Chapter 35: Slacking Off
To be honest, with how beautiful Senior Kongsha was, Saul felt she probably didn’t even need a brain.
He quickly lowered his head, afraid that she might think he was mocking her.
“Do you remember?” Kongsha’s hands on Saul’s shoulders tightened slightly.
Saul immediately broke into a cold sweat.
“Y-yes, I remember,” he responded hurriedly.
Kongsha finally let go. “Remember, at least one first-level apprentice’s brain per month.”
“But what if there aren’t that many first-level apprentice corpses?”
Kongsha looked down at him from above. The warmth in her expression had long since disappeared, revealing her true face before she could even hide it again.
“Then you’ll have to find a way yourself. Remember, if you don’t bring enough, I won’t give you the second potion.”
With that, Kongsha left.
She left behind a small vial of potion.
The potion was stored in a glass bottle, sealed with a cork stopper, further covered by a piece of leather and tightly wrapped with silk thread—almost as if to prevent any leakage.
The first thing Saul did after she left was struggle to open the vial’s seal.
The potion inside was transparent, forming a few bubbles when shaken.
With a serious expression, Saul brought it closer and sniffed lightly.
There was a faint, fishy smell.
Not exactly unpleasant.
Saul quickly sealed the bottle again, wrapping it with the leather cover as before.
A thought struck him, and he immediately sat down to meditate.
After a while, Saul opened his eyes.
“My meditation efficiency… has improved a little. Just a tiny bit, but because my magic reserves are so low, I can clearly feel the difference. It really works.”
He looked at the vial on the table in disbelief.
Just from sniffing it, he could already feel its effects.
This potion… was incredible!
If what Kongsha said was true—if he drank it all at once and then slept for a whole day and night—wouldn’t he become a walking elemental particle absorption machine?
But the price he’d have to pay was enormous.
The Hardbound Book had warned him: if he drank it all, he would become someone else’s spellcasting material in three years.
What kind of form would he take then? A lump of magic-infused dead flesh? Or a mindless zombie?
And yet, Senior Kongsha wanted him to finish the whole thing within a month.
Expressionless, Saul carefully stored the small vial close to his body.
Even without the Hardbound Book’s warning, he had no intention of drinking it.
Keeping it had its benefits—first, to keep Kongsha appeased. After all, he still planned to rely on her for dealing with Sid.
Second, the potion’s potency was terrifying. He wanted to study it further, though its effectiveness would expire in just a month—far too short a time.
“Maybe the Hardbound Book can help me modify it.” Saul couldn’t bear to give up on its enormous potential. “After all, this is a miracle drug that improves meditation efficiency just by smelling it.”
“Wait… if sniffing it works too…” Saul fell into deep thought.
The next day, with dark circles under his eyes, Saul ran into an equally exhausted Keli at the entrance of the public classroom.
The two exchanged a glance and, in silent understanding, refrained from commenting on each other’s appearance.
They walked in sync, movements identical, to their familiar corner. Pulling out their chairs, they sat down together.
As soon as she sat, Keli suddenly yawned.
Tears squeezed out of the corners of her eyes, only to be ruthlessly wiped away by the back of her hand.
“You look exhausted. Did you stay up late again?” Saul, though in no position to judge, still asked.
“I just feel a sense of urgency. Those bad guys aren’t going to give us time to grow.”
By “bad guys,” Keli was referring to the Mutual Aid Society—the group that had changed her demeanor ten days ago.
Keli had always been proud. Among the new students, she was the fastest learner—aside from Saul, whose progress was difficult to gauge.
But after being unknowingly parasitized by something at the Mutual Aid Society gathering, only to remain completely unaware, Keli realized how laughable it was to compare herself to her peers.
Even a small gap in ability could create a hunter-prey relationship.
Weakness was the original sin.
If you only looked at your feet while climbing a steep mountain, you’d miss the boulder crashing down from above.
So she pushed herself even harder.
Keli embodied the very definition of grinding and competition.
Saul didn’t fully grasp her determination, but he understood her pride.
Her experience at the Mutual Aid Society had shattered that pride, forcing her to lower her head.
Yet, Saul knew that Keli, despite being a genuine little girl, wouldn’t be broken by this setback.
“Have you noticed,” Keli whispered while staring at a corner of the classroom, “they don’t seem to be acting as strangely as they did that day.”
Saul kept his eyes on his book but flicked his gaze quickly in that direction.
At the front, near the classroom’s edge, Doze and Rocky sat beside Duke as usual, chatting with a girl sitting in the row behind them.
Keli had told him her name—Jenna.
She had once tried to invite Saul to the Mutual Aid Society but was shut down before she could even finish speaking.
Jenna still looked a bit shy, but it was clear she enjoyed the attention from the boys.
Even with a brief glance, Saul noticed that Duke seemed absent-minded, while Doze looked smug.
Only Rocky—who never seemed to have his own opinions—stared at Jenna with a look of admiration.
“Ah… youth.”
But then Saul remembered they had all attended the Mutual Aid Society gathering and corrected himself, “A short-lived youth.”
“I’ve been watching them these past few days,” Keli continued softly. “After their first day back, they never displayed that weird behavior again. But I found out something else—the Mutual Aid Society has apparently been around for years.”
For years? That meant there were likely many senior apprentices among them as well.
The thought that so many people might be carrying some parasite, ready to turn into eerie puppets at any moment, sent a chill down Saul and Keli’s spines.
It was like walking down a corridor, only to realize that every person who brushed past you was grinning unconsciously.
“Not everyone can be a member. Senior Byron has ways to deal with them, doesn’t he?” Saul tried to comfort her.
Keli bit her lip. She still had nightmares, waking up in a cold sweat, instinctively reaching for the scar on her forehead.
“But even Senior Byron doesn’t want to get involved. Jenna invited me to another gathering a few days ago. I didn’t go.”
Saul hadn’t been invited again, but he could tell this was becoming a headache.
This kind of organization was like a persistent stain—it wouldn’t just leave you alone.
“You should be careful. Don’t let them target you.”
“It’s fine. I told Jenna that Mentor Gudo asked me to assist in his lab.” Keli brushed her hair aside. “They wouldn’t dare mess with a mentor.”
She then suggested, “You should try getting close to Senior Byron. If the Mutual Aid Society leaders see you around him, they might back off.”
Saul shook his head. “Senior Byron is almost thirty. He’ll be leaving the Wizard Tower soon.”
He explained the rule: if an apprentice couldn’t advance to a third-level apprentice by thirty, they would be expelled.
Keli was stunned, nearly raising her voice. “So that’s why! No wonder those older second-level apprentices all end up working for noble families. They were expelled by the Wizard Tower.”
“When will we be able to leave this tower?”
Saul had never set foot outside since arriving here. His world was limited to a few places within the tower.
He was starting to forget what the sun even looked like.
If not for the endless studying and tasks keeping his mind occupied, he might have gone insane from being locked up.
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