Chapter 42: Witness the True Power of Sorcery

"Sid" slowly released Brown’s fist, ignoring his question. Instead, he asked, “Do you remember why I told you to kill Saul?”

Brown felt his whole body burning with excitement, leaving no room for deep thought.

“Because that brat offended you.”

“Then why didn’t I just kill him myself?”

Brown hesitated this time. “Because servants belong to the Tower Master?”

“Is that all you can think of? Useless.”

With a scornful sneer, "Sid" turned to leave.

Brown knew that opportunities like this were fleeting, so he blurted out his suspicions.

“Because, my lord, you couldn’t kill him yourself.”

"Sid" finally stopped, turning back with a satisfied expression.

“Oh? You figured it out?”

Brown felt like his whole body was bubbling with excitement.

If he passed this test, would he become Lord Sid’s personal servant?

From there, step by step, would he embark on the path of sorcery?

“I guessed a little, my lord.”

“Then tell me. Let’s see if you’re worth keeping around.” "Sid" crossed his arms.

Brown beamed with joy. “When I asked why I have to capture Saul and take him to the tenth floor, you muttered under your breath, ‘If I could do it myself, would I need you?’”

“Hmm. Anything else?”

“You told me that after Saul dies, I should check his body or the places he frequently visits for a red hardcover book. If I found it, no one was to touch it or even notice it.”

Brown swallowed hard. His mouth was dry—terribly dry—but now was not the time to find water.

“My lord, you wanted Saul dead because of that red book, didn’t you?”

Brown licked his lips, but his tongue was just as dry, making his lips sting painfully.

“…You’re quite clever.” "Sid" sighed, then asked gently, “Do you want to witness the true power of sorcery?”

Brown answered feverishly, “I do, my lord! I want to more than anything! I dream about it!”

Sid smirked.

“Then look down.”

Brown hesitated, then lowered his head—his pupils shrank in horror.

His body was smoking.

Flames licked at his skin and clothing from charred holes in his body.

His mind froze—he couldn’t comprehend what was happening.

He raised his head to beg Sid for help.

Instead, a skeletal fist smashed into his face.

Crack!

Saul's punch sent Brown’s nasal bone into the back of his skull.

Saul straightened up, watching as fire gushed from Brown’s throat.

Zero-Rank Sorcery: Mind-Shattering Gaze.

Sorcery Tool: Phantom Echo Eye.

Zero-Rank Sorcery: Scorching Breath.

Saul took a breath—good. He’d burned through all his mana.

In the end, he had to rely on a physical strike to silence Brown’s screams.

Shaking his left hand, he flung off the blood and flesh clinging to the white bones. Then, he turned to his left shoulder.

“A hardcover book? A diary? Will you separate from me after I die?”

The book hovered silently on his shoulder, watching the show.

As the flames crept toward Brown’s fingertips, Saul reached down and plucked a small scented bead from his body.

“This must be something Sid gave him… No lethal reaction. But inside… it’s packed with Flesh-Eating Beetles.”

Saul brought the bead to his nose.

“The outer coating is wax… smells like corpse-sealing wax.”

Corpse-sealing wax had a slight suppressive effect on ghosts. But it only lasted about three months. Once the wax dissolved, the beetles would crawl out and devour the nearest person's internal organs—until they burst from overfeeding.

Saul swung the bead by its black string around his finger, then casually tossed it into the fire.

The flames melted the bead before the beetles could awaken, reducing them to ashes.

This was Saul’s first time killing a man.

Regretfully, he felt nothing.

Mind-Shattering Gaze and Phantom Echo Eye didn’t allow him to read thoughts.

But from the terrified ramblings Brown spewed as he died, one thing was clear—this man was probably not human.

Scorching Breath’s flames wouldn’t create a raging fire; they’d burn for a while before extinguishing on their own.

Saul watched the man who had tormented him, who had pushed him toward death over and over, turn into a pile of charred remains.

Then, he stepped over Brown’s corpse.

---

The morning sunlight couldn’t penetrate the thick stone walls of the wizard’s tower.

Inside the tower, morning and evening were distinguished only by the brightness of the candlelight.

The candles in the Gorsa Wizard Tower burned eternally. No one knew what fueled them.

A group of people gathered on the sloped passageway between the sixth and seventh floors, whispering about the charred corpse lying in the middle of the path.

The steward arrived in a hurry with a few servants.

While bowing and apologizing profusely to the apprentices, he ordered the male servants to clean up immediately.

Sid was descending the slope.

Seeing the crowd blocking his path, he frowned in irritation.

“Have you never seen a dead body before? Move.”

The second-rank apprentice's anger sent the first-rank apprentices scattering.

Sid stepped over the kneeling servants and ignored the steward’s incessant bowing.

Then, his gaze landed on the corpse.

His footsteps faltered.

The face was unrecognizable, but the scent of corpse-sealing wax was unmistakable.

Was it Brown?

Sid didn’t care about his dead underling.

Brown was bound to die eventually—if not from the tower’s horrors, then from the beetles inside him.

Casually, he continued down the slope.

A figure was walking up toward him.

Saul raised his head and smiled.

“Good morning, senior.”

Sid stopped in his tracks, watching Saul turn into the corridor on the sixth floor.

He glanced back at the charred corpse—his eye twitched violently.

Turning back, his expression darkened.

He felt… insulted.

A rat from the garbage heap dared to bare its fangs at him?

But there was one thing he couldn’t figure out.

Saul specialized in dark-element magic.

So how did he use fire-based sorcery?

---

Days later.

Saul sat in the mortuary at his makeshift workstation, organizing his recent studies.

Body modification was crucial, but he couldn’t neglect his foundational knowledge either.

At this point, Saul had already mastered three zero-rank sorceries.

If others knew, they’d be shocked.

Only Keli had some idea of his progress—which explained the dark circles under her eyes.

Even she, widely acknowledged as a genius, had only managed to cast a single zero-rank sorcery: Flash Spell, which had no direct offensive power.

Her slower progress was due to her imperfect grasp of composite runes—something Saul understood deeply.

Now, Saul was ready to learn his fourth zero-rank sorcery.

Most apprentices wouldn’t attempt to learn so many spells at once.

The normal process was to master one completely, train it extensively to form subconscious muscle memory, then move on to the next.

Learning multiple sorceries simultaneously could easily cause rune confusion.

Especially with composite runes—one tiny mistake could mean serious mental backlash.

At best, a splitting headache for days.

At worst, a failed spell model in one’s spirit, causing a fatal backlash.

But Saul had an edge over others.

Others memorized symbols, distances, and angles.

He memorized coordinates.

The truly advanced would memorize formulas—but he wasn’t at that level yet.

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