Saul had acquired the complete soul body he needed, and the Old Witch had gained new material for her experiments.

But death was far from over.

“We’ll need to speed up a little,” the Old Witch said, scooping the remaining dwarf’s materials into a basin and placing them on the experiment table as well.

“Now, the final step of my perfect body modification… it’s just the fusion, isn’t it?”

Oqili didn’t dare say a word anymore.

“Yes, but this step might take longer than all the previous ones combined.”

“Then shorten it.” For reasons unknown, the Old Witch suddenly seemed anxious. “I’m giving you… three chances. The first is that useless wizard still locked in the cage. The second is—Oqili…”

Oqili jerked his head up, staring at the Old Witch in disbelief. But she didn’t look at him.

“And the third is yourself.”

Saul stared at the Old Witch’s face, guessing something must have happened.

“Alright.”

Saul lowered his head, looking at the dwarvf who had turned from living beings into raw material in mere moments. He made his face look a little paler, then silently took the basin.

“I understand. I’ll begin the fusion experiment now.”

The Old Witch didn’t look pleased that her threat had worked.

She simply frowned, sat in the corner of the lab, and without bothering to clean herself, began watching Saul’s experiment intently.

Oqili walked over to help Saul handle the materials, but as the two exchanged items, he deliberately paused for a moment, eyes fixed tightly on Saul.

Saul knew exactly what that look meant.

The Old Witch had suddenly imposed an almost impossible deadline. If they wanted to survive, Saul had to immediately start cooperating with Oqili—through continuous trial and error, they needed to strengthen their locators and ultimately raise their strength to peak First Rank, nearing the Second Rank.

Only then would they have a chance to create an “accident” and escape the Old Witch’s control.

At once, Saul began working with Oqili, tampering with the experimental materials right under the Old Witch’s nose.

Oqili’s modifications were minor, not enough to draw attention for now.

Then, he suddenly spoke up, citing a sluggish reaction as an excuse to request a tool from the Old Witch.

“At this rate, the reaction is too slow. We might not make it before the fusion fluid cools down. I believe we need the Baisec Magic Mirror.”

The Old Witch, who had been silently observing, didn’t immediately respond. Instead, she turned to Saul. “Oh? Is that so?”

Saul raised a set of materials he had just ruined. “I’m not familiar with the Baisec Magic Mirror, but as Oqili said, when combining dwarf and giant tissues, the fusion process is extremely slow. The fusion fluid often evaporates more than halfway before we can even add the third material.”

Of course, Saul had other ways to resolve this issue—but he needed to pretend he hadn’t thought of them, to play along with Oqili.

“I’ll go get it.” The Old Witch gave Saul and Oqili one more glance before slowly getting up.

Oqili deliberately explained loudly, “The Baisec Magic Mirror is a very dangerous magical tool. But it’s also very powerful. Its main function is to accelerate elemental particle reactions.”

By now, the Old Witch had stepped into the room next door.

Oqili quickly leaned in and whispered to Saul, “But its more powerful use is distortion and replication. I’ll be using the distortion ability. Make sure the Old Witch doesn’t notice the experiment isn’t actually accelerating.”

Saul gave a silent nod.

“How long have you been in the First Rank?”

“Not even a year.”

“…?” Oqili was surprised—Saul had been in the First Rank for even less time than he’d guessed. That meant his method of strengthening the locator would be incredibly risky for Saul.

But there was no need to tell him that.

“A bit short, but I believe your strength is up to par. These locator things vary from person to person.”

At that moment, they heard the Old Witch’s footsteps returning.

Oqili’s voice returned to normal. “I know you’re not good with this tool. I’ll demonstrate it for you first.”

Saul saw Oqili wink at him, knowing this so-called demonstration was likely a way to show how to enhance the locator.

“Alright.”

Just as Saul said that, the Old Witch walked in holding a mirror.

“This mirror is both extremely valuable and dangerous. Don’t go exploring its other uses out of curiosity, or you’ll lose your lives,” she warned coldly. “Don’t let your curiosity delay my experiment.”

With that, she removed the seal on the mirror.

The Baisec Magic Mirror was a full-body mirror, even taller than Saul.

Its golden frame was inlaid with rare gems, and at first glance, it looked just like a dressing mirror in some noble lady’s bedroom.

But as soon as the Old Witch lifted the seal, dozens of young girls’ faces appeared inside the mirror.

They banged on the inside of the mirror in terror, silently screaming with their mouths wide open, trying to escape—yet forever trapped within.

The Old Witch drew a symbol across the mirror’s surface with her finger, and the girls instantly vanished—replaced by her own reflection.

At first, the Old Witch in the mirror moved in sync with the real one, but soon, her expression and motions began to lag and gradually moved independently.

Unlike the frightened girls, the mirrored Old Witch was furious, slamming her fists against the glass.

Seeing this, the real Old Witch turned the mirror away from everyone, facing it toward an empty space.

“No more than one minute of direct exposure to a person. Even when it’s not reflecting people, the direction of the mirror must be changed entirely every ten minutes.”

She didn’t say what would happen if these rules weren’t followed.

But even if she had, it wouldn’t have made a difference.

Oqili had already made up his mind to go through with the enhancement.

After all, he was next in line to lie on the experiment table.

Saul dumped out the previous materials and scooped some fresh “dwarves” from the basin.

The two of them quickly began a new round of experiments.

But this time, due to the addition of the Baisec Magic Mirror, they had to stop periodically to adjust its direction.

However, after watching them for a while, the Old Witch noticed that they handled the mirror with great caution, clearly taking her warning to heart. She relaxed a little and no longer monitored them as closely.

Her gaze began to wander, as if deep in thought about something important.

It was during this lull that Oqili’s actions began to change.

He would deliberately adjust the mirror’s angle so that his arm or shoulder remained within its reflection range.

Saul, on the other hand, positioned his body or various instruments to block the Old Witch’s view of these subtle maneuvers.

Before long, Oqili’s exposure exceeded one minute. Sweat began to bead on his forehead.

If he hadn’t kept his back to the Old Witch the whole time, she would have already noticed something was wrong.

At around the three-minute mark, Saul suddenly stepped in and adjusted the mirror’s direction.

Oqili immediately shot him a sideways glare.

Saul subtly pointed at his throat.

Oqili instinctively touched his neck—and his face immediately changed.

A bulge was forming on his neck, faintly visible, as if a fist-sized tumor were about to emerge.

If that were allowed to grow any bigger, the Old Witch would notice instantly.

Oqili looked at Saul with a trace of gratitude in his eyes.

But Saul didn’t look back.

He was staring at the mirror.

Although it wasn’t facing him directly, through its reflection, he could still see the Old Witch sitting in the corner of the room.

When he squinted and focused, the grotesque, ugly figure of the Old Witch began to flicker, like a signal breaking up.

Saul stared at the flickering image, and finally caught a glimpse of the most abnormal frame among them.

In that briefest of flashes, he saw—not the Old Witch—but a young woman, battered and disheveled, yet eerily alluring in her beauty.

(End of Chapter)

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