When Thor realized that no matter what material he picked up, the Hardcover Book only showed the word "Death," he knew he'd hit the limit.
Not the Hardcover Book's limit, but the crucible's.
Even with the naked eye, he could clearly see the sticky purple slurry bubbling now and then. Familiar-looking organs occasionally surfaced, only to quickly sink back down.
Like a drowning person struggling desperately, only to eventually drown and become a heap of bones and sludge.
Thor lifted the crucible by its handle and, with a pained expression, poured its contents into the large box for corpses.
The large box provided by the Wizard Tower was remarkably strange.
No matter how much a corpse thrashed, once it was thrown inside, it went quiet as a chick.
Thor watched as the solution began some indescribable chemical reaction with the guest in the box. Before the smoke could spread, he quickly shut the lid.
He stood and watched the large box twitch faintly, then shook his head with a sigh.
"Sure enough, with my meager knowledge of wizardry, hoping to get lucky and succeed on the first try was asking too much."
"It's also possible that altering the sense of smell is beyond my current understanding. Should I try a different direction?"
Thor turned to look at the materials left on the Experiment Table, estimating how many more times he could afford to waste them.
In one corner of the Experiment Table lay a book filled with several pages of notes.
Written in the language of Thor's previous life, it listed all the possible ways the Hardcover Book said the experiments could end in death.
Thor meticulously recorded and analyzed these outcomes, working backward to infer each material's properties and the effects it might have in a potion.
By continually organizing and summarizing the results, he could keep correcting the course of his experiments.
It was a classic case of knowing the result and deriving the process.
It was also a method of experimentation no other Wizard would dare consider.
"Hiss!"
The sound of the candle brightening interrupted Thor's deep thoughts.
He sighed, rolled up his sleeves again, and rallied his spirits.
Although it was painful to have his ideas interrupted by work, having guests meant a steady supply of experimental materials in the future.
Research was often dull and tedious, especially when you barely understood the principles involved.
Thor endured five monotonous days. On the sixth, he finally welcomed a Level 1 Apprentice as a guest.
The guest wasn't a new student. Thor had never seen him before, and he didn't know how he had met his untimely end. All that remained was a pair of eyes staring fearfully and helplessly at the ceiling.
His eyes were rolled so far upward that his pupils were almost pressed into his upper eyelids.
It was as if something above him had drawn his attention.
The corpse was incomplete. Hayden, the Senior in charge of the previous stage, usually worked diligently.
That meant Thor's haul was correspondingly smaller.
Thor checked the body, but found nothing worth keeping, so he had no choice but to work on the head.
He put the removed organs into a suitably sized box.
Thor took out the pale yellow leather Senior Sister Kongsha had given him, wrapped it around the entire box, and set it aside.
The rest of the guest went into the large box.
When it was time to clock out, Thor clutched the box, wrapped tightly in pale yellow leather, and peeked cautiously out the door.
This was the first time Thor had taken a corpse out of the Corpse Room.
Even with Kongsha's assurances, he was still a little nervous.
The Wizard Tower's rules weren't always that important.
As long as you could make sure no one found out.
With Senior Sister Kongsha's abilities, if she really wanted to get the brain of a Level 1 Apprentice, she wouldn't need to harvest one from a corpse.
She could make a few herself whenever she wanted.
Yet she had gone to so much trouble to get Thor into the Corpse Room, all for one brain a month.
That showed the Wizard Tower valued its Apprentices quite highly.
Getting away with killing one or two was possible, but kill too many, and you'd pay a terrible price.
"If I can't take the materials out, I'll leave them in the Corpse Room and wait for Senior Sister Kongsha to pick them up. The servants who clean up never touch anything beyond the tool bench anyway." Before he'd even failed, Thor had already planned his fallback.
Holding the box, he carefully stepped out of the Corpse Room.
To avoid running into the Senior next door or the Senior, Thor deliberately waited until nearly eight before setting out.
The corridor lights were dimmer than they had been in the afternoon. The candle flames flickered now and then, as if urging Thor to hurry.
When Thor reached the end of the corridor, he saw a burly man slumped against the corner like a corpse.
Thor took a step forward.
The burly man's nose suddenly twitched.
Thor hugged the box tighter, ready to turn around at any moment.
The burly man turned his face toward Thor and twitched his nostrils a few more times.
Silence.
Thor could hear his own breathing.
The burly man suddenly moved. Bracing himself against the floor with one hand, he slowly stood up.
"Stood up" wasn't quite accurate. He rose into a hunched position, his head lowered and his shoulders drawn in, as if afraid the top of his skull might hit the corridor ceiling.
Though he couldn't see, the burly man still walked straight toward Thor.
I'm done for.
Thor slowly backed away, clutching the yellow leather, until his back touched the cold stone wall. A tingling sensation spread inward from the muscles along his back.
I'm going to get caught.
The Hardcover Book didn't give me a warning? Being discovered won't kill me, then. It's my first offense. If I put everything back in the Corpse Room, maybe I won't even be punished.
Thor glanced at the crimson door not far from him, wondering whether he should put the box back right now.
Maybe they'd go easy on him.
But just then, the burly man abruptly changed direction.
Thor's heel, which he had just lifted, dropped back down.
The burly man slowly entered the Corpse Room.
Thor turned his head and saw the man squeeze awkwardly through the doorway, stop precisely beside the tool bench, and pull out the large box from underneath it.
The heavy box looked like a prop made of foam in the burly man's hands. He lifted it with ease.
Then, without bumping into anything else in the room, the burly man squeezed back through the doorway.
He turned right.
Thor silently watched as the burly man carried the large box into the dark depths of the corridor.
Heavy footsteps sounded, then gradually faded away.
He had to leave as soon as possible!
He was in the clear!
Thor came to his senses and realized it was getting late. Clutching the box in his arms, he sprinted outside.
The East Tower was dangerous for a Level 1 Apprentice, especially since Thor only knew two Tier 0 Wizardry spells, neither of them useful for attacking. His ability to defend himself was poor.
The closest passage between the East Tower and the West Tower was on the fifth floor.
As he ran, Thor suddenly felt that something was wrong.
From the second floor to the fifth, he only had to climb three flights.
But had he really been running for so long without turning?
Unease rose in Thor's heart, but he didn't dare stop.
For some reason, his head felt heavy, and his balance was off. He felt as if he could fall at any moment.
It was as if something had emerged from the crown of his head, growing wildly into a huge, wobbling ball that kept interfering with his movements.
Thor wanted to look up, but the motion suddenly stalled.
He thought of the guest he had received that day.
The Apprentice who had rolled his pupils desperately upward, trying to see what was above his head.
Thor abruptly stopped.
As he came to a sudden halt, something flashed quickly before his eyes.
It seemed to be a smooth forehead, with a hint of brows and eyes. It peeked down from above his head, then recoiled from the pull of its own momentum.
What on earth has grown on top of my head?
Sure enough, the Wizard Tower meant him no kindness.
Everyone else walked by the river often enough that they were bound to get their shoes wet eventually.
But Thor only had to walk by a river once to fall straight into a ditch.
His Soul Talent had given him the means to survive, but it had also brought him a deadly calamity.
Thor let go of the box and slowly raised a hand.
His fingertips rose past his eyes, then stopped in midair.
What if he really touched something?
Thor slowly lowered his hand again.
Keeping his head still, he glanced at the Hardcover Book.
Can I take it?
The Hardcover Book didn't react.
Thor's taut nerves suddenly relaxed.
The Hardcover Book hadn't reacted~
He still clutched the head in his arms, not loosening his grip even though he suspected the thing above his head had come from it.
Step by step, he walked steadily to the wall and gauged the distance.
"Nice to meet you! Please take good care of me!"
With gritted teeth, the boy bent at the waist and bowed a full ninety degrees toward the wall.
His figure blurred into a streak.
"Thud!"
Something... slammed hard into the wall.
"Squish—"
Then came the sound of something breaking.
Thor straightened up as a sticky liquid slid down from the top of his head.
It felt a bit like squeezing shampoo straight onto his head.
Cold.
Slowly dripping down.
Thor expressionlessly raised a hand and wiped his forehead hard, in case the unknown liquid ran into his eyes.
"Don't let the door hit you on the way out!"
Before you continue