Saul and Brando ultimately couldn’t reach an agreement, and the latter had to leave disappointed.

Jiajia Gu stayed behind to continue trading with Saul.

However, because he had brought Brando, which might have displeased Saul, Jiajia Gu deliberately lowered some prices.

While selecting goods, Saul asked Jiajia Gu, “Has something major happened in the Borderland recently?”

Jiajia Gu told Saul that dangerous areas were being investigated everywhere. On the surface, they claimed to be creating a code of conduct for the Borderland, but Jiajia Gu felt they were searching for something. He just didn’t know what.

The three third-rank wizards seemed to want to unite in action. Wind Sprite and Firefly Lord, who had previously had conflicts, had also temporarily set aside their grudges.

“Third-rank wizards are all searching for something, and this thing might appear in every dangerous area. They only know it exists but don’t know where, so they can only use the most stupid method of elimination.” Saul stroked his chin, muttering to himself, “Why does this feel like some kind of prophecy?”

His expression gradually became serious. “If it really is something that makes third-rank wizards willing to expend manpower and resources to find it, the prophecy’s content is probably either something extremely precious or some extremely terrible disaster.”

Saul smacked his lips. “I really hope it’s the former.”

After completing the trade, Saul performed pollution cleansing for Jiajia Gu one last time.

From now on, as long as Jiajia Gu properly used the substitute doll Saul had made for him, he wouldn’t be entangled by the pollution in the huge pack behind him.

Of course, besides the pack, there were many other pollutions and dangers in the Borderland, which weren’t within the substitute doll’s protective range.

Saul returned to the wizard tower and saw Noah coming down from the second floor with the butler.

Noah still had traces of alarm on his face. While going downstairs, he kept looking back and almost fell, but was caught by the prepared butler who grabbed his collar and set him on the ground.

“Lord Saul.”

Seeing Saul returning from outside, Noah couldn’t help but run forward.

This Noah had been artificially matured and experienced much despair and danger. But his original age might not even be ten years old.

After living in the wizard tower for two days, his inherent liveliness gradually returned.

“Lord Saul, I just went with Mr. Hope to see your laboratory on the third floor. So amazing!”

Noah had previously only thought about how powerful wizards were, how dangerous their magic was, how bizarre their behavior was.

So his desire to become a wizard apprentice was more of an admiration for strength.

But after seeing Saul’s (surface) laboratory, he realized that what wizards truly studied was knowledge.

And only knowledge was something that made people go forward successively, work day and night, and become fascinated by it!

Although Noah still couldn’t understand it now, that magnificent world fascinated him.

“Lord Saul, can I really learn magical knowledge with you?” Noah looked up. Though his face was pale, his eyes were full of light.

Saul had originally wanted to ask whether he wanted a stable but brief life, or a dangerous life full of arduous tasks but possibly even shorter.

But now it seemed Noah’s choice was already obvious.

“It seems you’ve already made your decision. But I still must warn you that after becoming an apprentice, you might encounter many dangers and perhaps die in a monster attack the very next day.”

“Yes, sir. Mr. Hope has already told me.” Noah thought for a moment, then knelt down with a “thud.” “Perhaps because I’ve died once, I’m no longer so afraid of death. Instead, thinking that if I died without ever glimpsing the magical world you’re in, that would make me very, very, very scared.”

“Please accept me. I will definitely study hard and desperately complete the tasks you assign!”

Saul raised his hand, and an invisible force helped Noah up.

“No need for that. Just call me master directly.” Saul had the butler teach Noah the etiquette between wizards that evening, then led him up to the wizard tower’s top floor.

Noah had only been living on the wizard tower’s first floor these past two days and had just visited the third floor. Now following Saul to continue upward, he was full of curiosity and excitement.

When he reached the wizard tower’s top floor, he discovered that from the inside, the circular platform at the tower top was actually surrounded by a huge transparent barrier.

From outside, there seemed to be nothing at the tower top.

But from inside, one could see a huge cube.

Taller than Saul, and even with arms stretched wide, he couldn’t touch the edges.

This cube was entirely dark iron-colored. Looking closely, it wasn’t smooth like iron but seemed to be covered entirely with uneven small particles.

“Don’t stare at the patterns on it,” Saul warned. “Those are blurred magical arrays. If you stare at them, your eyes will be sucked in.”

Noah was startled and quickly looked away. “Yes, master.”

Saul led Noah around to the other side of the cube.

On this face of the cube wall hung a headless corpse.

The corpse’s upper body had been stripped bare. Its hands and feet were positioned diagonally.

Looking closely, there were no nails or chains on this corpse—it seemed to be adhered to the cube.

Saul stepped forward, suddenly having a small knife in his palm, and lightly cut one of the corpse’s arms.

The skin and flesh separated, revealing the pale muscle texture inside.

Within the flesh were faintly visible black and brown impurities.

Then black tentacles extended from Saul’s neck, directly lifting his entire body onto the cube.

From Noah’s angle, he couldn’t see what was on top of the cube, only seeing Saul crouch down and reach in to stir something like stirring water.

When he withdrew his hand, his palm was covered with a layer of black viscous liquid.

The liquid kept sliding downward, but when it slid halfway, it suddenly jumped upward and grabbed Saul’s wrist.

Like a hand that, while falling, suddenly jumped up to grab Saul.

Saul’s expression didn’t change as he gently shook his wrist. The black liquid ultimately fell back into the cube’s interior without even making a splash.

Saul jumped down from the cube again and spread his palm for Noah to see.

“I’ll give you a month to learn some specialized knowledge. After a month, I’ll send you to a sparsely populated place to collect these black particles.”

In Saul’s palm was a layer of fine black particles that looked like sand, but when Saul’s finger rubbed them, they immediately became even finer powder.

“I temporarily call this thing black magic powder. I’ll teach you methods of identification and collection, leave you some survival necessities and one of Little Algae’s offshoots.

Your main task then will be collection and trying to stay alive. I can’t accompany you all the time, but I’ll come check on you periodically and guide your studies.”

Noah nodded repeatedly. He stared at the black powder in Saul’s palm, vaguely feeling this thing was very magical while also seeming extremely dangerous.

This made his heart pound, not knowing if it was fear or excitement.

Saul collected all the black magic powder in his palm into a small bottle with a seal.

Then he handed the bottle to Noah, having him become familiar with his target throughout his upcoming studies.

Noah carefully received the bottle, grasping it with both hands and holding it to his chest, looking very treasuring.

“Then next,” Saul thought about personnel arrangements, “you should first learn the wizards’ common language with Agu.”

(End of Chapter)

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