Chapter 230: Soul-Devouring Resin

After reveling in his success, Saul ran another test on his mental body.

The results were just as delightful.

Although the new resin had been purged of the soul fragments it had previously absorbed, its quality still surpassed that of the first- and second-generation plastic bones. As a result, Saul’s mental strength had risen by another level. And as it continued to absorb more soul fragments in the future, his mental body would only grow stronger.

“This material needs a new name. ‘plastic bone’ doesn’t even begin to describe it anymore.”

As he mulled it over, Saul tidied up his messy notes. After organizing all the pages together, he added a cover to the first page and stitched them up with thread.

He leaned forward and wrote three large words on the cover—Soul-Devouring Resin.

This would be the name of the formula for Saul’s second body modification.

That said, aside from Saul—whose mental body was already comparable to that of a True Wizard—no other apprentice would be able to replicate it.

This was a modification scheme that would cause ordinary apprentices to either die on contact or go insane from just trying it.

And unlike his first modification, this second one had been far more comfortable—almost like drifting through a dream.

However, what he saw in the dream left Saul puzzled.

Why had he dreamed of an elf?

Senior Byron had once told Saul to avoid anything related to elves before reaching the Third Rank.

But Kongsha didn’t seem to share that concern. She was actively seeking out information on elves.

Thinking back, both encounters he’d had that involved elves were steeped in eeriness.

And the library held no information about elves at all. Even books written in Elvish contained nothing about the elves themselves.

This complete lack of knowledge about them left Saul feeling vaguely uneasy.

Fear stems from the unknown.

“Maybe the Tower Master can help me analyze it… though I don’t know if he’s free right now.”

He wrote a message with his communication pen to inform the Tower Master that he was awake, then sat on the sofa gifted to him by the Tower Master and began a restorative meditation.

To his surprise, just a few minutes after leaving, Gorsa reappeared before Saul.

And he brought the same type of sofa with him.

“Not bad. Your mental and physical alignment has returned to a stable range.” Upon seeing him, Gorsa scanned Saul from head to toe. “Still, having undergone two body modifications in such a short time, it’s best to have Kaz do a full checkup.”

Saul nodded obediently. While he had already done a self-check, the tools in the storage room were quite basic. If the Tower Master could get Kaz to take a look, that’d be even better.

“Do you still have the letter that Kismet delivered?” Gorsa brought up another matter.

He had been preoccupied the last time he received news of it and couldn’t come, but now it was clear that he was quite concerned about why Kismet had reached out to Saul.

“No. Not long after I finished reading it, the paper vanished. I couldn’t find a trace of it.”

Gorsa listened, lowering his gaze in thought, gently tapping his fingers on the sofa.

Then, he abruptly stood. His hood slipped off his head, and his thick russet cloak billowed open.

“Close your eyes.”

Saul quickly shut his eyes.

A burst of blinding light pierced through his eyelids, casting everything behind them in red and causing a faint stinging pain despite being shut.

Saul hurriedly raised his hands to shield his eyes, finally escaping the glare’s intensity.

Dazed, he could feel the external light growing even stronger, nearly cutting through his fingers and stabbing into his eyes.

Just as he considered whether he should follow the carriage driver’s example—curling on the floor and covering his head—the intense light finally began to fade.

“You can open them now,” Gorsa said gently.

Saul opened his eyes, but all he could see was white. It took two full minutes before his vision finally returned.

“Tower Master?”

“I didn’t find any trace of the letter either. Kismet secretly sent you that letter, then made it vanish right after you read it. If he only wanted to convey a few words, he wouldn’t have gone to such lengths.”

Saul’s eyes widened. “You mean… he might’ve transmitted something else through that letter?”

“That’s my suspicion,” Gorsa replied with a faint shake of his head. “But I just examined you thoroughly—there’s no sign of foreign magic or mental influence. Still… considering Kismet’s usual tactics… Saul, try to recall if there was any other content on the letter?”

Was Gorsa suggesting that Kismet might have controlled him through the letter?

Saul’s expression grew serious as he closed his eyes and circulated his mental strength to its fullest.

Anyone else doing this would look like a joke—it was nearly impossible for a normal person to detect tricks from a Second Tier wizard.

But Saul was confident. If there was any trace at all, he’d find it.

A while later, he opened his eyes. “No issues.”

Still, when he saw Gorsa staring straight at him, Saul politely asked, “Tower Master, would you like to do another scan yourself?”

“If I did, it would harm your mental body.”

This Wizard Tower was Gorsa’s domain, deeply connected to him. Since even he couldn’t find anything, the chance that Kismet had tampered with Saul was extremely low.

“Have you encountered anything strange lately?” Gorsa asked slowly. “For example, hearing unusual sounds or seeing unfamiliar images.”

That question jogged Saul’s memory—he finally remembered the real reason he had called the Tower Master here.

“I passed out for a time during the modification. While unconscious, I saw an elf.”

“An elf?” Gorsa leaned forward. “How do you know it was an elf?”

Saul described the girl sobbing and wailing that she was going to die.

Then he asked, “Could that elf-related vision have something to do with Kismet?”

Recalling Kismet’s striking appearance and flamboyant mannerisms, Saul suddenly blurted out a theory.

“Could Kismet… be an elf?”

“Hah, why would you think that?” Gorsa was actually amused. “Then again, most apprentices know almost nothing about elves. But since your mental body is already on par with a True Wizard, I suppose I can tell you… Elves disappeared three hundred years ago.”

Elves… disappeared?

Saul blinked. “If they vanished three hundred years ago, why is everyone still so wary about them? And Elvish is one of the most common wizard languages—people study it all the time without any issues.”

Seeing Saul’s surprise and curiosity, Gorsa smiled and continued, “That’s because Elvish was a language the elves created specifically to communicate with wizards.”

According to Gorsa, the elves were born with exceptionally strong mental power. Even newborns had the mental strength of True Wizards.

They spoke rarely and preferred to sing, but their songs had no lyrics—only melodies.

When they needed to communicate, they simply sent mental vibrations—entire volumes of information transmitted perfectly in a single second.

But this often caused unintended consequences: the receiving party—if not another elf—might go insane on the spot.

So the elven sages developed the Elvish language.

Normally, elves used writing to communicate. If necessary, they would speak. And in emergencies, they would send a mental pulse and let fate decide whether the receiver survived.

“Elvish does have a spoken form and sounds like singing. But many of the pronunciations are impossible for humans to replicate. Even with tongue and throat modifications, perfect imitation is extremely difficult. That’s why Elvish is used more for recording than for speaking.”

Starting with Elvish language was Gorsa’s way of easing Saul into the topic through something familiar, rather than shocking him with raw facts about elves.

After all, even discussing elves could confuse or even damage the minds of weaker apprentices.

“It was thanks to Elvish language that the wizarding world came to understand elves better. But greater communication didn’t lead to fewer conflicts.”

From Gorsa’s explanation, elves weren’t the idealized paragons Saul had imagined.

They were straightforward, but not naïve. They loved nature, but also the laws of nature.

At times, this made their behavior seem inexplicable or even cruel.

For instance, when a group of wizards clashed with the elves, the elves mercilessly transformed the entire region—along with its human inhabitants—into a habitat suitable for elven life.

Not a single human survived.

This cemented the elves’ terrifying reputation.

“Back then, the elves didn’t control much territory. But not even Third Rank Wizards dared provoke them. Their status was unshakable. Then, three hundred years ago, they suddenly vanished. No one has seen a real elf since. It’s as if their existence was erased. And any wizard who tried to investigate their whereabouts either disappeared… or was contaminated.”

Gorsa’s silver eyes gleamed faintly. “Some say the entire elven race, without exception, was contaminated.”

Saul: …I’ve stepped into something huge.

(End of Chapter)

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