Saul had thought about escaping the moment he was locked into the Old Witch’s cage.

But after all, the Old Witch was a Second Rank wizard, and she had always been mysterious, never revealing her true strength.

She only used various magical tools and potions to imprison and restrain people. If it weren’t for the unmistakable fluctuations of magic around her, Saul might have doubted whether she was truly a Second Rank.

However, once he began conducting the perfect body-wizard body transformation experiments alongside the Old Witch and Oqili, he temporarily forgot about escaping.

Come on!

After leaving the campus (the Wizard Tower), where else could you get to use magical materials and potions for free?

Besides… Saul was hiding the real progress of his research on this transformation.

On the surface, he was still stuck on the problem of how to stabilize and preserve the best traits after multiple bodies fused together.

For that, he constantly adjusted parameters and ran multiple reference experiment groups at once.

But in truth, half of those reference groups were secretly simulating the wizard body transformation plan he had just received from An, the Flesh-Soul Fusion.

It just happened to be a transformation of his own body, so many issues overlapped.

Saul designed many experimental bodies to test how the transformation before, during, and after would feedback to his own spirit body.

As a result, the Old Witch’s ample supply of magical materials was drained within a few days.

So when the Old Witch said she had to go out and warned Saul and Oqili not to try to escape, Saul sincerely promised he wouldn’t.

But when the Old Witch left, Saul didn’t immediately return to his experiment desk.

He leaned against the wall and slowly walked out of the laboratory.

“Where are you going?” Oqili shouted from where he stood.

“Don’t worry, I’m not running away, just taking a walk.”

Oqili was still uneasy and staggered after him.

Because he had been taking the Old Witch’s nourishing soup, Oqili had to hold onto tables or walls to walk; otherwise, he would just spin in place.

Like a ghost blocking his vision.

Although Saul wasn’t affected, to make the Old Witch relax her guard, he imitated Oqili’s way of walking, holding onto the wall.

Saul moved in the direction the Old Witch had gone, turning twice and passing several similar rooms before he finally saw sunlight ahead.

He actually walked all the way to the exit just like that?

And the opening in front of him had no door blocking it at all; it looked like one step out and Saul could escape this cage.

“Hey! Don’t test the Old Witch’s temper!” Oqili trailed behind, incredulous. He wondered how Saul could walk so fast without feeling dizzy.

Or did Saul have some way to counteract the poison in the nourishing soup?

Oqili’s eyes flickered, “Hey, believe me or not, if you dare to step out of that opening, the Old Witch will skin you alive and then have you continue doing experiments for her completely naked!”

“Naked like that?” Saul rolled his eyes and turned back to Oqili, “I’m not going out.”

Then he pushed open a door.

Near the opening, there were two rooms.

Saul opened the second room counted from the exit.

The door wasn’t locked, but as Saul was about to enter, a sudden flash of electric sparks appeared along the cross-section of the door and the wall.

Saul was zapped once; his extended fingertips blackened, but he didn’t panic and instead examined the surroundings.

Sure enough, there were magical runes etched on the top of the doorframe and the threshold.

Saul squinted and looked carefully for a moment, feeling this formation wasn’t difficult.

Even without the diary’s help, he was confident he could Solve it within half a day.

“Hmm… Is it that I lack experience or what? Why do I feel the wizards I meet in the Borderland have poor theoretical knowledge?”

Since the perfect body transformation experiment, Saul had noticed that neither the Old Witch, nor Oqili, and even Claude he met earlier, seemed to focus much on theory.

They were more into practice—like a bunch of street fighters who had fought their way through with real weapons.

It wasn’t that their strength was weak, but if they were asked to do precise, scientific research, their brains would overload.

Still, Saul didn’t underestimate the Old Witch at all.

After being zapped, he didn’t try to break the formation but stood by the door and called inside.

“Marsh! Are you in there?”

The white mushroom he drank had left him two messages.

One was a “I’m safe” signal.

The other was just the number “two.”

Saul didn’t know what that “two” meant, or if the mushroom hadn’t finished writing it.

But today, after seeing the second room from the exit, he wondered if “two” meant Marsh was locked in the second room?

Inside the room were some ordinary miscellaneous items — bottles and jars, shelves, and several wide-mouth urns stacked in a corner.

“Brother Saul, should I go in and check?” Penny, who was still in the diary, volunteered.

“Forget it. Although your existence is special, this is after all a Second Rank wizard’s base.”

Penny didn’t dare to appear in front of Gorsa, better not risk it here.

At that moment, an echo finally came from inside.

“Master? Is that you? Master?”

Saul followed the voice and locked his gaze on one of the urns in the corner.

Clusters of white mushrooms, about thumb-thick, grew abruptly out of the urn’s mouth.

The mushroom caps tilted and wobbled, spreading tiny spores.

Unfortunately, the spores hadn’t traveled far before they seemed to meet a flame and quickly ignited, turning to black ash dust.

“Master, I can’t get out.”

Saul’s mouth twitched, not knowing how to respond.

Though the urn was wide-mouthed, it was only half a meter tall and had limited volume.

Even if Marsh curled up, he couldn’t fit inside.

Unless there was a spatial magic formation inside.

But who would inscribe a spatial spell just to eat mushrooms?

Better not mention Marsh’s current situation for now.

“It’s me,” Saul replied, “Stay there and don’t move. I’ll take you with me when I leave.”

“All right, Master.” The urn shook slightly, then calmed.

There was nothing else useful in the room. After a quick scan, Saul closed the door and moved to the room closest to the exit.

But that room was locked.

Though Saul had several ways to open the “door tightly shut” magic, out of respect for the Old Witch, he gave up on exploring it for now.

There would be chances to investigate later.

Oqili, who had been following Saul, finally relaxed when he saw him return.

“Don’t worry, I was just looking around, I’m not thinking of running away.”

The two started heading back.

When they were near the lab again, Oqili suddenly whispered, “It’s not that you can’t have thoughts of escape, just that you can’t have them before you’re ready.”

Saul looked back silently; Oqili stared at him seriously.

[Agu: Looks like Oqili wants to escape but he isn’t ready yet.]

[An: Heh, the fox’s tail is starting to show~]

Though Saul seemed obediently locked up and diligently helping the Old Witch with experiments, he had his own plans.

Now that he was sure Oqili had plans too, he worried whether those plans might interfere with his own.

Saul lowered his voice and asked, “So, when is ‘ready’?”

“Do you know the term ‘approximate’?”

Saul nodded.

“In wizard ranks, there’s a similar term, like ‘approximately Second Rank,’” Oqili said seriously.

“Oh~ I see,” Saul suddenly understood, “So First Rank Great Perfection… right?”

(End of chapter)

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