Chapter 27: Composite Runes
Although Mark agreed to guide Saul, he wasn’t willing to waste his entire morning on a first-year apprentice. After all, second-year apprentices had their own heavy workloads, especially with their tests coming up in a month.
Rather than calling it a lesson from Mark, it was more like Saul studying on his own, only asking Mark for help when he encountered something he couldn’t figure out.
Unfortunately, even with Mark’s explanations, Saul still found many aspects confusing, unable to grasp the logical connections behind them.
Before leaving at noon, Saul made another request to Mark.
“You want to borrow the puppet used for testing mental power?” Mark didn’t hesitate and went straight to a cabinet in the lab. He opened the door and casually pulled out a wooden puppet.
The moment Mark opened the cabinet, Saul instinctively took two steps back.
Seeing Saul’s wary expression, Mark found it amusing. “Afraid, yet you still want to borrow it?”
“It’s because I’m afraid that I need to borrow it,” Saul cautiously avoided making eye contact with the puppet.
Saul reached out his hand, and Mark casually placed the puppet in his palm.
“Friendship price—5 magic crystals for 10 days.”
“I’ll borrow it for 2 days first.”
Mark’s face darkened. “Not lending for just 2 days!”
Saul shrugged. “I only have 3 magic crystals left.”
The magic crystals he had were exchanged with credits from Keli.
In the end, Mark took Saul’s three magic crystals and warned him that research was fine, but if he damaged it, he would have to pay 2 credits in compensation.
Saul carefully wrapped the puppet in layers of cloth and tucked it into the pocket of his apprentice robe.
“Take me with you… Take me with you…”
Saul froze mid-action. “Senior, did you hear that?”
“Hm?” Mark was already back at his desk, buried in his research.
“No, it’s nothing…”
Saul clutched his pocket tightly as if trying to prevent something from escaping.
He grabbed his books and hurried out of the lab.
On his way back to the West Tower, someone blocked Saul’s path.
He recognized her as a first-year apprentice like himself but had forgotten her name.
“Saul,” the girl looked a little shy. “I have something to tell you.”
She fiddled with the hem of her robe, twisting a small fold of fabric between her fingers.
“Can you say it within five sentences?” Saul nearly bumped into her due to her sudden appearance.
The girl was taken aback, looking slightly hurt.
“Sorry, I’m in a hurry.”
“But I…” Her eyes suddenly turned red.
Saul simply walked around her, muttering loudly, “Oh no, oh no, I’m running late, running late!”
The girl stood frozen, not chasing after him.
Guess it wasn’t anything important after all.
Yet, Saul still couldn’t make it out of the hallway.
At the end of the corridor, another person jumped out.
“Hey, Saul!”
This time, Saul recognized him—Doze.
Doze had once followed Keli around but later started hanging out with Duke.
This time, however, he wasn’t accompanied by the indecisive Rocky.
Ever since discovering Saul’s low magical talent, Doze hadn’t actively sought him out.
“Sorry, I’m really in a hurry.” Saul turned, attempting to sidestep Doze again.
But Doze raised his arm, blocking the passage.
“I’ll keep it to five sentences.”
Saul had no choice but to stop.
“Senior Loki has formed a support group for new apprentices. There, everyone can study and discuss together. The second gathering is at 2 PM today. Do you want to join?”
“Does it cost anything?”
“Uh, normal members have to pay…”
“I’m broke.” Saul nodded politely before pushing Doze’s arm aside and walking past him.
Doze quickly turned around and called after him, “Keli already agreed to attend today!”
Saul paused, looking back at Doze’s smug expression. With all sincerity, he replied, “I really don’t have money.”
Then he hurried away. Fortunately, no one else stopped him this time.
After a quick lunch, Saul arrived at the second-floor morgue in the East Tower.
This place had become his study room, while his dormitory was now reserved only for late-night studying and resting.
The outermost morgue had been reorganized by Saul. Apart from the teleportation platform and two long tables, he had added a cabinet filled with essential lab supplies he had exchanged with his credits.
These instruments and materials had drained all of Saul’s remaining credits.
If the wizard tower didn’t provide food and lodging, he would’ve been left to survive on air.
Inside the cabinet were not only items Saul had purchased but also some mutated materials he had extracted from corpses.
A surprising discovery led him to realize that if he didn’t place the materials in the designated empty box on the long table, they wouldn’t be collected the next day—they would remain in the same spot.
After studying Green’s Sorcerer on Body Modification and The Guide to Corpse Refining, Saul had gained some basic understanding of material applications.
So, whenever he obtained two or more useful materials from a corpse, he would keep one for himself.
Would this be considered stealing?
Saul thought not.
The book given to him by Instructor Kaz wasn’t just about examining corpse remnants.
The latter half contained extensive details on preserving materials, basic applications, and even some discussions about souls.
Since the instructor had given him this book, he must have intended for Saul to study the entire thing.
However, even with special containers for perishable materials, preventing natural decay remained a challenge.
Fortunately, The Guide to Corpse Refining mentioned a Zero-Rank spell—Preserve Organs.
To master this spell, Saul first had to learn a complex dark-element composite rune.
That was why he had been studying day and night.
Yet, this dark-element composite rune was far more difficult than he had imagined. Even with his high mental talent, he couldn’t quickly grasp its principles.
That was why he had spent magic crystals seeking Mark’s guidance, but while it had given him some new ideas, it hadn’t led him to the correct answer.
Saul carefully used an ink pen to trace the basic structure of the composite rune on a blank sheet of paper.
“Based on the coordinate axes, my drawing should match the original rune. So why can’t I activate it using mental energy?”
This composite rune was supposedly one of the simplest.
It appeared to be just two basic runes overlapping, with one slightly smaller in proportion.
“Mark said composite runes aren’t just overlapped symbols; their proportions matter. But even when I distribute my magic accordingly, something still feels off.”
“Mark also mentioned angles. What does he mean by the angle of observation?”
Saul held the paper up to his eyes.
Suddenly, inspiration struck.
“Could it be… perspective?”
He quickly put the paper down, used a ruler to find the center, and drew a perspective diagram, calculating the spatial relationship between the two symbols.
“No, that’s not it!”
After multiple calculations, he still couldn’t activate the rune.
Frustrated, he crumpled the ruined drawing and tossed it into the trash can.
He stared at the discarded paper.
The crumpled rune was full of bends, peaks, and valleys, as if tiny symbols were dancing before his eyes.
“Wait!” Saul’s eyes suddenly lit up, and he smacked his forehead. “I already considered that the runes might have spatial distance—so why didn’t I think that their planes might not be parallel?”
He grabbed a fresh sheet of paper and, with his pen, began sketching a three-dimensional coordinate system.
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