Diary of a Dead Wizard-Chapter 239: Item Exchange

Faced with Jero’s blunt retort, Haywood wasn’t angry at all.

“No? That’s good, then,” he chuckled.

That chuckle sounded a little strange—like two people laughing at the same time.

Jero, who had been shaking his leg, also stilled. He stared at Haywood across from him, eyes flickering nonstop, as if sparks of electricity danced within them.

“Is Jero a lightning-attribute apprentice?” Saul suppressed his habitual sensitivity to lightning, resisting the urge to shift his sitting posture.

The tension between Haywood and Jero caused a brief silence in the activity room.

In the end, it was Haywood who broke the deadlock.

He nodded slightly toward Lokai, “Apologies for the interruption. Please, go on.”

Only then did Lokai wave his hand dismissively, “Alright, I’ll continue introducing the other mentors.”

While Lokai spoke, Saul heard Jero mutter in a low voice beside him, “Hmph, thinks he’s got it down?”

Since Lokai was introducing the current projects of various mentors, the room once again filled with the subtle hum of discussion.

Jero’s voice wasn’t obvious amidst it all—likely only Saul and the other Second Rank apprentice sitting beside Jero could clearly hear what he said.

But Saul could guess what he meant.

He was accusing Haywood of deliberately or unconsciously imitating Tower Master Gorsa’s style.

As if this behavior was some kind of bootlicking.

However, Saul, who knew a bit about Haywood’s background, understood it was more likely due to an extreme admiration for Gorsa that had turned into mimicry.

Only, Haywood’s nature was fundamentally different from Gorsa’s, so the imitation came off rather poorly.

Out of the corner of his eye, Saul noticed the Second Rank apprentice sitting to Jero’s left shifting uneasily—probably still rattled by the earlier tension.

Saul straightened up and continued listening to Lokai’s presentation.

Mentor Gudo had recently started a new project, seemingly involving the study of a new kind of metallic toxin, and had recruited quite a few newly promoted Second Rank apprentices to help.

“This matches what Keli mentioned. Looks like she’s really making strides with her mentor.”

Lokai then went on to say that Mentor Monica was currently in seclusion, while Mentor Rum was still stuck on a bottleneck in soul infusion with no progress.

After sharing that, Lokai paused and turned his gaze toward Saul’s side of the room.

Finally, his eyes landed on the fidgety Second Rank apprentice two seats to Saul’s left.

“I don’t have any information about Mentor Kaz’s recent research. Huen, I heard you’ve been summoned by Mentor Kaz quite often lately. Mind sharing what your mentor is working on?”

Huen, already restless to begin with, nearly fell off his chair when called on.

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“I—I…” Huen stammered for quite a while but couldn’t get a full sentence out.

Lokai walked over, seemingly to comfort him, but the smile he wore was a little too bright.

“Huen, no need to be nervous. You don’t need to reveal anything your mentor told you to keep secret—just share what you can. This is your first time attending our exchange meeting, so you might not know: we’ve been sharing our mentors’ research topics like this for many years. After all, only by understanding our superiors’ guiding directions can we better conduct our own work, right?”

Lokai placed a hand gently on Huen’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry, our mentors are aware of this sharing practice. We never touch on information that’s off-limits. Everything I’ve shared so far—those are only things people don’t know because communication in the Wizard Tower is scarce and information gaps exist. As the largest apprentice organization in the Tower, it’s the Mutual Aid Society’s duty to take on the responsibility of information sharing.”

While Huen struggled internally, Saul was also thinking about Lokai’s real purpose behind this so-called information exchange.

That “to help our work” kind of official talk wasn’t worth believing.

It was much more likely Lokai was using this “casting a brick to attract jade” method to get the specific information he really wanted.

And Huen just might be the very target he aimed to extract something from this time.

Still, as a bystander, Saul was able to piece together quite a few useful bits of information.

Especially regarding the mentors’ research topics. Given that all these mentors were under the command of the Tower Master, and that the Tower Master currently seemed focused on resurrecting Lady Yura—it was only natural for Saul to make connections in that direction.

Mentor Anze was skilled in both earth and wood, and appeared to be focused on developing new composite materials.

Mentor Ram specialized in soul studies—especially on how to transplant different souls into other bodies and stabilize them.

Mentor Gudo studied toxins. But just because he studied toxins didn’t mean his intent was to harm others. Considering how Gudo often coughed up bits of human tissue, Saul suspected his research was more about using poison to counter poison, likely aimed at solving certain biological rejection issues.

Mentor Monica’s information wasn’t very valuable.

Still, Saul tried to make inferences. Electric shocks were often key triggers in many biochemical or soul-related magical experiments, so perhaps Mentor Monica’s role was more practical. She might also assist in the experiments of other mentors.

That left Mentor Kaz.

Although Saul was also Kaz’s apprentice, the spells and topics he was studying at the moment had almost no connection to Kaz’s current work. Naturally, he had no clue what the mentor was researching.

Just then, whether it was due to being convinced by Lokai or simply overwhelmed by the room’s atmosphere, Huen finally spoke.

“M-my mentor… he’s recently been studying the conversion between wraiths and ghosts. Seems like there’s been some progress… but I haven’t been directly involved…”

Lokai listened intently, nodding exaggeratedly. “Wow, conversion between ghosts and wraiths? That sounds really difficult! Is it one-way or two-way?”

Someone cut in.

“It’s obviously a ghost to wraith!”

The speaker was a female apprentice, admiring her crimson fingernails as she scoffed, “If wraiths could easily be turned into ghosts, that would solve a millennia-old problem. Our expeditions would be a lot safer without the most dangerous enemies around.”

She smirked with thinly veiled mockery. “I’d have to thank Mentor Kaz for that.”

“Mentor Kaz has had some ideas on turning wraiths into ghosts too! He just hasn’t started experimenting yet,” Huen quickly retorted, unable to stand the insult to his mentor.

But his outburst only drew more attention.

Before Saul could reflect further, Lokai’s playful voice interrupted his thoughts.

“Heehee, if we really could convert wraiths, then lucky us!”

He deliberately cut off the discussion. “As per tradition, let’s move on to the exchange portion. If anyone has items, secret information, or mission slots to trade, now’s the time. To keep things orderly, we’ll go clockwise starting from the door.”

Lokai looked at a certain apprentice seated by the door.

That apprentice had been completely uninterested during the information sharing session, but at the mention of item exchange, he instantly perked up.

Saul figured he’d deliberately chosen that spot at the door just for this.

Sure enough, as soon as Lokai pointed at him, the apprentice stood up immediately.

“I need a live specimen of a non-human intelligent creature. Dwarves, gremlins, plant monsters, sentient insectoids—any of those are fine. I have 2,000 magic crystals and 200 credits. Anything within that price range, come find me.”

The moment Saul heard that kind of money, he was tempted.

But after some thought, he realized he didn’t have any living intelligent creatures.

Only wraiths, ghosts, or elemental beings like Little Alga—none of them counted as live.

The room quieted down—apparently few people had any special-race live specimens.

Across the room, Kujin stretched his leg out and launched into mockery mode.

“That little cash and you dare ask for dwarves and gremlins? Maybe the latter ones, but double the price for the former at least.”

The apprentice being mocked pursed his lips and didn’t argue, instead casting hopeful eyes toward the others.

Just then, Wright suddenly spoke up. “I do have a shadow leopard mount. Kinda bored of it. If you want it, we can trade.”

(End of Chapter)