sothing?
He had tried to wake up earlier and even checked that the diary was still with him, but he still hadn’t returned to reality.
Since the first thod hadn’t worked, Saul decided to try a different approach.
“Why are you crying?”
The green-haired elf froze in her sobs and looked down at him with sorrowful eyes. “Because I’m going to die.”
Saul was taken aback. “You’re injured?”
She shook her head. “I’m going to die.”
Saul hesitated. If he kept asking questions, would he trigger so trap?
Like asking, How can I help? and she answers, Let eat you, followed by an instant transformation into a ghost bride?
After thinking it over, Saul simply said, “My condolences.”
The elf froze.
She stared blankly at Saul as another teardrop, long held back, slipped from her eye onto his cheek.
Then, just like shattering glass, the world around him cracked and fell away.
The ceiling of the second storage room ca into view, along with Little Algae’s dark, looming face, and the drool that was just about to drip from its mouth.
“What the hell—don’t tell that was your drool just now?”
Saul bolted upright and quickly touched his face. Sure enough, he felt a drop of liquid!
“You were going to eat , weren’t you?”
Little Algae extended the red candle toward him. It was nearly burnt out, with wax running down its tendril.
“A red candle?” Saul took it. “Did you take this from my cabinet?”
Little Algae waved its tendril horizontally.
“Soone gave it to you?”
Little Algae nodded.
“Who?” Saul chuckled. “Who else could get into the second storage room?”
“Was it Lady Yura or the Tower Master? If the forr, nod; if the latter, curl up.”
Little Algae curled up into a ball.
“The Tower Master ca here himself? Was he worried the modification might go wrong?” Saul turned toward his workbench and imdiately noticed things had been moved.
But he wasn’t worried. If it was the Tower Master, it didn’t matter if he saw the modification formulas—everything had been acquired legally and aboveboard. There was nothing that couldn’t be revealed.
Besides, Saul no longer wrote secrets in the language of his past life like he had when he first crossed over.
In a place like the Wizard Tower, filled with powerful individuals and lurking dangers, that would be the sa as advertising that he was hiding sothing.
And now that he’d beco a wizard apprentice, with his spiritual strength gradually growing, his mind was more than capable of storing all the secret knowledge he needed.
What didn’t need to be hidden could simply be recorded on paper.
And the fact that the Tower Master had made no effort to hide that he’d flipped through Saul’s notes—that, too, was a kind of safety signal.
At that mont, Little Algae suddenly nodded again.
Saul patted it gently.
But this gesture didn’t seem to confirm his earlier guess—it had taken too long. Though Little Algae’s reaction ti was sotis pretty slow…
“So… soone else ca in, too?”
(End of Chapter)
Reviews
All reviews (0)