Chapter 249: Replicating the Magic Formation |
Nick was not in a good state.
Saul gave him another once-over.
Nick didn’t have a single hair left on his body. His already oversized cloak looked like it could lift him into the air like a kite.
Bloodshot eyes trembled now and then, as if trying to avoid Saul’s gaze.
“To go further, there’s always a price to pay.” Nick tried to sound casual, but his entire being was radiating tension.
“Need my help?” Saul asked.
Nick only shook his head. “What did you come here for?”
“Well… do you still have any Grinding Sound Fruit left? I need some for an experiment and wanted to buy a few.”
Nick’s pupils abruptly shrank, and he shook his head instinctively. “None left. What do you need it for? It can only stabilize emotions temporarily. Not much use.”
And judging by Nick’s reaction now, he clearly knew something too.
Saul hadn’t planned on getting involved in these murky waters. But if the Grinding Sound Fruit could truly help him stabilize his soul and enter the Mental Realm...
Then it was part of his advancement path. Even if he knew there were traps ahead, he’d still charge through them.
Nick’s eyes darted around constantly, as if caught in a deep inner struggle.
Saul was certain Nick still had Grinding Sound Fruit. What he wasn’t sure about now was whether this mentally unstable Nick would be willing to share.
Would he reject him out of fear of entangling interests?
Just then, Nick suddenly ducked down and crawled under a cabinet, reaching in with considerable effort.
Saul waited nearby. After a moment, he heard a crisp crack. Nick stood up looking a bit disheveled.
He had moved too fast, and when he reached under the cabinet, he scraped his arm hard against the underside.
When he pulled his arm back out, a fresh red mark was already there.
Beads of blood slowly gathered and then began to trickle down.
But Nick seemed completely unaware of the injury. All he cared about was stuffing a flat wooden plank into Saul’s hands.
“Here. Take it. All of it. Just don’t come back.”
Saul took the board in astonishment, feeling a heavy weight in his hands that clearly didn’t match the size of the wood.
He looked up at Nick, “What do you want in return? Credits? Magic crystals? Other materials?”
But Nick kept shaking his head. “I don’t want anything. Just take it. Don’t say I gave it to you. I won’t admit to it.”
His bony hand pressed against Saul’s shoulder, pushing him toward the door.
Saul didn’t resist. He could tell something was seriously off with Nick’s mental state. But Nick clearly had no intention of explaining anything.
Nick yanked open the door that had been sealed shut with duct tape and shoved Saul outside.
“I don’t need your kindness. You’d best worry about yourself!” he said coldly the moment the door opened.
Nick kept pushing Saul until he was all the way out, and even after the door slammed shut between them, cutting off their eye contact, he didn’t say another word.
Saul stood in the hallway for a while, holding the wooden plank, stunned. He didn’t move until someone passed by at the other end of the corridor.
He tucked the plank under his robe and walked back to his dorm as if nothing had happened.
The weight of the board under his robe felt like he was carrying a person.
“If the Grinding Sound Fruit really was useless to Nick, then why did he go out of his way to disguise it as a wooden plank and hide it under a cabinet?”
Back at the dorm, Saul locked the door before finally pulling out the plank that held the fruit.
With a gentle twist of his hands, the wood cracked open.
A crisp snap.
The plank was hollow inside, and through the split, he could see gray fruit shaped like a flute.
There were six of them lined up inside.
Saul took out two, and almost instinctively, hid the remaining four.
“Nick’s anxiety must’ve rubbed off on me,” he muttered, tucking the two Grinding Sound Fruits into his sleeve.
Just then, there was a sudden knock at the door.
Saul stood up immediately, instinctively tightening his sleeves.
“Who is it?”
“Me.”
No need to guess. It was Keli.
Saul went to open the door. Outside stood Keli, still wearing her metal mask.
That mask looked even thicker than before.
“Are you living in the second storage room now?”
“Uh… been busy lately. Want to come in for a bit?”
Saul tried to invite her in, but Keli shook her head.
“I need to go comfort my mentor. I heard the sound of your door closing and came to check.”
“Comfort Mentor Gudo? What happened to him?”
“Well, his latest poison experiment... got unraveled by his dear student Billy. It bruised his ego. Oh, right, since you’re always full of ideas—have you ever thought about what offensive properties metal might have, besides sharpness or magnetism?”
“Offensive properties?”
Keli puffed out her cheeks—her mask tilted upward slightly, and crossed her arms. “I spent days developing a new poison, and Billy just solved it instantly. This time I’m going to find a field he hasn’t studied. He won’t be so smug again!”
So it was all about pride and rivalry.
But really—could Billy’s perpetually grim face even pull off a smug expression?
“I’ve never studied metal-element wizardly,” Saul said with a shrug. He had only memorized the periodic table back in school, and had long since forgotten most of it.
“But if you’re really set on finding something destructive in metals…” Saul suddenly thought of a devastating concept. “You could look into radioactivity. But it’s dangerous. Don’t try anything until you have solid protection.”
“Radioactivity?” Keli blinked. She had heard of magical radiation and mental radiation before. “What’s that?”
Saul scratched his chin, “I don’t really know the exact principles. But some unstable metals are highly radioactive. The particles and radiation they emit can be lethal. No idea if that kind of thing exists here.”
After he said it, Saul felt a twinge of regret.
After all, this was an entirely different world. Perhaps what they called magical radiation already included metal-based radiation.
And maybe he just didn’t know it.
Different fundamental rules might have led this world down a completely different path.
Saul had only mentioned it offhand, but Keli looked utterly captivated.
She kept murmuring “radioactivity” under her breath, wandering off like a sleepwalker.
After seeing her off, Saul rushed back to the first floor of the East Tower.
Tonight, he still had a deal to make with Wright.
Once inside the storeroom, Saul first checked all the candles, confirming there were no fewer than a hundred burning.
Then he inspected each corpse and valuable item, cross-referencing them with the storage ledger he had made himself.
Only after confirming that nothing was wrong, and that his experiment would go undisturbed, did Saul lay the Grinding Sound Fruit and the magic formation blueprint he had gotten from Byron onto the long table.
“Constructing the Mental Realm…” Saul murmured. “Little Algae.”
Black tendrils quickly slid out from the back of his neck, moving to float in front of him.
“I’m about to start the experiment. If I lose track of time, make sure to wake me up at seven-thirty.”
Little Algae bobbed its head up and down.
With his “alarm” set, Saul picked up a quill and immersed himself completely in the work.
Crumpled paper soon formed a small mountain at his feet.
One quill was squeezed so hard it snapped, its pieces lying in the corner of the table.
A large, specially prepared parchment was spread across the long table, forcing the other materials to make room.
With each sweep of his arm, he accidentally knocked over an ink bottle that had been pushed to the edge, but Little Algae swiftly caught it and set it back in place.
Seeing that Saul hadn’t even noticed the commotion, Little Algae shook the ink off its body in mild exasperation.
It kept one eye on the time, while the rest of its attention stayed fixed on Saul’s busy silhouette.
From morning to afternoon, Saul worked non-stop—he didn’t even eat lunch.
At last, he stopped.
“It’s done.” Saul straightened his back, barely believing his own speed.
He looked up at the sandglass clock—it wasn’t even seven yet.
Little Algae noticed Saul had stopped and nudged his head curiously, as if to ask, “Why’d you stop?”
Saul reached up and patted its smooth head, still stunned.
“I… I’ve replicated the magic formation for the Mental Realm.”
Saul… Excellent.
(End of Chapter)
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