Chapter 28: Endless Studies, Endless Work

If a compound rune were merely the overlapping projection of two different runes, then there would be countless possible solutions. Fortunately, after reviewing Introduction to Rune Construction again, Saul discovered several fundamental constraints he had previously overlooked.

With these constraints, he finally confirmed the three-dimensional structure of the compound rune.

The two runes existed on intersecting planes in three-dimensional space, and their sizes were identical. Thus, the magic distribution should also be even.

If he allocated magic according to the visual size ratio alone, failure was inevitable.

Saul held up his freshly drawn three-dimensional diagram, closed his eyes, and began reconstructing it in his mental space.

An hour later, he suddenly opened his eyes, his face filled with excitement.

“Yes! I did it!”

A wave of exhaustion struck him immediately, nearly making him collapse to the ground.

Constructing a single compound rune had completely drained his magic reserves?

How was he supposed to cast a Zero Tier spell like this?

A sense of panic rose in Saul’s heart. Could it be that his magic aptitude was so poor that he couldn’t even sustain the simplest of spells?

“Calm down, calm down. This was my first time constructing a compound rune—it’s likely I wasted a lot of magic unnecessarily.”

Unfortunately, with his magic depleted, he couldn’t immediately attempt a second reconstruction. His only option was to take out his crystal ball and begin meditating.

“Ssshh!”

The candlelight flickered, pulling Saul out of his meditation.

He turned his head and sighed. “More work.”

Being interrupted while studying was frustrating, but this job was the foundation for changing his fate.

The conveyor belt hummed as a new corpse emerged from behind the curtains before Saul.

To ease his fear and pressure, he had taken to calling the corpses “guests.” It was like humming a song when walking home alone at night.

“Hmm, this guest died quite miserably.”

Rather than a corpse, it was more like a pile of minced flesh—shattered bones mixed with pulped meat and viscera.

The remains were held together on a large piece of leather with curled edges. Without it, the mess would have leaked everywhere.

Saul picked up a pair of forceps from his array of tools.

As he scanned the remains, he noticed countless tiny glimmers spread throughout. The glow was faint, suggesting these materials weren’t valuable. Even if discarded, it wouldn’t be a big loss.

Suppressing his discomfort, Saul carefully sifted through the remains.

To his surprise, the shimmering specks weren’t body fragments but fine powder-like particles.

Switching to a smaller pair of tweezers, he extracted several slightly larger white granules.

Even amidst the blood and flesh, they retained their original color, untouched by red.

He spent a considerable amount of time collecting a small handful, leaving his waist sore from bending over.

Keeping a few samples for himself, he wrapped the rest in parchment and stored them inside a small box on the long table behind him.

As for the remaining body parts, he gathered the leather underneath and dumped everything into the large disposal container below, sealing the lid shut.

The container seemed to have some odor-blocking function, as the room’s blood-scent immediately lessened.

The transmission flame above the platform remained bright.

More work.

Saul pulled the lever and watched as the conveyor belt delivered his next “guest.”

This time, it was a young girl no older than five or six.

Saul hesitated, a pang of discomfort welling up.

How could there be such a small girl in the wizard tower?

He had never heard of any wizard raising children here.

Yet death was always impartial, showing no mercy based on age.

Taking a deep breath, Saul steadied himself, using a semi-immersive meditation method to examine the body.

“Something’s off. She’s not actually a little girl.”

Upon closer inspection, he made another discovery.

“Her teeth and bones don’t match a child’s.”

Thanks to The Guild to Corpse Refinement, Saul had learned how to identify such anomalies.

“She was likely an apprentice affected by some spell, altering her appearance to that of a child while retaining adult internal organs and bone structure.”

Though it felt unfair to the deceased, Saul couldn’t help but feel a little relieved.

He quickly finished the examination and disposed of the remaining parts.

The transmission flame still shone brightly.

“Sigh, more work…”

His third guest had likely experienced a battle. Deep gashes from blades and axes covered the body, and a hole in the skull exposed the black conveyor belt beneath.

By the time he finished, Saul glanced up.

The light was still on.

“Seriously?”

He checked the time and found it was already 6:30 PM.

Half an hour wouldn’t be enough for a thorough examination.

But today’s quota of submitted materials was already met. A quick, superficial check should suffice.

The final guest arrived with a rumbling sound.

A plump woman.

She likely died from a curse, as countless thin cracks covered her skin.

Yet, no blood seeped from them.

Using his meditative vision, Saul noticed countless translucent tongues extending from the cracks.

They writhed like baby birds waiting for their mother to feed them, all turning toward him, waggling their soft forms.

Saul reached out with his forceps, and the tongues swayed in response as if expecting food.

A chill ran down his spine.

Whatever these tongues were, he wanted nothing to do with them.

Moreover, the body was largely intact. It seemed that the apprentices handling the first two examination stages had barely touched her.

Saul turned to fetch a longer tool but caught sight of the white crystals he had set aside.

Picking up a small grain with his tweezers, he brought it near one of the cracks.

This time, the nearest translucent tongues recoiled, retreating into the fissures as though fearing the crystal.

Furthermore, as they withdrew, tiny glimmers appeared within the crack.

“This crystal… Does it have an exorcising effect?”

Saul retracted the tweezers, and the tongues re-emerged.

Without hesitation, he dropped the grain of crystal into the crack.

“Ssshh!”

A faint burning sound accompanied a wisp of green smoke.

Saul instinctively stepped back, holding his breath.

Fortunately, the smoke dissipated quickly, and his hardback showed no reaction.

After waiting a moment, he returned to the body and cut open the now tongue-free crack, searching within.

The crystal had disintegrated into powder, completely spent.

But in its place, he extracted a tiny lump of flesh from the glowing spot.

“Using the crystal to destroy one tongue yields one flesh lump. The obvious choice is… crystal!”

Turning back, he opened the box where he had stored the crystals.

By the time he closed the lid, the handful of crystal fragments had transformed into a lone, pitiful flesh lump.

Finally, the transmission flame dimmed.

Saul organized his materials and looked up—7:30 PM.

He had to leave the East Tower before 8 PM.

Grabbing his books and notes, he bolted out of the morgue.

“Huh?”

A shadow loomed before him, nearly causing a collision.

But the other person stepped back just in time, leaving Saul stumbling forward.

“Sorry!” Saul apologized, about to leave, but hesitated and turned back.

“Are you the senior apprentice in charge of the first morgue?”

The man had gray-white hair but no wrinkles. His half-lidded eyes gave him a perpetually drowsy look.

“Mhm.” His voice was calm, indifferent, as if disinterested in conversation. He merely hummed in acknowledgment and prepared to walk past Saul.

“Hmm?”

The senior’s gaze caught on the drawing in Saul’s hand.

“Hmm…”

He raised a finger and pointed at Saul’s right hand.

Saul looked down and saw what he was clutching—the three-dimensional coordinate compound rune diagram.

(End of Chapter)

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