"Sid" slowly released Brown's fist. He didn’t answer the question but instead asked, “Do you remember why I told you to get rid of Saul?”
Brown felt like his whole body was on fire—so excited he had no time to think carefully.
“Because that brat Saul offended you.”
“Then why didn’t I just kill him myself?”
This time, Brown hesitated. “Because servants are the property of the Tower Master?”
“That’s all you can think of? Useless.”
“Sid” snapped, turning to leave.
Brown knew this was a fleeting chance. He hurried to blurt out the wild speculations he’d kept buried in his mind.
“Because… because, my lord, you can’t kill him yourself.”
“Sid” finally stopped and turned back, looking satisfied.“Oh? You figured it out?”
Brown felt like bubbles were rising all over his body.
He was thinking, if he passed this test, could he become Lord Sid’s personal servant? And then, over time, maybe even walk the path to becoming a wizard?
“I’ve guessed a bit, my lord.”
“What did you guess? Tell me. Let’s see if you’re still worth using.” Sid folded his arms.
Brown’s face lit up with joy. “When I asked you if we should drag Saul up to the tenth floor so you could deal with him yourself, you muttered, ‘If I could kill him myself, why would I need you?’”
“Hm. What else?”
“You also told me to check Saul’s body and the places he stayed after he died, to see if there was a red hardcover book. And that if I found it, no one else should touch it or even find it.”
Brown swallowed. His mouth was so dry. He wanted a drink, but how could he think about water now?
“My lord, you wanted to kill Saul just to get that hardcover book, didn’t you?”
He licked his lips, but his tongue was too dry to help—it just made his cracked lips sting.
“…You’re very clever.” “Sid” sighed, then asked gently, “Do you want to witness the power of wizard?”
Brown immediately answered with fervor: “Yes, my lord! I want it more than anything—I even dream about it!”
Sid curled his lips into a slight smile.
“Then look down.”
Brown hesitated, then lowered his head—and his pupils contracted sharply.
His body was smoking.
Flames licked out from several charred holes in his body, licking his skin and clothes.
Brown’s mind froze. He couldn’t understand what was happening.
He looked up, hoping Sid would save him.
But all he saw was a fist made of white bone.
Crack!
Saul sent Brown’s nose straight into the back of his skull with a punch.
He stood up, watching the flames burst from Brown’s throat.
Zero Tier Spell: Demoralized Gaze.
Magical Tool: Phantom Sound Eye.
Zero Tier Spell: Scorching Breath.
Saul panted. Perfect—he’d just used up the last of his magic.
In the end, he had to rely on a physical blow to silence Brown’s wailing.
He flicked his left hand to shake off the blood and flesh stuck to the bone, then turned to his left shoulder.
“Hardcover book? Diary? So you’ll detach from me after I die?”
The hardcover book said nothing, hovering quietly near his shoulder like it was watching a show.
As the flames spread and licked up Brown’s fingers, Saul reached over and yanked out a small fragrant bead.
“This must be something Sid gave him. It didn’t kill him instantly... but what's inside smells like organ-eating beetles.”
Saul sniffed it again.
“The outer layer is some kind of wax. Smells like corpse-wrapping wax.”
Corpse-wrapping wax had a mild suppressive effect on spirits and ghouls. But the effect only lasted about three months. After that, the wax melted on its own.
Then the beetles inside would break free, burrow into the nearest living person, and devour their organs until they burst.
Saul twirled the black string holding the bead around his finger before tossing it into the fire.
Flames melted the bead, burning the beetle inside to ash before it could even wake up.
This was Saul’s first time killing someone, but disappointingly, he didn’t feel any remorse.
Demoralized Gaze and Phantom Sound Eye didn’t allow him to read others' thoughts.
But judging by the fragmented words Brown uttered in his fear-induced illusion, this man was, most likely… not human.
Scorching Breath couldn’t ignite a real blaze—it burned for a while, then naturally went out.
Saul looked down at the figure who had once tormented him, tried to kill him repeatedly, now reduced to charcoal.
He stepped over Brown’s corpse.
…
The morning sun couldn’t penetrate the thick stone walls of the Wizard Tower.
Inside the tower, the difference between morning and evening was determined solely by how bright the wall sconces were.
On the sixth and seventh floors of the west tower, a group of people gathered along the sloped corridor, whispering about the charred body blocking the way.
The butler hurried over with a few servants.
He bowed to the apprentice lords while ordering the male servants to clean the mess quickly.
Sid was walking down the slope, frowning in displeasure at being blocked again.
“Never seen a corpse before? Move!”
The Second-Rank apprentice snapped, and the First-Ranks quickly scattered like frightened birds.
As Sid stepped past the motionless male servants and ignored the constantly bowing butler, his gaze finally flicked to the corpse on the ground.
He paused.
The face was unrecognizable, but the scent from the corpse was clearly that of his own handcrafted corpse-wrapping wax.
Was the dead man… Brown?
Sid didn’t care about losing a former lackey.
Brown would’ve died to the Tower’s curses or the beetle inside him soon anyway.
Sid kept descending casually until someone began climbing up from below.
Saul raised his head and smiled at the oncoming Sid.
“Good morning, senior.”
Sid froze.
He watched Saul turn at the sixth floor and disappear down the corridor.
Then he turned back to stare at the charred corpse—and his eye twitched hard.
When he turned back again, Sid’s expression had grown terrifyingly dark.
He felt insulted.
Even a rat from the junkyard dares to bare its teeth at me?
But one thing puzzled Sid:
Isn’t Saul specialized in the dark element? How does he know fire-type spell?
…
A few days later.
Saul sat at his improvised lab table in the morgue, organizing his recent study notes.
Wizard Body modifications were crucial, but the foundations couldn’t be neglected.
He had now mastered three Zero Tier spells.
If others found out, they’d be shocked.
So far, only Keli had a vague idea of Saul’s progress—which was also why she now had deep dark circles under her eyes.
Even Keli, widely known as a genius, could only use a single Zero Tier spell so far—Flash, a non-lethal spell.
This was because Keli’s control of compound runes wasn’t as refined as Saul’s.
Now, Saul was about to begin studying his fourth Zero Tier spell.
Most apprentices wouldn’t learn so many spells.
The usual path was to master one, train it until it became second nature, and only then move on to the next.
Learning multiple spells at once often led to rune confusion.
Especially with compound runes—mixing up two similar-looking but totally different ones was all too easy.
The best-case scenario from a mistake was a few days of intense headaches.
Bad enough to make reading impossible.
The worst-case scenario? Spell backlash—possibly fatal.
What gave Saul an edge was that while others memorized shapes, distances, and angles—
He memorized coordinates.
The advanced method would be memorizing formulas, but sadly, he didn’t know how.
(End of Chapter)