Broke Without Money

Thor's fourth spell, after he had asked Mark for advice, was another Tier 0 Wizardry of the Dark Attribute: Strike Undead.

His work environment was simply too likely to produce ghosts, and Strike Undead was especially effective against them.

After about two hours of study, he had a preliminary idea for a new spell analysis model.

Thor was roused by work again and got up to greet the first customer of the day.

A skeleton...

"Is this thing really that clean?"

There wasn't a scrap of flesh left on it. It looked like it had been dug out of the ground decades later.

A corpse this clean only made Thor more suspicious.

He put down his tools, ushered the customer into the big box, then turned and went to visit the senior next door.

"I don't know." Hayden still received Thor from behind the palm-width crack in his door. "By the time it got to me, the corpse was already just a skeleton."

Hayden had simply passed it on to Thor.

Thor said goodbye to Hayden and looked toward the room belonging to the new Level 2 Apprentice.

The new Level 2 Apprentice wasn't as easy to talk to as Senior Byron.

Asking him probably wouldn't get Thor anywhere.

The first step in processing a corpse wasn't collecting materials. Its main purpose was to eliminate any potential dangers on the body.

So the corpse had probably already been stripped of its flesh and blood by the time it was sent to the Corpse Room.

This little interlude didn't take up much of Thor's time. In fact, with no other customers that day, he was able to continue his research.

But his progress on Wizard Body Modification was nowhere near as fast as his progress in learning Wizardry.

If only Wizard Body Modification were as simple as runes and spells.

If anyone else had known what Thor was thinking, they might have been furious.

He poured out another batch of failed materials that were about to explode.

As Thor closed the lid of the big box, he suddenly stopped.

"Huh?"

Under the corrosive solution Thor had concocted, the bones were slowly shrinking and dissolving.

Had he just made sulfuric acid?

Thor closed the lid, waited a while, then opened it again.

The skeleton had completely dissolved, but the big box was unchanged and still sturdy.

"These boxes might be the most valuable things in the whole Corpse Room."

Thor patted the sturdy box, wishing he could chip off a piece.

"Hm?" Thor suddenly noticed a small grayish-white pebble at the bottom of the box.

He fetched some tweezers and a test tube, then picked up the pebble.

Thor had assumed that a pebble that had dissolved and then solidified again would be hard, but it had some give, like a cow's tendon.

He labeled the test tube and recorded how the pebble corresponded to each step of the process. It might come in handy someday.

For now, it was a very quick way to get rid of a corpse.

Like the corpse-dissolving powder Thor had read about in his previous life.

Thor ran a few more tests on the pebble. It didn't fear fire, water, or acid, and even ordinary blades couldn't leave a mark on it.

If he used it well, could he make some kind of armor?

Thor gently prodded the pebble with a Small Steel Needle, his mind wandering.

The next day, during public class,

Keli slammed her book down beside Thor, sat down, and told him some shocking news.

"That new Apprentice you asked me about yesterday... is dead!"

"Dead? Didn't he just arrive?" Thor dug his toes into the soles of his shoes, trying to keep his expression natural.

"Yeah. He must have offended someone. He died before he even got to meet the mentor. Before I came here, my father kept warning me to forget who I used to be. To forget my pride, and behave like a lowly commoner until I become a Level 2 Apprentice."

Keli sighed, though it was hard to tell whether she felt sorry for the new Apprentice or for herself.

Thor looked away and lowered his gaze to the Noah Language text in front of him.

Wizard runes weren't an ordinary language. They didn't include everyday words, names, or verbs. Their entire purpose was to serve Wizardry, the elements, and Mental Power, so there were actually very few words.

Over the past month or so, Thor had memorized every word in the Noah Language. That would have been unimaginable before, but now he didn't find it difficult.

In fact, it wasn't even where he focused most of his attention.

So for now, his Noah Language studies were mainly about reinforcing the basics and applying them to wizard books.

But today, he couldn't quite focus.

When he killed Brown two days ago, he hadn't felt much. He'd thought the dangers of this world had made his nerves unbreakable.

But hearing about the new Apprentice's death today made him realize that he could still feel bad.

Thor kept his face blank and mocked himself inwardly.

I did it for my own benefit. I deliberately got someone else killed.

I guess... I'm not such a good person anymore.

He closed his eyes, committing the torment in his heart to memory.

But he didn't regret it.

A few days later, while continuing his experiments in the Corpse Room, Thor suddenly realized something.

The skeletal customer he'd seen earlier might well have been the new Apprentice who had just entered the Wizard Tower.

All corpses that died from abnormal causes in the Wizard Tower were sent to the Corpse Room for processing, to prevent ghosts from gathering and causing further instability.

It was also a way to recover materials from the bodies that might have become valuable for experiments because of mutations.

He had discovered how to make Plastic Bone from the new Apprentice's skeleton—the name Plastic Bone was Thor's own invention—and for the past few days, he had been using customers' bones to make it.

But today, he had no choice but to stop.

He had used up almost all the materials needed for the process.

He was out of money and credits, too.

"This can't go on!"

Thor stood in front of the Experiment Table, rubbing his chin.

"Trying to fund projects on a fixed salary is a dead end. I have to find a way to bring in more money."

Thor was working on Wizard Body Modification, something no Level 1 Apprentice had tried yet, and some had never even heard of.

An ordinary Level 1 Apprentice's income couldn't possibly support his experiments for long.

Besides, he had recently been submitting far fewer materials because of his research. Fortunately, Mentor Kazi had never reprimanded him over it.

That was also why Thor had grown bolder and bolder.

Even so, the materials he had on hand were nearly gone.

"I don't have anything valuable on me right now. Phantom Sound Pupil is a powerful aid in battle, so I absolutely can't sell it. Once I finish making Plastic Bone, it'll become my secret weapon, so I can't let that get out either."

Thor finally thought of what he had learned about runes, especially his insights into Composite Runes: the Coordinate Method.

If he sold it to some wealthy Level 1 Apprentices, he might make a decent sum. After all, even Senior Byron, a Level 2 Apprentice, was interested in that knowledge.

The idea of coordinates sounded novel, but the principle wasn't complicated. It didn't involve anything particularly profound.

He just had to think carefully about whom to trade with: someone whose interests didn't conflict with his own, and whose moral standards were acceptable.

Keli would be a good choice, but Thor had already fleeced her once. He didn't know if she had any credits or Magic Crystals left.

As for the other Level 1 Apprentices, Thor had barely interacted with any of them.

And he didn't want to deal with the ones he had met.

"Wait!" Thor's eyes lit up. "How could I be so stupid? Senior Byron, a Level 2 Apprentice, is obviously the best choice!"

He had money, strength, and was about to leave the tower, so their interests wouldn't conflict. And he was a decent person.

Thor called out to Senior Hayden across the passage connected by the conveyor belt, then happily skipped work to go find Byron.

"Room 1016 is on this floor." Thor stood on the Ramp on the tenth floor of the West Tower and peered inside.

He'd been here a few times, and as far as he remembered, Senior Byron's room had never given him any trouble.

The Level 2 Apprentices' corridor was always quiet, especially now, when all the laboratories were open.

Thor had come over on impulse and was almost at the door before he remembered that Byron might not be there at this time.

Just as Thor was about to approach Senior Byron's quarters, a door beside him suddenly opened, and Mark stepped out.

"Thor? Are you here to see me?" Mark greeted Thor with some surprise.