Diary of a Dead Wizard-Chapter 160: The Riddler

Gathering all the materials took Saul nearly ten hours. Moving everything onto the cart took almost as long.

This meant that when Saul finally had everything organized, it was already past midnight on the 30th.

Saul massaged his sore arms from the constant lifting and placing, first setting the cart aside.

It wasn’t even six in the morning yet. The East Tower wasn’t safe, so he decided to wait until the candlelight turned back to white before leaving.

With some time to spare, Saul picked up a lantern and walked through the aisles of shelves to the back of the corpse crowd.

He hadn’t checked the number of candles yet.

The number of burning candles should not be fewer than eighty-one. For safety’s sake, it’s best to have over a hundred.

“One, two, three…”

Walking along the wall surrounding the corpse crowd, Saul counted the candles one by one.

“Whizz…”

Just as he reached the tenth candle, he watched it go out by itself.

Without a word, he raised the lantern high, bringing the blue flame close to the wick, reigniting the candle.

The candle flared bright once more as the flame from the lantern reached the wick.

But as soon as Saul lowered the lantern, the candle went out again with a soft “whizz.”

Reignite, extinguish, reignite, extinguish.

Saul’s expression darkened as he lowered the lantern, glancing around. He confirmed that the number of lit candles was definitely more than eighty, so he rolled up his sleeves and continued lifting the lantern.

Half-closing his eyes to observe the erosion pattern, Saul focused intently on the mischievous candle through the small gap in his eyelids.

This time, as he reignited the candle, a half-transparent, pale lip appeared out of nowhere and puckered towards the flame…

Saul quickly adjusted the lantern, bringing the flame in line with the lips.

“Ura wah la ji li gu lu…”

He vaguely heard some mournful cries. Though he couldn’t understand the words, it felt like curses.

Without hesitation, Saul chased after the lips with the lantern, scorching them with the flame.

The translucent lips ignited with a white fire, causing the lips to twist away in fright.

Saul wasn’t one to let it get away so easily, and with the lantern raised, he relentlessly pursued it.

One fled, the other pursued.

Saul followed the lips until they settled on one of the corpses in the crowd.

He stopped, first checking the diary on his left shoulder, then raised the lantern and walked toward the corpse.

“Was that you causing trouble just now?” Saul waved the lantern in front of the corpse.

The corpse kept its eyes tightly shut, appearing no different from any other lifeless body.

But after witnessing the troublesome lips and his experience of possessing these corpses, Saul strongly suspected that these corpses weren’t completely unaware.

They could see the outside world, had memories… and they could cause trouble!

Was the whole purpose of keeping the candles bright in the Tower of Shadows just to prevent these corpses from acting up?

Saul lifted the lantern again, but this time, he didn’t light it. Instead, he pressed the still-warm nozzle against the corpse’s lips.

“If you keep causing trouble, I’ll burn your real mouth.”

After the harsh threat, Saul returned to the candlelight.

This time, the candle didn’t go out again, and no further candles failed to light.

Saul walked along the wall, counting the lit candles. There were 108 in total. A few others wouldn’t even light, perhaps broken.

Having finished checking the candles, Saul turned to examine the corpses in the storage room.

Having worked in the corpse room before, Saul wasn’t afraid of the flesh, but he always felt uneasy here.

It felt as though, when he wasn’t paying attention, the corpses might move on their own, change positions, watch him, or even discuss him.

That feeling of being watched from behind, even though nothing had been detected, was truly uncomfortable.

While organizing the warehouse, Saul had intentionally noted the position of each corpse. But during later checks, he had never seen them move.

Yet, after his experiences with possessing these bodies, Saul understood that, even if the corpses didn’t move, they were definitely not completely normal.

Since these corpses were all important items in the warehouse, each with a number, Saul couldn’t even dissect one to study.

But Saul wasn’t entirely powerless against them. As his research on souls deepened, he planned to eventually request permission from his mentor to borrow one for study.

For now, he let them be and continued organizing the items in the warehouse.

As the new warehouse manager, he planned to make an inventory list, sorted by characters, to save time in the future instead of wasting it searching for things.

It was a big project.

Saul was busy until 6 AM when the East Tower was cleared for entry. He then put down the half-finished work and pushed the cart out of the warehouse.

He passed the intersection and a room filled with boxes and quickly arrived at the outer bronze double doors.

He pulled the cart, opened the right-side door, and, after confirming the left one was still intact, stepped outside.

The outside was shrouded in dense darkness, nearly solid, with the wall-mounted candles shrinking into clusters of white halos, unable to spread their light.

Crossing through the dark corridor, Saul unknowingly ascended to the second floor of the East Tower.

Upon reaching the outside, he immediately spotted Kurum sneaking toward the third corpse room.

The man hadn’t seen Saul, his face full of excitement like a child caught sneaking candy.

“He really enjoys working with corpses,” Saul muttered, shaking his head as he walked by.

Saul believed that, unlike Kurum’s obsession with corpses, his own enjoyment came from the thrill of a successful experiment.

Due to his bloated body, Mentor Rum was probably the only one in the Tower who rarely left his room.

In the past two years, Saul had met with Rum several times, each time to report the results of his experiments.

Rum hadn’t tried to convince Saul to study under him again. Saul wasn’t sure whether he had given up or if it was because Mentor Kaz had secretly stopped him.

Saul silently sighed in relief.

He knocked on the door. No one responded, but the folding door opened slightly on its own.

Though it was a small gap, it was enough for both Saul and the cart to pass through.

Entering the room, Saul pushed aside the thick curtain with one hand and once again saw the sunlight, contrasted by the dark corner.

Mentor Rum was sitting in that darkest corner.

“Mentor Rum, I’ve brought the materials you requested.” Saul stepped forward respectfully.

After a brief moment, Rum, who had remained motionless, finally spoke in a low voice. “Put them on the table.”

Saul moved the materials to the table, bowed to Rum, and prepared to leave.

“Sniff sniff…”

To Saul’s surprise, Rum suddenly inhaled deeply, as if sniffing him.

“Where did you get this doll?”

The doll? Saul hesitated.

His relationship with the Tower Master, Gorsa, had always been a secret. Aside from Mentor Kaz, no one knew about it.

But when he returned to the Tower, Gorsa had taken him away in front of everyone. The scene had been witnessed not just by Byron and the others but also by the five prisoners from the Land Drifters.

It seemed the Tower Master no longer cared about keeping it a secret. He hadn’t warned Saul not to mention it either.

What caused him to change his mind?

These thoughts flashed quickly through his mind, but Saul didn’t hide anything. “It’s something the Tower Master gave me.”

“Hmm…” Rum squinted at Saul, as if seeing him for the first time.

Saul lowered his head and let him examine.

It had been several months since their last meeting, and Rum had gained even more weight.

He hadn’t grown taller, but the fat had piled up, gradually swallowing his once relatively normal head.

Just sitting there, Rum gave Saul a chilling feeling, as though standing by a volcano that could erupt at any moment.

“You… still intend to major in dark elements?” Rum spoke again, bringing up a topic he hadn’t discussed in a long time.

This time, Saul didn’t hesitate. “Yes, Mentor Rum. I’ve made my decision.”

“Is this your own choice? Or were you forced?”

Saul was caught off guard by Rum’s direct question, but he nodded to confirm his stance.

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“Heh.” Rum chuckled softly. “Majoring in dark elements isn’t bad. Perhaps this is destiny.”

Saul didn’t understand his mentor’s meaning. These strong people were all riddlers.

When he finally became a True Wizard, he would definitely turn the tables and make them guess his intentions!

(End of Chapter)