Chapter 44: First Collaboration

Saul came to a sudden halt, stopping right in front of Mark.

He wasn’t particularly keen on letting Mark know that he was acquainted with Byron.

“Senior, I wanted to ask if there are any other ways to earn more credits.”

“You’re short on credits?” Mark was surprised. A new apprentice usually wouldn’t have many expenses requiring credits.

Then it hit him. Saul was conducting independent research on body modification. That kind of work was a bottomless pit in terms of resource consumption.

“Come in, and we’ll talk.”

Mark stepped aside to let him in.

His dorm was laid out the same as Kongsha’s, but the inside was a mess. The floor was scattered with all kinds of unidentifiable items.

Only the long table had a clear space, and even then, there was just one chair.

Mark plopped into the chair unceremoniously, nudged a box over with his foot, and gestured for Saul to sit.

“Given your current job, earning more credits should be easy.”

Saul looked up at him earnestly.

“You’ve heard of the Mutual Aid Society, right?”

Saul’s heart skipped a beat. He pretended to recall. “Some of my batchmates mentioned it, but I was too busy to check it out.”

Then he asked cautiously, “Senior… are you part of the Mutual Aid Society?”

Mark waved his hand. “No, I’m not. It’s basically a small group formed by a Third Rank apprentice and a few Second Ranks. But the ones you’ll actually deal with are usually Second Ranks.”

A familiar sarcastic smirk tugged at the corner of Mark’s lips. “They call it mutual aid, but for newbies, it’s just exploitation.”

“That said, they do run some interesting things—like trade meets. Their prices are lower than the academy registry’s mid-tier items. If you’ve got something to sell, you could make a bit of money there.”

“Something to sell?” Saul asked tentatively. “You mean I can sell stuff from the morgue? But… aren’t we not supposed to do that?”

“You’re new, so of course you don’t have the means. But you can set a clear price and let those interested figure out how to smuggle it out themselves.”

Saul hesitated.

He did want to check out one of those trade meets eventually, but the parasite Keli ran into last time was still a big concern.

Seniors like Mark or Byron might be safe attending those gatherings, but newcomers like him were likely targets for underhanded tricks.

If only the trade meet allowed anonymous participation.

But thinking deeper, there were only so many apprentices in the tower. Even with masks, it’d be easy for others to guess who he was.

If someone snitched to Mentor Kaz… Well, some things were better done in secret than out in the open.

“Thanks, senior. I’ll think about it.”

Mark could tell Saul was wary, so he offered a bit of reassurance. “Don’t worry. The last person doing your job used to sell stuff at the trade meet, too. And the buyers, hoping to keep the supply coming, were more than willing to keep his secret.”

With a flicker of hope in his eyes, Saul asked, “Senior, is there anything you need?”

Mark rolled his eyes.

“You think you’ve got something I’d need?”

Saul had a hunch he actually might, but there was no need to reveal that just yet.

After leaving Mark’s dorm, Saul went straight back to the second floor of the East Tower.

He decided to postpone meeting Byron for now.

His plan was to slip a note under Byron’s door, asking to meet in the second-floor East Tower when no one was around.

Hopefully, Byron would be interested in the other composite rune models Saul had worked on.

Compared to the risky trade meets, Byron seemed like a much safer bet.

Two days passed, but Saul still hadn’t heard back from Byron—even though he’d definitely left the note in his room.

“Don’t tell me he’s already left?”

Saul had already burned through all his crafting materials. He had a few plastic bones to show for it, but there was still no real breakthrough in his body modification research.

With time on his hands, he’d finally succeeded in casting the Zero Tier spell, Strike Undead.

If Byron really had left the tower, Saul would rather sneak materials from the morgue than trade his insights with strangers.

Just then, there was a knock on the morgue door.

Saul was surprised. Mentor Kaz had just visited yesterday—usually he wouldn’t return for four or five days.

Who could it be this time?

Saul opened the door and was shocked to find the cold senior who had replaced Byron.

She still had that chin-raised, condescending look.

“Come with me. I need your help.”

With that, she turned and walked away without waiting—completely certain Saul would follow.

He hesitated for half a second, then shut the door and went after her.

It was his first time entering the first morgue.

The moment he stepped in, he was stunned by the scene before him.

This place was nothing like his own morgue—in fact, it could hardly even be called a morgue.

It looked more like the site of some shamanistic ritual.

The ceiling and walls were covered in black patterns, with runes of various sizes embedded between them.

Candles of all shapes and sizes cluttered the floor—some lit, some not. Strange, indecipherable magic circles were drawn among them.

Three stone coffins stood in the center of the room, each one open. Inside each stood a corpse.

Normally, seeing corpses in the morgue was routine.

But something about these three made Saul’s skin crawl.

They were standing unaided, no restraints of any kind, and if not for the visible mortal wounds on their bodies, they could’ve easily passed for living men standing there with eyes closed.

“These three came in today,” the senior said, hands clasped behind her back as she stopped at the doorway. “But there’s a problem. That Second Rank apprentice in the middle…”

She pointed at the middle corpse—the one with a gash running from shoulder to chest.

“He brought in a wraith. If we don’t get rid of it, none of the materials from his body will be usable.”

“But the wraith is slippery. Every time I try to kill it, it hops into one of the other two corpses. And my spells need to start from scratch each time I change targets.”

A wraith?

Saul thought, Maybe that new spell I just learned—Strike Undead—will work.

But he kept a neutral expression and said, “Senior, I don’t really have the means to fight a wraith yet…”

“Of course I know that,” she snapped. “I just need you to locate it. Tell me where it is at the final moment of my casting so I can stop it from jumping again. It’s getting on my nerves.”

As she spoke, she tossed something to him.

Saul caught it and looked down. It was a soft piece of leather.

He had no idea what material it was made from, but it was pale and smooth, warm to the touch, and had a faint floral scent.

Two small holes were punched into it, spaced about half a palm’s width apart.

There were no runes or circles drawn on it.

“Put the mask on your face. Sit in the magic circle in the corner. You’ll be able to see the wraith from there. Hurry up. Don’t waste time,” she said impatiently.

“Senior, I…”

She interrupted him again. “Oh, I get it—you want payment, right? Once the wraith’s dealt with, you can take one of the other two First Rank apprentice corpses. I’ll write down in the records that we only received one First Rank and one Second Rank today.”

Wait—he could take an entire corpse?

Saul had always felt that sneaking the occasional bit of material was already pushing it.

But this senior just casually offered a whole, untouched corpse.

The bodies sent to the morgue always had some abnormalities that prevented burial. But once those were treated, they’d become high-quality dark-aligned materials.

In other words, very valuable.

All he had to do was locate the wraith, and he’d get that much in return?

Could this task actually be dangerous? What if the wraith decided to attack him instead?

“Senior… can I ask—why didn’t you go to Senior Hayden instead? Why me?”

(End of Chapter)

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