Chapter 132: Taking the Initiative

Of course he did!

Saul nodded eagerly, even showing a hint of anticipation in his eyes.

Although his job required him to leave the East Tower before eight, with the master of the entire Wizard Tower here, who would still care about such a minor rule?

“Let’s talk inside,” Gorsa said, tipping his chin.

Following the Tower Master’s gesture, Saul turned around and realized that he and Gorsa had returned to the second floor of the East Tower—right in front of the third corpse room.

At that moment, the burly man had just opened the crimson door and was pushing a cart out.

The moment he saw Gorsa behind Saul, his entire body froze, as if he had been instantly turned to stone.

Standing in front of him, Saul could feel the man’s emotions shifting from terror to utter collapse.

But Gorsa merely waved a hand, signaling the man to continue working.

With the order received, the man immediately lowered his foot and continued pushing the cart, though his movements were stiff, like a machine left unrusted for years.

Saul watched him disappear into the depths of the corridor with his awkward posture, then followed Gorsa into the corpse room.

By the time he entered, Gorsa was already standing by his workbench, examining Saul’s experimental tools and notes.

Hearing Saul come in, Gorsa turned and smiled. “Mind if I take a look at your notes?”

Saul quickly nodded. “Of course.”

He had already removed anything unsuitable for outside eyes before leaving the room.

Gorsa picked up Saul’s notes on the body-modification experiments and casually flipped through a few pages.

Saul grew more nervous, feeling like a student having his homework reviewed by the headmaster.

Soon enough, Gorsa put the notebook back and turned to face Saul, leaning against the table.

He smiled. “You’ve realized that the soul is quite an interesting thing, haven’t you?”

Interesting? For a powerful wizard like the Tower Master, maybe.

Saul responded with a fawning smile, nodding dutifully.

“Originally, it was a skin modification meant to enhance your magic. But after adding a bit of soul fragment, it ended up forming a new type of spiritual resin. The method is a bit unorthodox, but overall, not bad.”

“What really surprised me is that you were able to refine impurities to improve the quality of the resin at this stage. I thought that was something you’d only be able to dabble in after reaching Second Rank and studying the field more deeply.”

Gorsa lightly clapped his hands. “Your progress always exceeds my expectations. Through self-study, you’ve managed to perform body modification, and even upgrade and purify the resin. I’ve heard you’re quite talented at spellcasting as well—far ahead of other apprentices at your level.”

Despite the praise, Saul didn’t feel unworthy.

While he owed a lot to the diary and Little Algae, even more credit belonged to his own relentless effort and willingness to risk his life.

Gorsa beckoned him over. “As a reward, you may ask me about anything that’s troubling you in your studies.”

Now it was Saul’s turn to be pleasantly surprised.

But after the initial joy, his mind went blank. For a moment, he didn’t know what to ask.

After collecting his thoughts, Saul asked a question that had puzzled him for a long time. “Tower Master, do you know there’s a wraith in the library?”

To his surprise, Gorsa tilted his head and denied it. “There’s no wraith in the library. I wouldn’t let apprentices die such pointless deaths.”

He chuckled softly. “If you’re referring to the one beneath the fourteenth bookshelf… that’s your fear—not a wraith.”

“My… fear?” Saul hadn’t expected that answer at all.

The first time he saw the person lying under the shelf, he’d been terrified. He’d gone back later to check again—and the body was still there.

He couldn’t see the figure’s face or tell if they were alive or dead, but he never dared get close.

Whenever he did, his heart would race, his breathing would quicken, and he’d break into a cold sweat.

“Is it because I assumed the shelves with books on wraiths must be haunted, and so I imagined there was something there?” Saul murmured.

“You’re afraid of ghosts?” Gorsa slowly turned his neck, eyes sweeping over the corpse-filled room. “That… is a bit unexpected.”

Following Gorsa’s gaze, Saul looked around his workspace—which looked more like a crime scene or haunted house—and felt somewhat embarrassed.

Could he even explain that what he feared were the impossible-to-deal-with ghosts from horror movies in his previous life?

But Gorsa didn’t mock him for it. Instead, he asked seriously, “Saul, do you remember the definition of a ghost from Basic Knowledge of All Things?”

“Something that cannot be fully controlled by a subjective will is a ghost. Something controlled by another subjective will is a monster.”

“Exactly. But most importantly, it is the fusion of a dissipated mental body and consciousness. I call this combined form a soul.”

Saul listened intently, suddenly feeling like Gorsa was his teacher again, seamlessly steering the conversation back into a lecture.

“You asked if there was a wraith in the library—because you wanted to borrow books, right?”

“Yes,” Saul admitted.

Due to his research on spiritual resin, he needed those books. But because of the humanoid figure, he hadn’t dared get too close.

He hadn’t considered that the figure was a projection of his own fear. He always assumed the knowledge about wraiths was too advanced for his current level, and thus inherently dangerous.

Gorsa interlocked his fingers. “Then let me ask you one more question. If you really did encounter a wraith—how would you fight it?”

…

“If I really encountered a wraith, how would I fight it?” Saul repeated the question to himself with his eyes closed.

He still remembered the three solutions he had proposed at the time.

The first was brute force—destroy the wraith’s mental body and wear down its energy until it dissipated.

The Zero Tier spell Strike Undead followed this principle.

The second was erasure through consciousness—let the wraith’s already fragmented mind vanish, either actively or passively.

Some wraiths vanished naturally after their lingering obsessions were resolved.

The third method was Saul’s own flash of insight, a fusion of the first two.

If the wraith was weaker, the first or second method would work just fine.

But against a stronger, unbeatable wraith—when brute force fails, and psychological resolution takes time—they were of little help in an urgent situation.

Saul recalled how he had once used spiritual resin and the diary to separately trap Sid’s soul fragments and consciousness. That experience led him to wonder: could he lure the spirit into the resin, then divide its mind and mental body—destroying them separately?

This idea was purely theoretical. Executing it would be no easier than defeating a stronger enemy head-on.

But when Gorsa heard Saul’s third idea, he paused for a few seconds—then started laughing. At first it was quiet, then it grew louder, echoing throughout the second floor of the East Tower.

It was the first time Saul had ever seen the Tower Master so emotionally expressive.

And he had no idea why Gorsa was laughing—so he simply stared, trying to determine whether the emotion was ridicule or joy.

Even now, Saul didn’t know what had made the Tower Master laugh so heartily.

But Gorsa had acknowledged his idea nonetheless, simply saying: “That solution would be very difficult to pull off.”

That night, Gorsa had come over, patted Saul on the shoulder, and told him, “But a wizard is meant to take on difficult challenges. Your answer pleased me. Once you reach Second Rank, I’ll give you a reward.”

Saul still didn’t know what that reward would be. But he knew one thing—if he couldn’t handle the wraith today, he would never live to receive it.

Saul shut his eyes, and the laboratory and the Tower Master disappeared from view.

When he opened them again, he found himself in utter darkness, his limbs numb and unresponsive.

But at least he could still feel them.

“I’m not dead?”

“I used every method I had, and still couldn’t even stop the wraith from approaching. No wonder—it’s on par with a True Wizard. Even incomplete, it could easily kill me.”

“But I’m not dead… Did it possess me?”

“No. That’s not right!” Saul forced himself to stretch his limbs, trying to reclaim control of his body. “No! It didn’t possess me!”

A surge of energy flowed from his brain into his body, gradually reaching his arms and legs.

The warmth returned, bringing his limbs back to life.

Saul sat up with a jolt.

“It didn’t possess me—I led it into my body on purpose! Into the soul resin! I… I absorbed it voluntarily!”

(End of Chapter)

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