Saul carried Kismet out of the mushroom forest, then called for the giant bird and tied him to one of its long tentacles.

“This is not…” the weak Kismet protested, “the treatment an injured person should receive.”

“You should be grateful I didn’t throw you out.” Saul tugged on the tentacle in his hand. Sensing this, the giant bird immediately took flight with both of them.

Flying high in the air, Kismet seemed unable to withstand the strong wind pressure. His eyes rolled back and he fainted again.

Saul glanced at him and felt his heart sink.

He understood that probably only Ophelia had the ability to injure Kismet this severely.

Saul brought Kismet down from the tower top and handed him over to Steward Hope.

After a preliminary examination, Kismet was severely anemic and dehydrated.

“Indeed it was Ophelia. This fourth-rank wizard must have used the blood and fluids in Kismet’s body to do something. Could it be that Kismet’s so-called complete elimination of Clark actually involved asking Ophelia to intervene?”

So she would use Kismet’s blood to cast spells.

This way, the spell’s influence would be controlled to the level between second-rank and third-rank wizards.

It was just unfortunate for Kismet—tools never had good endings.

…

Three days later.

Since Kismet still hadn’t awakened, Saul softened momentarily and kept him in the Purity Wizard Tower, under the joint care of Agu and Steward Hope.

Saul himself continued his research after advancing to second rank.

On this day, he had already memorized all the precautions for advancement and completely stabilized the mental power that had been restless since entering second rank.

Now that he had some confidence in self-control, he returned to the fourth floor of the wizard tower, sealed the room, closed his eyes, and entered deep meditation.

The purpose of this meditation was to organize his spellcasting core—the ability he had comprehended from his locator.

Currently, Saul called it “Fate Lines.”

When Saul closed his eyes and the surroundings became silent due to magical sealing, only the sounds of heartbeat and breathing could be heard.

But as the meditation deepened, Saul gradually heard another sound.

It was the soft “rustle” of pages turning gently, as if sitting in a quiet, spacious library, silently reading the book before him.

If he continued deeper, Saul would see the Dead Wizard’s Diary located at the innermost part of his soul and consciousness body.

But his purpose this time wasn’t the diary.

Saul gradually turned his attention to himself, starting from nerve endings, gradually considering important internal organs, and finally converging on his brain, on his forehead.

Gradually, he finally saw again a semi-transparent white thread extending from his forehead.

Last time, he had grasped this thread and seen his possible future.

But this time Saul wasn’t in a hurry to observe his future. Instead, he slowly pulled his attention back along the thread, returning to his own body.

Then, he was shocked to discover that in the perspective of deep meditation, he had become a tangle of intertwined yet spacious light threads.

The ball of threads twisted and rotated, wound together, but hadn’t truly formed a dead knot.

“Intertwined glowing threads?”

Saul immediately thought of the meditation diagram he was currently using, where one of the patterns was indeed intertwined glowing lines.

“Does the fourth pattern on the Evolution Diagram represent fate lines?”

There wouldn’t be many wizards who could see fate lines, but Saul wouldn’t be the only one either.

Saul knew that some wizards were very skilled at prophecy.

Due to prolonged distraction, Saul suddenly jumped out of deep meditation, and naturally the tangled ball of threads before his eyes disappeared.

All Saul saw was his own chest.

“Hmm, I still can’t maintain stable deep meditation. I’ll observe once more then rest for a few days to avoid cognitive confusion.”

Saul entered deep meditation again, though he couldn’t help thinking, “All second-rank wizards gain extended abilities from their locators. The ability I gained isn’t for enhancing combat power. That’s fine, but is observing my future really its only function?”

Although this function was also very powerful, Saul always felt that fate lines couldn’t be that simple.

After seeing the white fate line again, Saul struggled to suppress his emotions, stopped his wild thoughts, and continued organizing his condition along his fate line.

The fate line exposed outside his forehead represented the future, but the fate lines hidden inside his body didn’t let Saul see his past.

It seemed to complement the Nightmare Butterfly’s abilities.

However, when tracing the fate lines within his body, Saul felt his mental power and magical power became more coordinated, and the tangled fate lines within his body shifted slightly, becoming more orderly.

But he hadn’t organized for long—probably just a few minutes—before Saul felt fatigue.

Moreover, feedback from his spiritual body told him that if he continued, he might even become too tired to lift a finger.

Saul decisively stopped and prepared to recover from deep meditation.

But when he shifted his attention from inside his body back outside, he discovered two more semi-transparent thin threads around his body.

Both threads extended up from the floor beneath Saul’s feet, circling around him without actually touching him.

One thread was also white but intermittent, looking like a hand-drawn dotted line.

The other thread was grayish-white with a granular texture that seemed wrapped in ice crystals.

Saul had seen other people’s fate lines before, but none were as special as these two before him.

“The wizard tower currently has only a few people with independent soul consciousness: Senior Byron, Kismet, and Camus.”

But counting this way, there was still one fate line missing.

“These two fate lines extending to me—do they also represent that their future fates will have many intersections with mine?”

Saul was somewhat curious about which two people these fate lines connected to, but his current state wasn’t suitable for touching other people’s fate lines.

Saul decided to rest first and try again tomorrow.

Then, as fatigue gradually deepened, Saul exited deep meditation.

He opened his eyes. The room hadn’t changed at all, and there were no signs of the sealing magic being disturbed.

Saul released the magical effect and sat back on his moderately firm mushroom bed.

“The ability gained from the Death Wizard Diary leans toward fate. Isn’t this closer to light attribute magic domains?”

Recalling his advancement path, Saul found that he seemed to be gradually changing from a wizard specializing in dark attributes to one focusing on souls and fate.

And such wizards often specialized in light attributes.

[Master.]

Morden, who had been staying in the diary without Soul Armament, left writing on the diary pages.

[You need not worry about specializing in elements.]

[Actually, specializing in a certain element is to help apprentices and low-rank wizards better determine their research direction, to avoid gradually losing their way in the vast ocean of magical knowledge and becoming polluted.]

[Although you are still a second-rank wizard, your research direction has stabilized. As long as you focus on this goal, even if you study earth attribute or metal attribute magical knowledge, there would be no problem.]

“My goal?” Saul actually didn’t have any particular field he wanted to research. He just wanted to use the Death Wizard Diary to become stronger quickly and safely.

Safety was a basic requirement.

And quickly… was often forced by circumstances.

Like now!

(End of Chapter)