Diary of a Dead Wizard-Chapter 401 : Asking About Something
Saul couldn’t figure out Billy’s attitude anymore.
It seemed like he had hinted at friendliness toward Saul several times.
Back when there were only two escape slots in Grind Sail Town, Billy had killed Angela without hesitation, pulled a piece of gray stone from her body, and left first.
Looking back, Angela was probably the vessel Billy had prepared for himself. Yet, before he finally made his move, Billy had gone to great lengths and paid heavy costs to protect her.
It could be said that Billy ultimately abandoned Angela only because he didn’t want to conflict with Saul.
And today, Billy had even secretly warned Saul not to get too involved in things, in case he ran into danger.
“Could it be that Billy and Lokai’s group aren’t on the same side?” Lying alone on the single bed in the Second Storage Room at night, Saul pondered the meaning behind Billy’s words. “Or maybe it’s just an act to win my trust?”
Saul’s heart was full of wariness toward Billy. No matter how much Billy tried to show goodwill, Saul could never truly trust him.
"Brother Saul, are you ready?"
Penny flapped her silver wings and landed lightly on Saul’s forehead.
Tonight, they were going to start their Dreamscape Drifting from the Second Storage Room.
For the past few days, Saul had been Dreamscape Drifting next door to Senior Byron’s old dorm, hoping that proximity to the incident site might help him find Byron... or his soul.
But after several days, he had found nothing with the same mental fluctuations as Senior Byron’s soul. And almost every dream he entered was different from the last.
This made Saul realize that dreams might not behave as he had originally assumed. They might not be influenced by physical proximity.
So tonight, he decided to change his starting point. If that still didn’t work, he would try even more unusual places.
Places where soul traces were denser.
Searching for someone with no leads was just like this. You couldn't even be sure if you were heading in the right direction.
But it was the only thing Saul could do now.
Even if he asked the Tower Master for help, the other party likely wouldn’t be able to do anything.
Even if Gorsa truly could monitor all movements in the Wizard Tower through the misty people inside it, he probably couldn’t detect a soul.
Besides, given Gorsa’s current physical state, he certainly wouldn't waste his energy on an apprentice he didn’t care about.
And worse, it might even expose the fact that Byron could still be alive.
Of course, deep down, Saul had another vague worry: it was possible that the one who killed Byron was actually Gorsa himself.
Because when Gorsa talked about Blue Water Soul and Gray Matter, he had shown a suspicious level of understanding about their formation and structure.
“Let’s begin.”
Pushing aside the unease in his heart, Saul closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, he was still lying on the single bed in the Second Storage Room.
But when Saul sat up, a pair of silver, metallic wings had sprouted from his back.
Saul stood up, and with a powerful flap of his wings,
whoosh
The scene before his eyes stretched out and flowed behind him like endlessly drawn-out colored clay.
In the blink of an eye, Saul found himself in a pitch-black space.
"It’s so quiet here."
Most dreams lacked sound, but even so, Saul could feel an indescribable, profound silence within this darkness.
It was pitch-black, with no light sources at all.
Saul reached out his hand and could clearly see his own body.
But it wasn’t because he was glowing. It was simply that, in his dream, he knew of his own existence and form.
Beyond his own body, however, Saul couldn’t see anything else here.
Although he couldn’t see anything, he could still sense that this was a very complex dream.
As his mental energy spread out, he could detect countless fragmented spiritual shards, like pieces of stone.
"Too shattered. Even a single person, or a single wraith, shouldn’t have such broken consciousness."
Dreams could reflect many things. They were both illusory and real.
But something about this first dream felt wrong.
"Could it be that I’ve entered a wraith’s dream? Gorsa said there shouldn't be any wraiths inside the Wizard Tower, but nothing in this world is absolute. Maybe one slipped through?"
Even though he couldn’t be sure what kind of existence this was, Saul knew this wasn’t Byron’s dream.
He stayed alert, scanning the dark surroundings, and decided to flap his wings and leave this strange, unknown place.
However, just as he was about to issue the mental command to act, a sound interrupted him.
No—
It wasn’t a sound. It was a chaotic jumble of noises suddenly erupting next to Saul’s ears, fine and disorderly, making his brain feel groggy and heavy all at once.
"Someone’s come in again."
"Why do people keep coming in lately?"
"As punishment, let’s eat him!"
"Heeheeheeheehee..."
"Bunch of idiots, you can’t eat him!"
"Why not?"
"Because we’re dreaming right now!"
"Oh, so we’re dreaming, heeheeheehee..."
"But we can dream of eating things too!"
"Somebody turn on the light!"
"Idiot, you don’t have eyes, what’s the point of turning on the light?"
"Let me have a lick and see if it’s a tasty soul~"
Saul, fighting the dizziness, stared alertly into the darkness.
Ordinarily, he should have immediately fled at the first sign of danger, but for some reason, something about what these voices were saying felt oddly familiar.
He hadn’t heard these exact words before, but somehow, it was as if... he had experienced something very similar.
Then Saul noticed a small fragment of a soul slowly approaching him, and strangely, he didn’t feel threatened.
Instead, he had the gut feeling that whatever was approaching him was weak.
It was pure instinct, without any logical reason.
The next second, Saul felt something… something that seemed to lick the back of his hand.
There was no saliva, just the dry, rough feeling of a coarse tongue.
Before Saul could react, the thing that had licked him suddenly screamed.
"Ah—ah—ah—the Demon King is back!!!!!!"
The air fell silent for a split second.
Then an even more chaotic and piercing series of screams erupted all around.
"Ah!!!! Save me! The Big-Mouth Monster is here!"
"Ah!!! I don’t want to be eaten! I don’t want to be eaten by the Octopus Monster!"
"Uwuuwu, today’s a nightmare! Wake up, wake up, right now, immediately!!"
Along with the ear-piercing noise, Saul could feel the surrounding soul fragments frantically scattering away.
Only the one that had licked him stayed trembling in place.
From its shivering spiritual fluctuations alone, Saul could tell just how terrified it was!
Saul slowly blinked.
Suddenly, he knew whose dream he had entered.
Or rather, which group of creatures he had stumbled into.
These noisy, chattering beings were very likely the same mouths, the soul mouths, that had once dragged his disembodied soul into the candle ducts, intending to divide him up and eat him.
Back then, after being bitten painfully by those mouths, Saul had retaliated by transforming his soul form into a giant octopus, chasing after the mouths and swallowing them one by one!
In the end, they must have been so frightened by him that they shoved him out of Mentor Kaz’s lab garbage can.
"You’ve gotta be kidding me. You guys attacked me first! And now I’m the Demon King? The Octopus Monster?"
To confirm his guess, Saul reached out and grabbed the trembling soul fragment.
He immediately felt something soft and fleshy in his hand.
Guessing it might be a mouth, he reached out his other hand, grabbed what he thought was the corner of its mouth, and gave it a shake, like shaking down a thermometer.
"Uwuuwu, please don’t eat me... blurgh... getting dizzy, getting dizzy..."
Saul felt both surprised and amused.
In the real world, these fragmented souls were chaotic and senseless, but here in the dream, they could actually think... albeit stupidly.
He withdrew his hand and brought that "mouth" closer.
"I want to ask you something. If you don’t know... I’ll eat you. Thanks."
(End of Chapter)
