Chapter 180: The Other Name for Oxidation

After revealing her identity, Kongsha didn’t speak immediately. Her crimson lips were tightly pressed together, the edges turning a sickly pale due to excessive force.

"Saul, I’ve waited ten days for you. I already know your answer, but I still want to ask again," she finally said after a long silence, her tone filled with helpless compromise. "What will it take for you to help me this time?"

Saul was stunned—only now did he remember the agreement he had made with Kongsha.

"Let’s talk inside first," Saul said, pointing to a nearby room—his dormitory.

Clearly, Kongsha had been waiting here on purpose. Without hesitation, she followed him inside.

The dormitory remained as disorganized as ever. Large crates were piled up against the walls, and all Saul had to do was reseal them to move out again.

Kongsha glanced over the crates, then turned back and murmured, "Are you so confident you’ll advance to a third-level apprentice soon that you don’t even bother to pack?"

"No, I’m just lazy," Saul replied quickly, moving to clear a chair while he himself sat directly on a sturdy crate.

Seeing that Saul’s attitude hadn’t changed—showing no annoyance at her sudden arrival—Kongsha felt a glimmer of hope.

"Saul, I really need the Elven Whispers. Just let me open the bottle and listen for a few minutes—no, just a few dozen seconds. If you’re truly worried, I can offer you more—magic tools, scrolls..."

Saul frowned, hesitating. "Kongsha, senior..."

"Just call me Kongsha. At this point, who still qualifies as your senior?"

Saul was momentarily taken aback, unsure of her meaning. But seeing the flickering emotions in her eyes, he decided this wasn’t the time to dig deeper.

So, he played dumb and ignored the question.

"Alright, I’ll take the risk this time."

Kongsha immediately straightened, her large cloak barely concealing her striking curves.

"Good, good..." she stammered excitedly. "Then let's go tonight, is that okay?"

"Tonight?" Saul was slightly surprised but quickly understood—she was too impatient to wait and feared he might change his mind.

"Fine, tonight at 7:55. Meet me at the Bronze Gate. I'll bring Specimen 117, open the door, and we’ll complete the exchange within a minute."

Kongsha nodded repeatedly.

After finalizing the details, Saul solemnly said, "Kongsha, this isn’t our first deal—I hope it won’t be our last."

Kongsha froze, immediately understanding that Saul was warning her not to play tricks.

If any other second-level apprentice had spoken to her like this, she would have taught them the meaning of respecting their seniors—and the cold cruelty of the Wizard Tower.

But this was Saul.

To her surprise, she didn’t feel even the slightest bit offended.

Unknowingly, their positions had completely reversed.

Saul was the rising star in everyone’s eyes, while she had become... an abandoned piece.

—

After reaching an agreement, Saul accompanied Kongsha to her dormitory, where he received two positioning device blueprints and three powerful magical artifacts. Among them was Iron & Fire, the very tool he had once used to kill Sid.

Seeing Saul excitedly caress the exterior of Iron & Fire, the previously downcast Kongsha forced a smile.

"Ever since I saw you use it to kill Sid, I realized that even wizards can’t rely solely on magic and spiritual power. So, I started collecting some tools."

Saul didn’t get greedy—he only took the two portable artifacts before bidding Kongsha farewell and heading toward the Second Storage Room.

On his way past the East Tower’s second floor, he noticed that the Second Corpse Room had no eyeball placed outside its door.

This meant that even after all these days, Hayden had still not made his decision to follow him.

Saul felt a slight tinge of disappointment but wasn’t too surprised.

Compared to gaining power, Hayden seemed to prefer staying in one place.

Following Saul meant facing unknown dangers in the wizarding world once more.

Changing one’s mindset wasn’t something that could be done overnight.

If Hayden ultimately chose to stay behind, Saul wouldn’t be surprised.

—

Saul continued on his way, safely passing through the Dark Corridor and three metal gates, finally returning to the Second Storage Room.

Even while spending time on the 18th floor reading, he still returned daily to check the storage room and see if any instructors had assigned him new tasks—though he spent far less time here than before.

This time, he had returned after reading some notes on the 18th floor, which had given him new insights into his Corpse Modification Experiments.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have run into Kongsha, who had been waiting for him outside his dormitory.

Lighting a candle, he counted the corpses and checked the transmission pen.

Once his daily tasks were complete, Saul eagerly approached his worktable.

He spread out the materials he had been gathering and opened his notebook.

Lately, he had stopped using the common Noah Script for note-taking, switching instead to Necrotic Whisper, a language that best suited Dark-Attribute Sorcery.

The written form of Necrotic Whisper was composed mostly of sharp strokes and intricate hidden symbols, making it far more difficult to learn than Noah Script. Saul had only recently mastered the basics and hoped to become fluent through frequent practice.

On the slightly yellowed pages, Necrotic Whisper recorded his thoughts on the formulas for Soul Eyes and Plastic Bones—two types of Spirit Resin.

Saul pondered their connections.

One common trait: Both were based on normal human tissue, processed through magic, spiritual power, and other means to gain certain living properties.

In other words, these Spirit Grease were refined toward human-like characteristics.

After all, a living human was one of the best and most stable carriers of a soul.

However, this also meant these Spirit Resins had significant weaknesses—just as humans were naturally fragile compared to many creatures.

"So how can I reduce the weaknesses of Plastic Bones?" Saul murmured, pen in hand, unconsciously scribbling.

"Soul Eyes reduce light intake by shrinking the pupil and decreasing the transparency of the lens... but at the cost of severely impaired vision."

"But what about Plastic Bones? How do they resist electricity? Oxidation? Or high temperatures?"

"It seems like few wizards ever study how to alter the fundamental properties of materials in this way."

"Besides, magical oxidation isn’t the same as chemical oxidation from the past... Maybe it shouldn’t even be called oxidation. Maybe... metamorphic alteration?"

Just as Saul wrote this, he suddenly heard a knock on the door.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The knocks were chaotic and impatient.

"Who is it?" Saul immediately stood, replacing his pen with the Iron & Fire he had just "borrowed" from Kongsha.

No answer came from outside.

Saul, gripping his weapon, moved cautiously past the shelves and corpses, approaching the door.

"Who?" he asked again.

"Haywood," came a deep male voice from outside. After a brief pause, he added, "First Storage Room."

Although Saul’s first meeting with Haywood hadn’t left a good impression, he quickly unlocked the door.

"Two specimens have just been delivered. Instructor Kaz has already processed them," Haywood said, his mismatched eyes scanning Saul’s face before stepping aside, revealing what was behind him.

"You call them specimens?" Saul asked.

"They’re not ordinary corpses."

Saul stepped out of the warehouse and saw two man-sized transparent boxes standing behind Haywood.

Inside each box lay a man.

If they had been beautiful women, the scene might have resembled Snow White’s glass coffin.

But instead, the men lying inside were people Saul recognized.

Herman.

Bill.

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