Chapter 152 - Why Knock on the Door?
"A new guest?" Saul immediately thought of the evil spirit that had been following him.
The one that no one but him had seen.
Even the Tower Master hadn’t noticed it—or perhaps he had but chose not to interfere?
Even without the evil spirit, leaving his body in this eerie wizard tower was absolutely unwise!
"Although I was kicked out, that was only because of the unconscious changes in my body. My body and soul should still be the most compatible."
Saul stared at his body, intending to approach and try again. But just as he lifted one foot, he suddenly put it back down.
"No, my current movement range is a circle, but my body is on the circumference."
"From my perspective, my body is at the top of the circle, while I am at the bottom!"
"This scene looks familiar—very familiar!"
"A Human-Monster Walking Diagram!?"
Saul raised his hands to his eyes.
In his soul state, his hands had not undergone any modifications from the wizard body transformation. They were human hands.
But he hadn’t noticed earlier—these human hands weren’t those of a fourteen-year-old boy.
They were the hands of an adult.
"These are… my hands from my past life?"
Saul looked up again and carefully observed the other furnishings in the room.
He finally confirmed that his current height was slightly taller than when he was inside his body.
This was an adult’s height.
"I'm not Saul. This is my real soul. But to that sitting body…"
"…I'm the monster?"
Saul's heart felt as weightless and untethered as his body.
"Because I’m not the true owner of this body? Is that why I can't go back?"
At that thought, Saul's soul trembled, but at the same time, it cleared his mind a little.
"Now is not the time to dwell on this—I need to get back quickly." Saul forced a bitter smile.
Instructor Kaz was right: the more you know, the more you realize how much you don’t know.
Shaking off his scattered thoughts, Saul focused on analyzing the characteristics of the Human-Monster Walking Diagram.
If this was indeed a Human-Monster Walking Diagram, or rather an Erosion/Corruption Diagram, then having studied it for more than two years, he did have an idea.
Standing at the furthest point from his body, he thought, Right now, I'm the monster. I need to turn back into a human.
Step by step, he started moving along the edge of the circle in a clockwise direction, mimicking the movements from the Erosion Diagram, slowly approaching his body.
With the first step, he felt something change.
The sensation was vague, so he didn’t dwell on it and took another step.
Then a third, a fourth…
This time, he clearly felt himself changing, like squeezing his foot into an ill-fitting shoe.
At first, it was uncomfortable, but as he walked, he got used to it.
Maybe the shoe stretched, or maybe the foot adapted to the pain.
Any change was a good sign.
Saul kept moving.
However, just as he reached the halfway point, he caught sight of a shadow emerging from the direction of the desk.
Because he was concentrating on mimicking the Erosion Diagram, Saul didn’t dare to react rashly, maintaining his original pace.
He knew that if he broke his focused state now, all his efforts would be wasted.
The shadow hesitated for a moment, then slowly moved toward Saul’s body.
Its speed wasn’t fast, and its movements carried a hint of uncertainty.
Saul was anxious, but his steps remained steady.
As his angle shifted, the shadow's form became clearer.
Its facial features were indistinct, with only a pair of eyes visible.
Those eyes were red, filled with curiosity as they stared at Saul's body.
That curiosity was what made it inch closer and closer.
Meanwhile, Saul’s soul was approaching his body as well, gripped by both worry and urgency.
The shadow seemed to sense something amiss and cautiously reached out toward Saul’s body.
Saul was only two steps away from his body.
The shadow’s black hand kept moving forward.
Saul could only take another step at the same pace. Even in his soul state, he could feel his spirit hairs—or what would be spirit hairs—standing on end.
The shadow’s hand grew closer, its fingertips brushing through Saul’s disheveled hair, about to touch his forehead.
Finally, Saul took the last step and firmly stood in the same spot as his body!
The human-monster transformation was complete!
Erosion—complete!
Saul instantly felt the weight of his body return. He looked up sharply.
For a brief moment, he saw the black hand recoil in apparent fright before vanishing into thin air.
"It was the evil spirit from Hanging Valley! It actually followed me all the way back to the wizard tower."
But Saul clearly remembered—the Tower Master had said there were no evil spirits in the wizard tower. Otherwise, it would be too dangerous for the apprentices, and it would also be a great loss for Gorsa.
"Did I make an assumption? Maybe it isn’t actually an evil spirit."
His head began to ache again, and Saul clutched his forehead. "Little Angle, did you notice anything?"
No response.
"What exactly did I bring back from Hanging Valley?"
Saul stood up, intending to write a note in his diary, but as soon as he straightened his back, a wave of exhaustion washed over him.
He moved his hands and feet—his soul remained inside his body, but the fatigue became even more intense.
"It must be mental exhaustion from my soul being out of my body for too long."
Saul gave up on studying further. His soul had been through too much in the past two days. He couldn't even sustain meditation anymore—he just wanted to sleep.
Using the chair for support, he shuffled toward his bed.
The short distance of two to three meters felt like a grueling trek of two to three hundred.
Finally, he collapsed onto the bed. His head hadn't even hit the pillow before he was fast asleep.
---
Hawk hadn’t slept well since he found out he was on duty to clean the corridors that night.
Half-asleep until four in the morning, he was suddenly jolted awake by the flare of candlelight.
Dazed for a few seconds, he nudged the boy beside him.
The boy hadn’t slept well either—his turn was the next day.
Upon being woken, he didn’t complain and quietly sat up.
"If I don’t come back, remember to send this letter for me."
"…Alright."
Hawk carefully pulled out a crumpled letter from his coat and handed it to the boy.
"But if I come back, I still need it, so don’t lose it."
"I know."
Satisfied, Hawk climbed out of bed, got dressed, and stepped out.
Cleaning the corridors wasn’t supposed to be so terrifying, but lately, people had been dying again.
In just ten days, three servants had died.
The last time deaths happened this frequently was over two years ago.
Reporting it to the butler was useless—every time, the butler would claim the problem was solved, but people kept dying.
Now, anyone assigned to clean the second-level apprentices’ corridor prepared themselves to never return.
Hawk was no exception.
Pushing his cleaning cart, he cautiously completed the eleventh floor. Then, he peered into the twelfth floor.
The candlelight before dawn was dim, casting a hazy veil over the already shadowy curved corridors.
You thought you could see clearly—but at the same time, you saw nothing at all.
Taking a deep breath, Hawk lowered his head and pushed his cart forward.
As he neared the farthest end of the corridor, everything seemed fine.
There was no strange trash, no bloodstains, no foul odors.
"Maybe I can just run through this part."
But just as Hawk was about to push his cart past the second-to-last room, he suddenly heard a knock.
His body stiffened.
Trembling, he turned his head toward the sound.
The knocking came from the room beside him.
But… why would someone inside the room be knocking from the inside—toward the outside?
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