Chapter 160: The Riddler

Gathering all the materials took Saul nearly ten hours. Moving everything safely onto the cart consumed almost the same amount of time.

In other words, by the time Saul finished organizing everything, it was already the early morning of the 30th.

Saul rubbed his sore arms, aching from lifting and carrying, and set the cart aside.

It was still before six in the morning. The East Tower wasn’t safe yet—it was best to wait until the candlelight turned white before heading out.

Since there was still some time, Saul picked up a light igniter and navigated through the rows of shelves, making his way to the back of the corpse storage area.

He hadn’t checked the number of lit candles today.

The number of burning candles couldn’t fall below eighty-one; for safety, it was best to have more than a hundred.

"One, two, three..."

Walking along the walls surrounding the corpses, Saul counted each lit candle.

"Hiss..."

He had just counted the tenth candle when he saw it extinguish itself before his eyes.

Without hesitation, he raised the light igniter high. The blue flame at the tip approached the candlewick, immediately reigniting it.

Yet, the moment he lowered the light igniter, the candle flickered out again.

Light it again—extinguish again.

Light it again—extinguish again.

Saul’s expression darkened. He put down the light igniter and scanned his surroundings. Since the total number of lit candles was still well above eighty, he rolled up his sleeves and picked up the igniter once more.

This time, he half-closed his eyes and visualized the Erosion Diagram, peering at the candle through the narrow slits of his eyelids.

As he reignited the candle, a translucent, pale-white pair of lips materialized in midair and puckered up towards the flame...

Saul immediately adjusted the igniter, aligning its flames with the eerie lips.

"Ula-wala-jili-gulu—"

A faint, mournful wail rang out. Though Saul couldn't understand the words, he could tell they were curses.

So, without hesitation, he chased after the spectral lips with the igniter, mercilessly burning them.

The translucent lips ignited with white flames, causing them to twist in terror and flee.

Saul wasn’t about to let them go so easily. He pursued them relentlessly, igniter in hand.

One fled, the other chased.

Saul followed the lips as they darted into the corpse storage, watching as they finally landed on one of the bodies.

Saul halted and, as a precaution, glanced at the diary on his left shoulder before stepping forward with the igniter.

"Were you the one causing trouble just now?" He held the igniter up, waving it near the corpse’s face.

The corpse's eyes remained tightly shut, acting no different from an ordinary cadaver.

But after witnessing the mischievous lips, and recalling his past experiences of possessing these bodies, Saul was now convinced these corpses were not just mindless husks.

They could see the outside world.

They retained memories.

And they even played pranks!

Could the real purpose of keeping the candles burning in the Hanging Valley be to prevent these corpses from acting up?

Saul lifted the light igniter again. This time, he didn’t ignite it. Instead, he simply pressed its hot tip against the corpse’s lips.

"If you cause trouble again, I’ll burn your real mouth shut."

After delivering his threat, Saul returned to the candle area.

This time, the candle remained lit. No other candles exhibited the same strange behavior.

Saul continued counting along the walls and found that there were a total of 108 lit candles. A few others refused to ignite, even with the igniter.

Maybe they were broken.

After inspecting the candles, Saul turned back and observed the corpses standing in the warehouse.

Because of his previous experience working in a morgue, Saul wasn’t afraid of rotting flesh.

But staying here still felt unsettling.

He couldn't shake the feeling that these corpses moved when he wasn’t looking.

That they shifted positions, or even watched and whispered about him.

It was that eerie sensation of being stared at from behind, despite finding no actual evidence of movement.

When organizing the storage room, Saul had deliberately memorized the positions of each corpse.

But during later inspections, he never caught them shifting.

Yet, after personally experiencing possession, Saul was convinced: even if these corpses didn’t move, they were definitely not normal.

Unfortunately, they were all cataloged items in the storage facility, each with unique identification numbers.

Even if Saul wanted to dissect one for research, he wasn’t allowed.

But he wasn’t going to let them off forever.

Once his research into souls advanced far enough, he would request permission from his mentor to borrow a corpse for study.

For now, he let them be and continued organizing the storage inventory.

As the new warehouse manager, Saul planned to create a catalog, sorting items alphabetically to avoid wasting time searching during future missions.

It was a massive task.

By the time he finished, the East Tower’s restrictions were lifted at 6 AM.

Saul finally set down his unfinished work, grabbed the cart, and left the warehouse.

Navigating through branching corridors and rooms filled with stacked boxes, he soon reached the massive double-door entrance.

Saul walked backward, pulling the cart, and pushed open the right-side door. After confirming that the left door remained untouched, he stepped outside.

The exterior was blanketed in an oppressive darkness so thick it felt almost tangible.

The candlelight on the walls had shrunk into dim white halos, barely illuminating anything.

As he walked through the pitch-black corridors, he reached the second floor of the East Tower without even noticing the ascent.

Looking outside, he immediately spotted Kurom sneaking into the Third Morgue, moving as quietly as possible.

Kurom hadn’t noticed Saul. His face was full of excitement, like a child sneaking a piece of candy.

"He really does love morgue work," Saul muttered, shaking his head.

Unlike Kurom, Saul wasn’t obsessed with corpses—he simply enjoyed the thrill of successful experiments.

Because of his obese frame, Mentor Rum was one of the few people in the tower who almost never left his room.

In the past two years, Saul had only met him a few times, mostly to report experiment results.

Mentor Rum had stopped trying to recruit Saul as his apprentice.

Saul wasn’t sure if Rum gave up or if Mentor Katz interfered.

Either way, Saul felt relieved.

He knocked on the door. No response. But then, the folded metal door automatically opened a small gap.

Though small, it was wide enough for Saul and his cart to pass through.

Inside, he pushed past the heavy curtains and once again saw sunlight—and, in its glow, a corner of deep darkness.

Mentor Rum sat in that darkest corner.

"Mentor Rum, here are the materials you requested," Saul said respectfully.

There was a long silence, then Rum’s low voice finally spoke:

"Put them on the table."

Saul carefully transferred the items, bowed, and prepared to leave.

"Sniff, sniff..."

The enormous, silent figure of Rum suddenly sniffed the air, his gaze locking onto Saul.

"Where did you get the doll on you?"

The doll?

Saul hesitated.

His relationship with Tower Master Gorsa had always been a secret. Only Mentor Katz knew.

But when Gorsa publicly took him away this time, the secrecy was clearly no longer necessary.

What had changed?

After a brief thought, Saul chose not to hide it.

"The Tower Master gave it to me," he replied.

Rum narrowed his eyes, studying Saul as if seeing him for the first time.

Saul lowered his head, feeling the weight of the gaze.

Finally, Rum spoke:

"You still plan to major in Dark Elements?"

Saul answered without hesitation:

"Yes, Mentor Rum. I've made my decision."

"...Has anyone forced you?"

Saul was caught off guard by the direct question but shook his head.

"Heh." Rum chuckled.

"Dark Elements, huh? Maybe... this was destined all along."

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