Chapter 117: The Vanishing Cocoon

The situation with the spirit was strange. Logically speaking, a deactivated perception instrument was nothing more than a useless mirror—it shouldn’t be able to see spirit.

But Byron and Nick didn’t think Saul was mistaken.

Regardless of whether Saul was hallucinating, there were only two possibilities: either the spirit existed, or not.

"This is the entrance to Hanging Hands Valley. There shouldn't be any powerful spirit here," Nick said as he activated the perception instrument and scanned the surroundings again.

No spiritual entities were detected.

"But Saul, why did you place the perception instrument on the ground?" Nick asked curiously, raising his head. The corner of his mouth lifted slightly. "Is it because you're too short to reach?"

"Pfft!"

Saul immediately turned his head in anger, glaring at Byron. However, all he saw was Byron’s calm expression and innocent eyes.

Saul's gaze shifted to Byron’s throat. He swore—he absolutely saw that area split open just now.

But height wasn't something he could fix at the moment, even though he was convinced he would grow to be at least 1.8 meters tall.

"Anyway," Saul got back to the main topic, looking around once more to confirm there were no more head monsters before lowering his voice, "I just saw a lot of... creatures with only a head and two feet. But before you both returned, they all disappeared."

Saul lowered his voice even further. "I didn’t dare to startle them. Do you know what those creatures are?"

He looked up and saw Byron’s face twitching.

On the other hand, Nick’s pupils suddenly shrank, his eyes filled with unmistakable fear.

Slap!

Nick suddenly slapped himself. His expression twisted slightly as he looked up. "Those... creatures. They’ve all disappeared now?"

Seeing Nick’s strange reaction, Saul quickly nodded. "They're all gone. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have dared to speak up."

"I need a moment alone," Nick muttered abruptly before rushing into his tent.

Moments later, muffled groans could be heard from inside, as if someone was desperately covering their mouth but still failing to suppress the sound.

Byron was handling it better. His throat split open as he spoke, "Good thing you didn’t alert them. Those are head monsters. Normally, you’d only see them deep within Hanging Hands Valley."

Seeing Saul's confusion, Byron sighed. "I never told you about them because the more people know of their existence, the easier it is to encounter them. I was hoping you wouldn’t run into them. But now that you have... If you had drawn their attention, they might have turned you into a head monster as well. Worse, you wouldn’t even remember that you were once human."

So that was why. No wonder Byron and Nick had never mentioned such dangerous creatures before.

"How many did you see?"

"…The ground was covered with them."

"Hiss—"

Byron took a sharp breath and immediately stood up, heading toward Nick’s tent. "Nick, hurry up and get yourself together. We need to leave now."

A muffled response came from inside the tent.

Byron turned back and ordered Saul, "Forget disassembling the equipment. Just load everything onto the vehicle. We're relocating immediately."

Fearing that the head monsters might return at any moment, Byron and Saul only grabbed their essentials, leaving the tents behind.

Saul didn’t have much aside from some books, but as he picked up his backpack and stepped out of the tent, he suddenly froze.

Where was the Nightmare Butterfly’s cocoon?

Saul had been observing that silver, spherical cocoon when he first noticed the head monsters.

After that, he had been so tense that he never paid attention to whether he had put the cocoon away.

Now that he thought back, he couldn’t remember if he had stored it or not.

Saul quickly searched through his pockets and even got down on the ground to look around, but the small silver sphere was nowhere to be found.

It couldn’t have just disappeared. Could the head monsters have taken it?

Saul sat down, closed his eyes, and focused on recalling the moment.

No. The moment I saw the head monsters, I no longer felt anything in my hand. That’s why I never thought about the cocoon again.

Saul clenched his hand slightly before slowly opening his eyes.

Yes, the cocoon disappeared in an instant.

As a wizard apprentice, his memory had been enhanced by his spiritual training—he wouldn’t forget something as simple as where he placed an item.

Through careful recollection, he could even recall the smallest actions he had taken.

That meant he hadn’t accidentally misplaced the cocoon. Instead, it had vanished in a single moment.

And in that moment, he hadn’t noticed anything unusual. He only realized something was wrong after the fact.

"Saul!"

Outside, Byron was already urging him.

Saul took one last reluctant glance at the tent. Did it escape on its own, or did something else take it?

Damn it, he hadn’t even started studying it yet!

But this place was no longer safe.

Even Byron, a third-level apprentice, was wary.

Saul couldn’t afford to be careless either.

Regretfully, he left the tent.

By this time, Nick had finally regained his composure. He hurried back to the Wooden Spider vehicle, carrying his belongings. His hands were covered in deep bruises—probably from gripping himself too hard.

Saul now understood that Nick, as someone who studied emotion-based magic, intentionally suppressed his emotions most of the time.

But when he couldn’t hold it in—whether it was uncontrollable laughter or overwhelming fear—his emotions would explode dramatically.

For instance, he might laugh himself unconscious or become so frightened that he threw up.

Such side effects were dangerous. In extreme situations, if he couldn’t stay calm, he could easily lose control.

Saul suspected that this was one of the reasons why Nick had never advanced to the third level.

The Wooden Spider activated, quickly leaving the now unsafe campsite.

Saul looked out the back window and vaguely saw a sea of black heads at the base of the mountain.

He withdrew his gaze immediately, pretending he hadn’t seen anything.

Inside the vehicle, directly across from him, was the mirror of the soul fluctuation perception instrument.

Because they had been in such a hurry, they had loaded the entire instrument without dismantling it, making the originally spacious compartment quite cramped.

The three of them had to sit pressed against the walls.

The moment Saul saw the mirror, he remembered the shadow that had once appeared inside it. Feeling uncomfortable, he turned his head away.

However, as soon as he shifted his gaze, he seemed to catch a silver glimmer out of the corner of his eye.

He immediately turned back.

The mirror reflected his blurry, distorted face—but there was no silver light.

"Did I imagine it?"

Saul leaned in closer, trying to get a clearer view of his reflection.

Still, nothing seemed unusual.

Just as he was about to lean back, he suddenly noticed that his left eye flashed briefly with light.

Saul froze.

He glanced at the others.

With the perception instrument blocking their view, they shouldn’t be able to see his face.

Only then did Saul narrow his eyes and enter a semi-meditative state.

This time, he finally saw it.

Inside his left eye, a silver sphere had appeared—its surface covered in twinkling starlight, shimmering brilliantly.

Saul resisted the urge to rub his eyes and slowly lowered his head.

The Nightmare Butterfly’s cocoon… had moved into his eye on its own!

Next Chapter

Table of Content