Over the past few days, he had extracted the potion from within the heart and, based on its properties, ingredients, and reactions, found a match for it in the registration office.
Heart’s Guardian—a potion that could help a dying person hang on for one full day and night.
Its general principle was the continuous release of energy to keep failing organs alive and functioning.
This potion was absurdly expensive. Even with the pouch of magic crystals he got from Peggy, Saul couldn’t afford it.
It was the kind of life-saving potion that a Second Rank apprentice would go bankrupt for just to have one on hand.
Thankfully, though Saul couldn’t buy it, he could refine it.
He had gotten the heart a little late, and after a day and night of experiments, he’d only managed to purify two to three drops of a not-so-pure version of Heart’s Guardian.
But for a newcomer like him, it was enough.
Saul opened the petri dish with one hand and bent down to lick it directly.
A wave of pure energy surged from his tongue into his body like a living thing.It flowed down his throat, through his esophagus, stomach, and intestines, then made a turn—into his left hand.
The pain in his left hand immediately eased, bit by bit, until it faded completely.
What followed, however, was a wave of dizziness.
Saul blinked, his steps unsteady—he tried to move forward but stumbled backward, eventually losing his balance and plopping to the ground.
Unlike usual, this dizziness wasn’t unpleasant.
In fact, it felt blissful—like he was floating, transcending.
Like being tipsy in the best way.
“Hehe.”
Saul let out a silly laugh without realizing it. He didn’t resist the dizziness—he just let himself fall back, lying flat on the floor, staring up at the ceiling.
The ceiling began to spin. It reached its hands down to Saul, inviting him to dance.
Saul happily stretched out his hands to the ceiling—after all, dancing with it didn’t require standing up.
He felt like he and the ceiling were waltzing, or maybe doing some other graceful dance.
They spun together.
Once. Twice. Again and again.
The ceiling was so beautiful, Saul thought.
He wanted to lean in and give it a kiss.
Just as he strained his neck toward it, a loud bang snapped him back.
The ceiling fled.
Saul’s mind briefly cleared, and he turned his head to look.
The crimson door had been flung open by someone, and a stream of multicolored bubbles poured in from outside.
Black, blue, white, purple, red, yellow, green, gray...
So many bubbles—like a hundred industrial bubble machines had been turned on all at once, filling the entire room.
And in the midst of them, a strange humanoid creature entered.
“Uh… Senior Byron?” Saul recognized him, tried to lift his hand to greet him, but couldn’t muster the energy.
Besides, this Byron looked wrong.
Saul squinted.
Both of Byron’s arms were on the same side. His eyes, nose, and mouth weren’t where they should be.
Ten fingers danced atop his bald head, and his original hair had migrated to where his ears should’ve been.
“Saul, wake up! You have to snap out of it!”
The voice reached Saul’s ears, but he couldn’t quite make sense of the words.
“Saul!”
“Ssss—ohhh—rrr—”
Byron’s voice started to distort, too.
Saul finally realized—his entire perception of the world was breaking down.
He shook his head hard.
But with the motion, the world itself shimmered like soapy water, bursting into countless bubbles.
The entire morgue dissolved.
Byron fragmented into grotesque pieces, and Saul himself was no longer where he’d been.
He saw his own arm swimming through the air like a little fish, his mouth floating by, opening and closing, while his two eyeballs stared at each other in midair...
“No! This is all an illusion!”
Saul didn’t shut his eyes or shake his head again.
They did nothing.
If his eyes had really flown off, he shouldn’t be able to see anything at all.
He heard Byron’s voice again, blurred and distant.
“Lo—cate—mo—ment—now—”
“What’s he saying?”
Saul focused with all his might.
“Right—he's saying—locate! That’s it!”
His brain spun rapidly, and so did the world in front of him.
A wave of intense dizziness hit him again.
“Locate—I need to find something to anchor my perception of reality!”
What could be solid enough to tether his mind?
His left eye rolled furiously to the side, searching...
And finally—Saul saw it.
Hovering quietly where his left shoulder should’ve been was a hardcover book.
On its cover, silver-embossed letters shimmered into view.
Saul had never learned those characters, but somehow, he knew exactly what they meant.
Diary of a Dead Wizard.
As soon as the diary appeared, Saul’s left shoulder snapped back into place.
Then came his left chest, left arm, torso, neck, lower body, limbs, and hair.
Everything returned to where it should be. And the world before his eyes finally returned to normal.
He slowly pushed himself off the floor and looked at Byron, who was staring at him with a grave expression.
“Senior, thank you for saving me.”
A fresh wound appeared across Byron’s throat—clearly cut just moments ago to snap Saul out of it.
But Byron shook his head. “You saved yourself.”
He stepped closer, scanning Saul from head to toe.
“How did you even manage this? To pull off such a crazy transformation... and still keep your mind intact?”
Byron opened his mouth wide and pulled out a black crystal ball.
Saul recognized it—it was for measuring magical power.
“Try it.”
Saul held it carefully.
The black inside the orb quickly lightened.
“11 Joules…” Byron's gaze turned deeply complicated. He looked at Saul like someone who just bought one lottery ticket and hit the jackpot.
He’d known Saul was doing body modification, had even helped him a bit but he’d never imagined Saul could come up with such a successful method on his own.
It had to be incredibly dangerous. When he first saw Saul, Byron had thought he’d dissolve into bubbles any second.
This wasn’t a reaction to body enhancement.
This was what it looked like when a Second Rank apprentice's mind completely collapsed.
But the crystal ball was clear—Saul was still a First Rank apprentice.
So how? How had he managed to find his anchor before his mind gave out?
Saul didn’t know Byron was thinking all that. Staring at the crystal ball’s reading, he jumped up in joy.
After all his meditating over the past few weeks, his magic power had only reached around 4 Joules—barely under 5.
But now, after the successful transformation of his left hand, his power had surged to 11 Joules.
He had fulfilled Mentor Kaz’s requirement with more than half a month to spare.
And he could still feel energy in his left hand, continuing to modify the rest of his body.
His magic power would definitely increase further.
But the greatest gain of all—
He finally knew the name of that mysterious hardcover book!
It really was that diary Sid had once whispered about.
What kind of diary could predict death like that?
And how had Sid known of its existence?
“Saul.” Byron’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts. He rubbed his hands, face slightly flushed. “Would you be willing to sell me that modification formula?”
(End of chapter)