Diary of a Dead Wizard-Chapter 183: Temporary Locator
Saul had no time to worry about Kongsha leaving the East Tower past eight. After overhearing her conversation with Heywood, he was incredibly curious about the relationship between the two.
One was the elusive Third Rank in charge of the First Storage Room, the other the most formidable Second Rank.
But from the way Heywood spoke, it seemed like both of them—and even Ivan—were just pawns to be discarded.
Saul gripped the cart handle tightly and looked at the bottle standing steadily on the shelf, the Whisper of the Elves resting inside. He had no idea what Kongsha had heard there.
On the way back, the branches once again displayed their ability to blur one’s sense of time. When Saul returned the bottle to the shelf, he thought ten minutes had passed. But when he turned to look at the hourglass clock on the wall, he realized only three minutes had gone by.
He stepped back to the long table and silently started counting the seconds in his mind. When he felt a full minute had passed and looked up again, only thirty-something seconds had gone by.
“Even after putting the Whisper of the Elves back, my perception of time is still off. But this distortion seems to recover gradually, and meditation can significantly speed up the process.”
It took Saul about an hour to fully recalibrate his perception.
He glanced at the shelf again, still unsettled.
“All I did was move a bottle and push a cart, yet my sense of time was distorted. I can’t imagine what kind of price Kongsha paid for that listening ritual. But aside from being emotionally downcast, she didn’t seem too affected. Is it because of the locator, or does she have another way of neutralizing the effects?”
This time, although there was no immediate danger, the subtle mental influence was no less alarming. If the Whisper of the Elves grew stronger, it might drive someone mad, trapped in a forever-stretching timeline.
It was now 9:30 p.m.—not yet time to rest, not yet time to lower his guard.
Saul pulled out the two locator schematics Kongsha had given him. After confirming with the diary that there were no major issues, he began to examine them.
After several days of research, he believed that both his out-of-body episodes and the strange dissolution of his physical form stemmed from irregularities in his mental body.
The cause of these abnormalities remained unidentified, but Saul had found a potential solution in the library on the 18th floor.
Though it was still only a hypothesis, unlike other apprentices and wizards, Saul could mostly verify such theories through pure thought—he didn’t face a high sunk cost.
Now that he had reached the Second Rank, Saul's routine mostly revolved around studying fundamental knowledge, sorcery, scripts, and researching the locator device.
He wondered if Lord Gorsa had sensed that something was wrong with his body, which might explain why he’d been brought to the 18th floor’s library.
Regardless, Saul had indeed found many books helpful to his current state.
Among them were pieces of knowledge and fragmented blueprints about locators. Combined with the two complete schematics he just received from Kongsha, Saul was now fully equipped to dive into the locator project.
However, unlike others, Saul had already been carrying a locator of sorts: his greatest reliance—the Diary of a Dead Wizard.
Despite the diary’s power, it had a well-known shortcoming: Saul couldn’t control it.
Except when communicating with the consciousness inside the diary’s black page—at which point it would obediently float in and out—the diary ignored his requests completely at other times.
The most crucial issue was that Saul still hadn’t discovered how his mental body connected to the diary.
He didn’t even know where exactly the diary existed—within his body, or soul.
As such, the locator experiment wasn’t going as smoothly as he had initially hoped.
“This isn’t something I can rush. For a Second Rank apprentice to ascend to Third Rank, they must not only meet the physical and spiritual benchmarks but also select and fuse with a locator. Even someone as capable as Kongsha has apparently been stuck on the fusion step for years.”
“But by the end of May, I’ll be leaving the tower to carry out Lord Gorsa’s external assignment. If my soul slips out then, it would be extremely dangerous.”
Though Saul could now return to his body in just six steps, enemies weren’t likely to give him even half a second to recover in a real battle.
With that in mind, Saul devised a temporary method to stabilize his spiritual form.
A temporary locator.
These were rare and highly valued even among advanced apprentices.
They served as a supplemental locator tailored to the wizard’s own, providing dual protection for the spiritual body and consciousness. Like carrying a riot shield over a bomb suit.
The protection might be limited in strength and scope, but it was better than nothing.
In times of mental disruption or contamination, it could further aid in recovery.
With his mind made up, Saul pulled out the doll he’d borrowed from Mentor Kaz’s lab—without having paid for it.
After some thought, he also placed a red candle on the desk.
Looking left and right, the vast amount of foundational knowledge and formulas he had studied over the past few days swirled in his mind. Then, Saul buried himself in the parchment and began sketching runes.
As he wrote and calculated, more and more materials were gathered on the table.
The yellowed sheets gradually filled with intricate spell diagrams and crafting formulas for magical apparatuses.
As the formulas began taking shape, Saul mentally simulated scenarios in which he’d use his self-designed temporary locator.
Each time, the diary would pop out—tirelessly, even gleefully—throwing cold water on his ideas… or molten lava.
Papers densely filled with writing piled up in the corner of the desk. When they grew into a small mountain, they eventually collapsed onto the floor.
Yet Saul remained focused, still hunting for the optimal solution.
…
A few days later, in a small town one settlement away from the Wizard Tower.
Storm clouds loomed over Samp Town, and strong winds howled through. Rain looked ready to pour at any moment.
Saul sat in a plain, unmarked one-seater carriage.
He wore a simple coarse shirt with a leather breastplate over it. His gloved arms—the most eye-catching part of his attire—added to his disguise.
At first glance, he didn’t look like a wizard apprentice. He looked more like a mercenary.
Just a bit short.
This mission was a special one—first, because it was issued personally by Tower Master Gorsa, who had warned Saul twice about the potential danger; and second, because Saul had his own goals.
After entering the town, the carriage began to slow.
Saul turned his head, using the flapping curtain stirred by the wind to observe the street outside.
Perhaps due to the coming storm, the streets were eerily empty.
Just then, the driver up front suddenly turned around and shouted, “Young Master, the road ahead is blocked!”
The driver was the same one who had taken Saul to Black Castle Forest.
After Saul returned to the Wizard Tower directly from Hanging Hands Valley, the driver had gotten word and rushed back a few days later.
Hearing Saul needed a carriage again, he had immediately volunteered. As soon as they left the Wizard Tower’s outer wastelands, he had begun respectfully addressing Saul as “Young Master,” subtly and cautiously expressing his gratitude.
Saul pushed the door open, and a gust of wind forced him to squint.
Up ahead, the narrow road was piled high with wooden barricades and sandbags. A sign flapped violently in the wind, marked in the common tongue: “Danger—Keep Out!”
“Is there any other path to reach our destination?” Saul asked, projecting his voice clearly to the driver.
The driver was about to answer when the swirling wind ripped his hat off, revealing a thumb-sized mushroom growing from the top of his head.
The little mushroom quivered violently under the wind, as if it might be torn away at any second.
Saul raised a hand and caught the hat, setting it back firmly on the driver’s head.
“Thank you, Young Master!” the driver called out, raising his voice over the roaring wind since he lacked the means for transmission spells. “There’s no other path. The manor we’re headed to is at the very end of this road, in the southernmost part of the town.”
(End of Chapter)
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