Doing Business in the Morgue

A new day, one o'clock in the afternoon.

Senior level-one apprentice Hayden walked silently into the second morgue.

He glanced at the transport platform, where the candle lamps were dim.

There was no work again today.

This was a good thing.

He had been processing corpses for three years.

This job was nauseating to him, and at the same time, it was sickeningly dull.

But he had no choice; if he didn't do this job, he had no idea how he would pass the monthly tests.

The number of level-one apprentices who had entered the Wizard Tower in the same batch as him was dwindling.

A few had successfully promoted to level two, some had died in the tests, some had died during their studies, and some were, like him, persevering in obscurity.

Therefore, even though he was incredibly weary of this job, Hayden still could not give it up.

With no work today, Hayden walked over to the table against the wall and flipped through a book.

But he soon slammed the book shut again.

He had already read these books many times, and they could not help him promote to level two.

"Actually, thinking about it, not promoting to level two isn't so bad." Hayden looked toward the next room. "A level-two apprentice is already doing the work of handling the first stage of corpse processing. If I didn't have this job, I would probably be like the other level-two apprentices, worrying every six months about whether I could pass the test, right?"

Thinking this way, Hayden felt even less like reading.

He walked over to the transport belt and suddenly felt like lying on it to see what it was like.

But just as he had one leg resting on the transport platform, the door was knocked upon.

He was startled, his hand nearly slipping.

In this place, at this time, who would come?

It couldn't be that newcomer from yesterday, could it?

Hayden lifted his chin and sauntered toward the door.

"Who is it?"

"I am a level-two apprentice, Sid."

Hayden's chin and shoulders immediately shrank together.

He hurriedly opened the door and saw the impatient-looking blond youth through the crack.

The scarlet door opened a sliver, and Hayden quickly squeezed out.

"Senior, are you looking for me?"

Along with Hayden, the disgusting stench of the morgue squeezed out as well.

Sid frowned and took two steps back.

Seeing this, Hayden hurriedly turned back to close the door.

"I heard a newcomer has taken over the work in the morgue?"

"Yes, a loud-mouthed little boy."

"How is he doing?"

"This... I haven't checked yet, but it should be fine, right?"

Sid sneered. "A newcomer who just arrived, how well could he do? Besides, my junior brother wants this job too."

"Ah?" Hayden looked up in surprise.

"Can you find a way to clear this job for him?"

"Clear it?" Hayden pulled his hands in, troubled, his eyes darting around. "But the work in the morgue is all assigned by mentor Kazi."

"Once this job opens up, I will naturally have my junior brother go and vie for it." Sid rubbed his fingers together; his fingertips slightly deformed, and fine white powder fell from them.

"Then, then should I go and persuade that newcomer?" Hayden asked tentatively.

"Heh," Sid let out an ambiguous laugh. "If you do something that satisfies me, I will give you a Midnight Ghost Feather."

"Ah!" Hayden straightened his back completely, his eyes widening until they nearly popped out. "I, I... I will definitely make that kid..."

Suddenly!

"Are you doing business in the morgue now?"

A low voice interrupted their conversation.

Hayden and Sid both looked toward the depths of the corridor.

"Is that the level-two apprentice in charge of the morgue?" Sid narrowed his eyes. "He actually arrived so early? I'm afraid there will be more blood to shed this time."

However, when the person who spoke stepped out of the darkness, the pupils in Sid's narrowed eyes shrank violently.

Beside him, Hayden nearly collapsed to the floor.

"T-Tutor..."

Walking out from the depths of the corridor was not some Level 2 apprentice, but none other than Tutor Kazi.

Sid felt a tremor in his heart as Kazi stared at him, but recalling the tutor's usual style of conduct, he braced himself and said, "Tutor Kazi, we were just..."

Kazi raised a hand, cutting Sid off. "I don't care what you are doing."

Sid felt a wave of relief; he knew his tutor wouldn't concern himself with the affairs of apprentices.

However, Kazi's next words nearly made Sid collapse to the floor.

"A lot of servants and apprentices have died in the tower recently. You are to head out and bring back a dozen or so new sprouts from the outside world."

Sid's heart skipped a beat, and he tried to negotiate. "Understood, Tutor Kazi, but after I finish my test next month, I will..."

"Next month? I mean this month! You leave tomorrow—no, leave before tonight!"

Kazi glared at him. He wasn't tall, but the moment he acted angry, the other two apprentices felt as though they were being crushed into the cracks of a stone by his sheer presence.

"Tutor Kazi," Sid said, no longer possessing his earlier arrogance, his head covered in cold sweat. "I have my test next month. If I leave the tower now, I might not be able to make it back in time."

Kazi turned to face Sid, unmoved. "You need to understand one thing."

"Every servant, maid, and apprentice in the Wizard Tower is the property of the Tower Master. And you," Kazi pointed a wrinkled index finger at Sid, "have already caused a loss to the Tower Master, so naturally, you must compensate for it."

Sid opened his mouth, but in the end, not a single word came out.

A bead of sweat slid down his temple, hit the floor, and shattered into several droplets.

It was the following afternoon when Thor learned that Sid had left the tower.

The person who told him was, once again, Tutor Kazi.

"Senior Apprentice Sid?" Thor's face turned somewhat pale.

His hand pressed down on the book he had just finished transcribing, his fingertips tightening until the pale yellow paper crumpled into a wrinkled mass.

"But why... would he want to harm me?" Thor shook his head, unable to comprehend it.

"That is something you will have to find a way to figure out yourself." Kazi took out a book and tossed it onto the desktop.

Thor looked down; it was a thin book made of silk.

Corpse Transmutation Guide.

It was his first time seeing a book made of such fabric.

"I see you have, er, decent talent. Take this book and read it; you can ask me if you don't understand something." Kazi glanced at Thor's reaction and turned to leave.

Thor picked up the book.

A non-textbook wizarding book cost at least two Magic Crystals a day, and a guide was worth far more than mere cognitive material.

Tutor Kazi had effectively given him a small fortune in Magic Crystals.

"The tutor is actually quite decent," Thor said, letting out a soft laugh.

He set the Corpse book aside, wiped the smile from his face, and carefully smoothed out the book he had just crumpled.

"Sshhh~"

At the soft sound, Thor looked over.

The candle lamp on the conveyor platform turned a bright white.

Thor walked over and pulled the lever with force.

The black conveyor belt began to roll, and a fresh corpse covered in black leather emerged from beneath the tassels.

This time, the deceased was a stranger who had died quite peacefully.

Thor lifted the black leather, and sure enough, the body was relatively intact.

This was his first time processing one independently.

Thor allowed himself to sink into a semi-immersive meditative state.

Although the Human-Monster Walking Diagram had been planted by Sid to kill him, Thor found himself unexpectedly well-suited to meditating with this diagram.

Besides, since the Hardcover Book hadn't said anything, he could keep using it!

Thor reached for the tools on the table behind him.

The corpse swayed gently, and in a moment of distraction, the person lying on the conveyor platform seemed to take on the appearance of Sid.

Thor closed his eyes, forcing himself to return to reality.

"I have a month now, but when Sid returns, I fear there will be an even more vicious retaliation."

Although the crisis hadn't been fully resolved, it had at least bought Thor a moment to breathe.

"It seems that as long as I am useful, I can secure a certain level of protection. I still need to make myself more useful."

As Thor worked, he glanced at the Corpse Transmutation Guide that Kazi had given him.

Suddenly, he stopped what he was doing.

"Corpse Transmutation... and Wizard Body Modification, could there be some connection between them?"