Chapter 43: Nowhere Without Money

For his fourth spell, after consulting Mark, Saul decided to choose another Zero Tier dark-type spell, Strike Undead.

Mainly because of his working environment, which was especially prone to ghostly apparitions, and this spell was highly effective against such beings.

After studying it for around two hours, he had already formed a preliminary model for parsing the new spell.

Once again, his work pulled him back—he got up to receive his first guest of the day.

A skeleton.

“That’s way too clean.”

Not a shred of flesh remained on its entire body—it looked like something dug up from the ground after decades.

It was so clean that Saul found it rather suspicious.

He set aside his tools, ushered the guest into the large box, then turned and went next door to consult his senior.

“I don’t know,” Hayden replied from behind the usual palm-wide crack in his door. “When it got to me, it was already a pile of bones.”

Hayden had simply passed it straight on to Saul.

Saul bid him goodbye, glancing toward the room of that newly arrived Second-Rank apprentice.

Unlike Senior Byron, the new guy wasn’t exactly friendly.

Even if he asked, he probably wouldn’t get any answers.

The first procedure in the morgue didn’t involve material collection. It was mainly about eliminating any potential dangers lingering on the corpse.

So, by the time the body reached the morgue, it had likely already lost all its flesh and blood.

This little episode didn’t take up too much of Saul’s energy. In fact, since there were no other clients today, he had time to return to his research.

However, the progress of his Wizard Body Modification lagged far behind his spell studies.

If only the modifications were as straightforward as runes or spellcasting.

Anyone who knew what Saul was thinking might’ve died from rage.

After yet another failed batch that nearly exploded, Saul was about to close the lid of the large box when he paused.

“Huh?”

The skeleton inside, when drenched in Saul’s chaos concoction, had actually started shrinking—eroding away.

Did he just make sulfuric acid?

Saul shut the lid, waited a bit, and then opened it again.

The skeleton had fully dissolved, yet the big box was completely unscathed—still sturdy as ever.

“Honestly, the most valuable thing in this whole morgue might be these boxes.”

Saul gave the solid box a pat, tempted to pry off a chunk.

“Hmm?” He suddenly noticed a grayish-white pebble at the bottom of the box.

Using tongs and a test tube, he carefully extracted the pebble.

He’d expected it to be hard, given it had reformed after dissolving, but it turned out to have a bit of elasticity—like ox tendon.

He labeled the test tube and recorded the entire refining process linked to the pebble. It might come in handy later.

For now, it made an incredibly efficient corpse-disposal agent.

Just like those body-dissolving powders he’d read about in his past life.

Saul ran a few tests on the pebble and discovered it was fireproof, waterproof, acid-resistant—even normal blades couldn’t scratch it.

If used well, couldn’t it be turned into some kind of armor?

As he poked at the pebble with a fine steel needle, Saul’s thoughts drifted further and further.

The next day, during public class.

Keli slammed her book down next to Saul, plopped into the seat, and dropped a bombshell.

“You remember that new apprentice you asked me about yesterday? He’s dead!”

“Dead? But he just got here?” Saul curled his toes in his shoes, working hard to keep his expression natural.

“Yeah, probably pissed off the wrong person. Didn’t even get a chance to meet a mentor before dying. Before I came here, my father kept reminding me—forget who you were, forget your pride. Until you become a Second-Rank apprentice, just play the part of the underclass.”

Keli sighed—whether for the dead apprentice or herself, it wasn’t clear.

Saul withdrew his gaze and looked down at the Noah script in front of him.

Wizard language wasn’t like everyday speech—it didn’t include names or verbs. Every word served only to spell, elements, or mental energy. So, in fact, its vocabulary was quite limited.

Over the past month or so, Saul had already memorized every word in the Noah language. Something he’d once thought impossible, but now managed with ease.

In fact, it wasn’t even his main focus anymore.

Currently, his language study was mostly about reinforcing the basics and applying them while reading wizard texts.

But today, his attention was all over the place.

When he killed Brown two days ago, he didn’t feel a thing. He’d thought his nerves had hardened under this world’s constant threat.

Yet hearing about that new apprentice’s death today, he realized—it still bothered him.

Saul remained expressionless but mocked himself inwardly.

“I did it for my own benefit. I chose to get someone killed.”

“I guess… I’m no good guy anymore.”

He closed his eyes, engraving this moment of torment deep within.

But he didn’t regret it.

A few days later, while working in the morgue again, Saul had a sudden realization.

That skeleton he’d received earlier might’ve been the new apprentice who’d just entered the tower.

Every corpse that died under abnormal circumstances within the tower would be sent to the morgue for processing—partly to prevent spirit accumulation and further instability.

Partly to salvage any body parts that had gained research value through mutation.

And it was from that apprentice’s remains that Saul had discovered how to craft the so-called “Plastic Bone”—a name he gave himself. He’d spent the last few days refining it using the guest’s skeleton.

But today, he had to stop.

Because he’d basically used up all his materials.

And he had no money. No credit points.

“This can’t go on!”

Standing before the lab table, Saul rubbed his chin.

“Trying to fund projects with dead wages? That’s a road to nowhere. I’ve got to find a way to increase my income.”

What Saul was doing now was Wizard Body Modification, something that no First-Rank apprentice had ever touched. Some hadn’t even heard of it.

So relying on a normal First-Rank’s income would never support long-term experimentation.

And because of his experiments, the materials Saul had submitted lately had drastically decreased. Thankfully, Mentor Kaz never scolded him for it.

Which made Saul even bolder.

Still, even with that freedom, his materials were nearly gone.

“I don’t have anything valuable left. The Phantom Sound Eye is a key combat tool—I absolutely can’t sell that. The Plastic Bone, once perfected, will be my trump card—that can’t leak either.”

Finally, Saul thought of his unique insight into rune study—especially his method for mastering compound runes: the Coordinate Method.

If he sold it to some of the wealthier First-Rank apprentices, he might earn a good sum. Even Second-Rank Byron had shown interest in it, after all.

It sounded novel, but the principle was simple—it didn’t involve anything too profound.

Still, he needed to carefully choose whom to sell it to. Someone with no conflicting interests. Someone with a decent moral baseline.

Keli was a good option, but he’d already cut her once. Who knew if she even had credit points or magic crystals left?

As for the other First-Ranks, Saul hadn’t really interacted with them.

And the ones he had interacted with, he had no desire to approach.

“Wait!” Saul’s eyes lit up. “Why am I being dumb about this? Senior Byron is perfect!”

He had money, strength, no conflict of interest since he was about to leave the tower, and he was a decent person.

Calling out a greeting to Senior Hayden through the conveyor belt-connected passage, Saul happily skipped work and headed off to find Byron.

“Room 1016—this is the floor.”

Standing on the ramp of the Western Tower’s tenth floor, Saul peeked inside.

He’d been here a few times, and Byron’s room had never given him trouble.

The Second-Rank corridor was always quiet, especially now, during lab hours.

It was only when Saul was almost at Byron’s door that he realized he might not even catch Byron at this time.

Just then, a door beside him suddenly opened, and Mark stepped out.

“Saul? Are you looking for me?” Mark greeted him in surprise.

(End of Chapter)

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