Diary of a Dead Wizard-Chapter 399 : Radioactive Toxin

Gudo’s laboratory was huge, and he had quite a few apprentices under him.

When Saul entered, he found the place bustling with activity. It seemed that every apprentice with a bit of skill had been summoned by Gudo.

This was a scene rarely seen in Kaz’s laboratory.

Even if Kaz called all his apprentices into the lab, everyone would just focus on their own work, and any interaction between them would be minimal—one or two exchanges would already be considered a good relationship.

Unlike here at Gudo’s, it was like... a bunch of students crowding together to compare answers right after finishing an exam.

Saul’s arrival didn’t cause much of a stir.

He stood at the doorway, deliberately lowering his presence, then extended his mental energy to eavesdrop on the apprentices’ conversations.

No matter what element these people had originally majored in, after following Gudo, their research projects all seemed to involve toxins to some extent.

Take Keli, for example. She had been doing perfectly well studying metal properties, yet somehow got drawn into researching metal toxicity, and with a hint from Saul, she even managed to create radioactivity.

Keli was among the group too, at the very back of the room, enthusiastically mixing potions.

"The more she researches, the more addicted she gets," Saul silently griped.

While observing, Saul also noticed that Keli faintly had the air of a big sister among them.

Though she was only a Second Rank apprentice and hadn’t advanced to Third Rank yet, many people were obediently following her orders.

Wizards valued strength, and knowledge was a form of strength too.

As for someone with a status roughly equal to Keli’s, it was a Third Rank apprentice Saul wasn’t very familiar with.

That was odd, because Saul also spotted Billy sitting alone in a dark corner of the room, looking gloomy.

There were plenty of powerful Third Rank wizard apprentices in the Wizard Tower. Billy might not be the absolute top, but by Saul’s judgment, he was definitely among the top three.

So why was he now seemingly exiled, sitting alone in the shadows?

At that moment, the busy Keli looked up and finally spotted Saul standing at the doorway.

Actually, some others had noticed Saul before she did, but none of them dared approach—just quietly keeping an eye on him.

“How long have you been standing there? Why aren’t you coming in?”

“I saw Lady Keli busy, so naturally, I didn’t dare disturb you.”

Keli rolled her eyes. She knew Saul was joking and didn’t bother questioning why he had been standing there for so long.

“Come on in. We’re about to start making the adhesive to send to the mentor—you can watch.”

Without hesitation, Keli pulled Saul inside, completely ignoring the expressions on the faces of those who saw Saul. They settled at a workbench cluttered with materials.

“I’ve already talked to Master Gudo. He said you can follow me around, as long as you don’t purposely waste ingredients. I told him you wouldn’t—or I’d beat you up.”

While she was talking, Keli’s hands didn’t stop moving. She skillfully grabbed test tubes, beakers, crucibles, and began preparing a potion in front of Saul.

“What I’m doing now is optimizing the adhesive... sigh, the master didn’t even bother giving it a name. Just left it lying around. What if we need to optimize it again later? Are we supposed to call it ‘Re-optimized Adhesive’?”

Keli was clearly in a good mood, talking a lot more than usual. Even several wizard apprentices nearby were glancing over in surprise—including Billy in the corner.

“Then just call it ‘Better Adhesive,’” Saul played along.

“And if there’s a third optimization?”

“Superior Adhesive.”

“And a fourth?”

“Ultimate Adhesive.”

The two of them joked while completing the preliminary processing of the adhesive.

Finally, Keli held up a cup of bubbling, sticky fluid that really did look like glue and said, “Actually, what I picked up earlier was a semi-finished product. It takes a long fermentation process to get from raw materials to semi-finished goods—you can just read the notes for those steps. I trust you’ll understand.”

Carefully carrying the beaker, she led Saul toward the back of the room. Along the way, everyone they passed quickly moved aside.

Or rather, they were avoiding the beaker in her hands.

“I noticed a lot of toxic materials in the semi-finished adhesive you were processing?” Saul followed leisurely behind her, almost with his hands behind his back.

“Of course. Although it’s called an adhesive, you know what it’s really for—forcing soul and flesh to fuse together. It’s incredibly aggressive, so naturally, it contains a lot of toxic substances. If you haven’t seen them before, there’s a list hanging by the experimental bench you can check.” novelbuddy.cσ๓

Most of the materials Keli used were unfamiliar to Saul. Although he had read quite a few materials books besides Basic Knowledge of All Things, many items here were semi-finished products from secondary processing. There were so many that even the apprentices working here needed lists to keep track, lest they mix things up.

At the far end of the lab were two huge spherical glass domes. Both floated atop a metal control platform about the size of a table.

Complex magical formations were inscribed across the control platform. With just a glance, Saul recognized floating spells, as well as sealing, unlocking, and even explosive runes.

"This is basically a magic-type safe," he marveled silently.

The two spherical glass domes on the control platform differed greatly in size—one about a meter in diameter, the other no bigger than a soccer ball. Each contained a thumb-sized, irregularly shaped piece of bronze-colored metal.

Complex magic formations were also etched onto the surface of the domes. Because the engravings were on curved surfaces, the runes and patterns were visibly distorted—someone unskilled in sorcery formations might not even recognize what they were looking at.

Saul, however, had a good eye for such things and immediately realized this was an enlarged version of the Alpha Necklace formation Keli had given him.

Sure enough, Keli pointed first to the smaller dome.

“Alpha.”

Then she shifted her finger toward the larger dome.

“Weakened Alpha.” She shrugged—though her arm holding the beaker stayed steady, and added, “Yeah, I’m not great at naming things. You want to name it instead?”

“I’m no good at naming either. ‘Weakened Alpha’ is very straightforward.”

Keli glanced at him.

“Well, if you insist, let’s call it Beta.” Seeing her eyes start spinning mischievously, Saul hurriedly raised both hands, “No more names! I can’t keep up! Next thing you’ll have me calling them Shuke, Tom, and Jerry!”

“Fiiine,” Keli drawled exaggeratedly, giving up on making Saul name every single poison concoction she invented.

Then she turned around, still holding the bubbling beaker steadily, and called out loudly toward the room, “Opening the cover!”

Saul immediately had the vivid impression of a "tree falling."

He noticed several wizard apprentices around him reflexively stepping back two paces.

Those who were handling delicate work also paused.

Saul felt a chill run down his spine but forced himself not to retreat—after all, Keli was right in front of him. Instead, he focused his mental energy into his Soul Armor spell, ready to activate it at any moment.

Under Saul’s watchful eyes, Keli extended her pinky and traced an intricate pattern along the magical lines on the weakened Alpha dome.

The glass dome shuddered alarmingly, then quickly stabilized and turned red. Steam gushed from the top, seemingly part of a cooling process.

Keli swiftly pulled back her finger and inverted the beaker she was holding, fitting its mouth precisely over the spot where her pinky had stopped.

At that exact moment, a small opening appeared in the dome.

Saul now noticed that the beaker’s mouth wasn’t flat. When pressed against the glass dome, it perfectly matched the curve of the sphere.

Though tilted, the glue-like fluid inside the beaker only oozed down extremely slowly.

Meanwhile, Keli moved her pinky to another spot and started tracing again.

When she finished, the small opening quickly closed itself.

Keli waited a few more seconds, making sure there were no leaks, before lifting the beaker away.

Then she raised the seemingly unchanged liquid and shrugged at Saul. “No helping it—radioactive toxins are just that fussy to work with.”

(End of Chapter)