Chapter 27: Compound Runes

Although Mark agreed to guide Saul, he wasn’t about to waste his entire morning on a First Rank newcomer. Second Rank apprentices had heavy study loads too, especially with their upcoming test in a month.

Rather than Mark directly teaching Saul, it was more like Saul studied on his own, seeking help from Mark only when he encountered difficulties he couldn’t figure out.

Unfortunately, even with Mark’s explanations, Saul still struggled to grasp many concepts, unable to fully understand the logical connections.

Before leaving at noon, Saul made another request to Mark.

“You want to borrow that mental aptitude testing puppet?” Mark didn’t hesitate. He walked to the laboratory cabinet, opened the door, and casually rummaged through until he pulled out a wooden puppet.

The moment Mark opened the cabinet, Saul instinctively stepped back two paces.

Seeing Saul’s wary expression, Mark found it amusing. “Afraid, yet you still want to borrow it?”

“Precisely because I’m afraid, I need to borrow it.” Saul carefully avoided making eye contact with the puppet.

He reached out his hand, and Mark casually placed the puppet in his palm.

“Friendship price—5 magic crystals for 10 days.”

“I’ll borrow it for 2 days then.”

Mark’s face darkened. “No rentals for just 2 days!”

Saul replied straightforwardly, “I only have 3 magic crystals left.”

He had exchanged these crystals for credits with Keli.

A friend could get a discount, but an enemy couldn’t.

In the end, Mark took Saul’s three magic crystals and warned him that while research was fine, any damage would require a 2-credit compensation.

Saul wrapped the puppet tightly with layers of cloth and carefully placed it into the pocket of his apprentice robe.

“Take me away… take me away…”

Saul’s movements halted. “Senior, did you hear that?”

“Hm?” Mark had already returned to his desk, focused on his research.

“No… it’s nothing…”

Saul pinched his robe pocket as if afraid something inside might escape.

He picked up his books and turned to leave the lab.

On the way back to the West Tower, someone stopped him.

Saul recognized the girl as a fellow First Rank apprentice, but he had forgotten her name.

“Saul,” the girl looked a little shy. “I have something to tell you.”

She nervously twisted the fabric of her clothing with her fingers.

“Can you say it within five sentences?” Saul nearly bumped into her due to her sudden appearance.

The girl was momentarily stunned, her expression turning a bit hurt.

“Sorry, I’m in a hurry.”

“But I…” The girl’s eyes turned red.

Saul simply walked around her, muttering loudly, “Oh no, oh no, I’m running out of time!”

The girl stood frozen in place, not making any move to chase after him.

It didn’t seem to be anything urgent.

Yet, Saul still didn’t manage to leave the corridor.

At the end of the passage, another person suddenly jumped out.

“Hey, Saul!”

Saul recognized him—Doze.

The guy who used to chase after Keli and later started hanging around Duke.

This time, he wasn’t accompanied by the indecisive Rocky.

Ever since people discovered Saul’s low magical aptitude, Doze had rarely sought him out.

“Sorry, I’m really in a hurry.” Saul tried to step around Doze again.

But Doze raised his hand, blocking the passage.

“I’ll say it in five sentences.”

Saul had no choice but to stop.

“Senior Lokai has gathered a group of new apprentices to form a Mutual Aid Society where everyone can study and discuss magic together. This afternoon at two is our second meeting—do you want to come?”

“Does it cost anything?”

“Uh, regular members have to pay…”

“I’m broke.” Saul nodded politely, then pushed past Doze and walked away.

Doze quickly turned and shouted after him, “Keli already agreed to come today!”

Saul paused and looked back at Doze’s smug expression. With sincere honesty, he said, “I really have no money.”

Then, he hurried away. No one stopped him this time.

After a quick lunch, Saul arrived at the second floor of the East Tower—his usual morgue.

This place had become his personal study room, while his dormitory was only used for night study and rest.

Saul had already reorganized the outermost morgue room. In addition to the teleportation platform and two long tables, he had added a cabinet to store various lab supplies he had exchanged for credits.

These instruments and materials had completely drained his remaining credits.

If the wizard tower didn’t provide food and shelter, Saul would have been left with nothing but air to eat.

Inside the cabinet were not only the items Saul had purchased but also some mutated materials he had collected from corpses.

One unexpected discovery Saul had made was that if he didn’t place the collected materials in the empty box on the long table, they wouldn’t be taken away the next day. Instead, they would remain in their original spots.

After studying Grimm’s Guide to Sorcerous Body Modifications and The Guild to Corpse Refinement, Saul had learned the basic applications of certain materials.

So, whenever he obtained more than one material during work, he would keep one for himself.

Would this be considered stealing?

Saul didn’t think so.

Mentor Kaz had given him a book about studying corpses, and it wasn’t just about analyzing residual traits on bodies.

The second half of the book was entirely about preserving materials, some simple applications, and even a brief discussion on souls.

Since the instructor had assigned him this book, he must have expected Saul to learn from all of its contents.

However, even after purchasing special containers for perishable materials, Saul still couldn’t prevent natural decay.

Fortunately, The Guide to Corpse Refinement mentioned a Zero Tier spell. Organ Preservation.

To learn this spell, Saul first had to master a complex dark-attribute compound rune.

This was why he had been studying relentlessly for days.

Yet, the difficulty of this rune far exceeded his expectations. Even with his strong mental aptitude, he couldn’t quickly grasp its principles.

That was why he had spent magic crystals to seek guidance from Mark. Unfortunately, while Mark’s hints had given him some ideas, they hadn’t led him to the right answer.

Saul carefully used a dip pen to draw the compound rune’s basic shape on a sheet of white paper.

“Based on the coordinate axes, I can confirm my drawing matches the original rune. But why does it still fail to activate when I trace it with mental energy?”

This was one of the simplest compound runes.

It looked like two basic runes overlapping to form a new pattern.

The only difference was that one rune was scaled down in size.

“Mark said compound runes aren’t just simple overlays; I also need to consider proportional relationships. But even when I distribute magic according to the proportions, something still feels off.”

“He also mentioned something about angles—what does he mean by the angle of observation?”

Saul raised the paper to eye level.

Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind.

“Could it be the perspective angle?”

He quickly set the paper down, took out a ruler, and tried sketching a perspective drawing, calculating proportional relationships to explore the distance between the two runes.

“No… that’s not right!”

Even after several attempts, he still couldn’t activate the rune.

“I’ve checked my calculations over ten times—it shouldn’t be wrong. So, the issue isn’t perspective.”

Frustrated, Saul crumpled the messy rune sketch and tossed it into the trash.

He stared at the wastebasket in thought.

“Where exactly am I misunderstanding?”

The crumpled paper was wrinkled and bent in various ways—concave here, convex there, slanted and folded.

It almost looked like countless tiny runes were dancing before his eyes.

“Wait!” Saul’s eyes suddenly lit up. He slapped his forehead.

“I already suspected the two runes weren’t just overlapping but had spatial distance—why didn’t I consider that their planes might not be parallel?”

He pulled out a fresh sheet of paper and, this time, began by sketching a three-dimensional coordinate axis.

(End of Chapter)

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