The circular laboratory on the 20th floor was the largest in area within the entire Wizard Tower.
Every ntor had a place here.
Saul was currently the only apprentice allowed to appear in this place.
According to Kaz, Heywood and Kongsha had once held a spot here as well, but they quickly lost their qualifications and were expelled from the 20th floor.
The only apprentice who wasn’t kicked out was nad Ivan. But he had gone too far in his own experints, and in the end, his physical body completely disappeared—only a lost soul remained, wandering the dormitory area every night in search of his body.
Upon hearing Kaz's description of Ivan, Saul imdiately recalled the gray shadow he had encountered during his few nocturnal walks through the Wizard Tower.
Kaz sighed and said, “You must never use yourself for experints carelessly.”
But as soon as he said it, he saw Saul—his skin pale gray—nodding in agreent.
Kaz: “…”
So rules clearly didn’t apply to everyone.
In the end, Kaz explained to Saul how to use the facilities in the circular laboratory and the precautions to take, then left him alone.
Saul carefully made a round of the laboratory.
Though it was called a laboratory, because it was a shared space for all ntors and experintal personnel, it had instead beco a kind of exhibition hall for experintal results.
The more dangerous or early-phase experints were never conducted here.
That wasn’t a rule, just an unspoken understanding.
If Saul wanted to conduct research here on his own, no one would stop him.
After all, hardly anyone ca here in the first place.
Kaz had said he could choose to follow a ntor and participate in their experints, or he could initiate his own independent project. There was no rush—he could first look over the experintal records, especially those that had been deed failures or unworthy of further research.
That way, he wouldn’t waste ti repeating the paths of others.
As for whether Saul might co across dangerous knowledge—he was already Third Rank. Did he still need a ntor to hold his hand?
After Kaz left, Saul didn’t imdiately go check the records or books.
Instead, he was intrigued by the rows of stone coffins in the room.
So of the lids were wide open, so half-open, so fully shut—it clearly wasn’t just for storage.
Each stone coffin had a small booklet tied to its side with a piece of hemp rope. These were obviously used to record relevant information.
Saul walked up to the nearest fully sealed stone coffin and squatted down to examine it.
The booklet recorded a number.
Vessel No. 1342
Do not open the coffin without permission.
Non-humanoid. Form is unstable. Experint suspended.
For detailed information, see: Floor 19, Room, Bookshelf.
Information last updated: Year 311, January 1st.
Saul flipped further into the booklet. The back contained status updates for No. 1342 across different tis.
The last page was dated June 9th, Year 310.
After that, the update frequency rapidly increased—by July 310, there were even daily updates. But after August, the update pace suddenly dropped, eventually becoming just once a month.
Until January 1st, Year 311, when the experint was suspended.
From the records, Saul could imagine that the experinters had begun with great enthusiasm and hope, perhaps even believing success was within reach at one point. But in the end, they failed. They racked their brains, trying to find the problem and kept revising their thods. Yet after repeated failures, they must’ve realized they might’ve chosen the wrong direction entirely—or that a critical step had remained unsolved.
In any case, the experint was suspended.
The only good news was that it wasn’t terminated—just suspended.
Saul stood up. Though curious about what was inside the stone coffin, he had no intention of opening it recklessly.
The record clearly stated that its state was unstable. If opening it ruined the contents, that would destroy the result of countless hours of effort and betray the painstakingly chosen word: “suspended.”
Saul browsed through a few more booklets beside other coffins and gradually identified a pattern.
All of the fully sealed stone coffins contained suspended experints—presumably, those that had been terminated weren’t even qualified to remain in the laboratory.
The ones with just a crack open were mostly unstable or dangerous containers.
Half-open or fully open ones were still in use—at least within the last month.
If a stone coffin’s lid was open, it ant the experint was still ongoing.
Saul swept his gaze across the room. With his powerful ntal strength, he instantly calculated the number of unsealed coffins.
Not many—just twelve.
As for the fully sealed ones, there were one hundred and seventeen.
Next, Saul returned to the circular experint table at the center of the room.
It was clearly ant for multiple people to use together. The tabletop was made up of multiple polygonal segnts, and any of them could be moved in front of oneself if needed.
There was also a pipe in the center of the table, reaching straight up to the ceiling. It could deliver required materials—including soul bodies.
At first, Saul thought it was so kind of modern chanical system. But when he opened the pipe’s hatch, what he saw inside were the slender arms that had once passionately chased him.
These arms were different from the ones he had seen outside the bronze gate on the first floor of the East Tower. Now, they were quiet and well-behaved, curling up inside the pipe.
Saul didn’t know if the arms still rembered him, but he sure rembered them clearly.
Back when he traded candles with Ferguson, and when that ugly woman behind Heywood pulled his soul out—these noodle-like arms had tangled with him more than once.
“Why so well-behaved now?” Saul propped his chin in his hand. “Is it just because this isn’t the rest of the East Tower? Because this is the Tower Master’s lab?”
These arms clearly weren’t as mindlessly chaotic as they had appeared—at the very least, they knew how to behave in front of the Tower Master.
Though bickering with a bunch of broken, chaotic soul bodies was pointless…
BANG! Saul slamd the pipe’s hatch shut with a palm.
“One day, I’ll use you all in my experints!”
By now, Saul had explored most of the lab. Occasionally, a diary would pop up sowhere to warn him not to touch certain areas.
Of course, with Saul’s current insight, he could usually identify danger on his own.
“Next, I need to determine my research direction.” Saul walked back to the bronze gate and, imitating Kaz, placed his hands on either side of the door. “I already have an idea—I just don’t know if it’s feasible.”
As thoughts churned in his mind, he pushed open the door to the 20th floor. He stood in place for a mont, listening to the faint sounds behind the door fade away, then stepped out.
But as soon as he took a step, the light before his eyes dimd drastically.
Saul turned around instantly and found that the bronze gate had already closed behind him—but the walls flanking it were not the walls of the 20th floor in the East Tower.
The fine scratches on the wall told Saul that he was no longer on the 20th floor.
He turned again to look at the shadowy corridor behind him—and finally realized that he had walked through the 20th floor’s bronze gate and ended up outside the first-floor bronze gate of the East Tower!
(End of Chapter)
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