Diary of a Dead Wizard-Chapter 485: The Bed Sheet

Before beginning the transcription, Saul handed the parasitic magic he got from Lokai directly to Shaya.

Shaya didn’t waste time. He spread open the scroll inscribed with the space teleportation formation in front of Saul, then immediately lowered his head to examine the new magic.

Saul, meanwhile, retrieved a chair and writing materials from his storage device and began transcribing with rapid calculations.

He wasn’t just copying; he also wanted to use this opportunity to fully analyze the structure of the original space teleportation formation.

Across from him, Shaya also focused intently on the parasitic magic Saul had given him.

As for how well Saul would manage to transcribe the formation, Shaya didn’t care. He didn’t believe Saul could decipher the structure of a space teleportation formation anyway. In fact, he even doubted that Saul could manage to copy the entire formation.

But since their exchange was already complete, whether Saul could transcribe it all was no longer Shaya’s concern.

And so, Saul spent an entire day and night at Shaya’s villa. During this time, he sent out the Nightmare Butterfly to discreetly scout Shaya’s residence.

Except for a few heavily guarded areas, Penny managed to explore nearly the entire place.

This Shaya was clearly terrified of death—nearly every room was rigged with traps and concealed formations. Just maintaining the daily operation of these formations would cost a fortune in magic crystals.

The next day, just as the agreed time for transcription was about to expire, Saul suddenly stood up from his chair.

He carefully folded a piece of paper and stored it away, then raised a hand and incinerated the pile of discarded drafts that had built up beside him.

Shaya, who had been engrossed in the notes, was startled by the movement.

He looked in surprise at the ashes beside Saul, then glanced at the clock above them. Confirming that there was still over an hour left before the deadline, he asked, “You… you’re done?”

Shaya stood up as well. He had been sitting cross-legged on the floor the whole time.

“Finished,” Saul replied, packing up his table and chair once more. He glanced at the notes in Shaya’s hand. “I won’t take up any more of your time, Wizard Shaya.”

With that, Saul bid farewell to a still somewhat bewildered Shaya and left the villa.

On the way back, he sat in the carriage, gazing at the formation he had just transcribed. Though he tried to keep his lips pressed tight, the corners of his mouth couldn’t help curling upward.

With the help of the diary and a full day and night of concentrated effort, he had actually managed to fully analyze the space teleportation formation on the scroll!

Ordinarily, this kind of magic formation could only be deployed by Second Rank Wizards, but Saul’s mental strength was extraordinarily powerful—he could give it a try.

“To construct this formation, I’ll still need a few materials… Hmm, might as well get them from Shaya.”

Although Saul had given Shaya the parasitic magic obtained from Lokai, if Shaya wanted to conduct experiments soon, he would need to cultivate suitable parasites.

Even though Bayton Academy had gathered many wizards and apprentices, from what Saul had observed, no one specialized in breeding parasites.

Which meant Shaya would likely need to spend considerable time and effort just finding the right kind of insect.

Saul, however, already had ready-made parasites.

Back when he absorbed Lokai’s soul, Saul had asked him who else had been implanted with parasites. After confirming the list, he also collected the remaining materials Lokai had stored in the Wizard Tower.

Among those items were uncultivated parasites.

Saul could take a few and trade them with Shaya for the materials needed to set up the teleportation formation.

This way, apart from Shaya, no one else would be able to deduce that Saul possessed the ability to construct such a formation based on the materials he was gathering.

As for Shaya, he had hidden the formation so carefully in the first place, so naturally, he wouldn’t go around telling others that Saul had it too.

Otherwise, even if they had previously agreed not to reveal that Saul possessed a space teleportation formation, people could easily guess that Saul got it from Shaya.

For a cautious and death-fearing wizard like Shaya, leaking Saul’s secret would gain him nothing and put him in unnecessary danger.

Saul, overjoyed, returned to his temporary residence and immediately, as promised, sent someone to keep watch over the girl named Yitz living downstairs.

That girl was already showing some strange signs. Following her might lead him to the wraith that had been turning ordinary people into charred corpses.

But what Saul didn’t expect was that before anything happened to Yitz, something strange found him first.

That night, utterly exhausted from transcribing the formation, Saul decided to sleep well and recover.

But just as he lay down on his comfortable bed, he heard strange sounds coming from underneath.

“Clack clack clack clack…”

“Rustle rustle rustle rustle…”

Saul sat up abruptly.

His hand pressed on the mattress—only to realize the once firm-yet-soft bed had suddenly become uneven and lumpy. freёwebnoѵel.com

Looking down, he saw that the once-pristine white bed sheet was now covered in countless human faces with blurred features!

These faces seemed to be growing out of the mattress, barely hidden under the sheet, their features faintly visible through the fabric.

Saul leapt off the bed, conjured a ball of fire in one hand, and yanked off the sheet with the other.

But just as he was about to hurl the fireball, he saw that the mattress beneath was clean and flat—no faces to be seen.

And yet, the strange noises continued.

And they were coming from very close by.

Saul looked down at the bedsheet in his hand, now lying limply on the floor.

But its shape was odd.

It looked as if… someone were lying underneath it.

Saul’s heart skipped a beat. A black tentacle burst from his palm, lashing tightly around the bedsheet.

But after ripping it apart, there was nothing beneath—only empty air.

“Rustle rustle rustle rustle…”

The strange rubbing noise now came again—from under the bed.

Saul frowned and stepped forward.

But just as he moved, he suddenly felt like he’d fallen into a deep, shadowy pond.

His lungs screamed from lack of air, as if he hadn’t breathed in ages.

In the icy cold water, something was brushing against his limbs, keeping him from spreading his arms to swim.

Above his head was a faint white glow—the water’s surface didn’t seem far.

Saul kicked desperately, trying to float upward.

Something had wrapped around his legs, pulling him back, not letting him go. Saul wanted to look down, but his suffocating need for air forced him to focus on breaking the surface first.

His arms and legs were bound; he could only stretch his neck upward, trying to take a breath.

Finally, his head broke the water’s surface.

Just as Saul opened his mouth to gasp for air, the suffocating sensation abruptly vanished, but something was covering his face.

It was a white bedsheet.

At the same time, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed hundreds—maybe thousands—of people crowded around him.

They were all just like him, necks craned, mouths wide open, struggling to breathe, but with sheets covering their noses and mouths.

Then, through the fabric, Saul saw a flicker of red swaying gently from one side.

Suddenly, he realized what it was, and his heart froze in terror.

“Penny!” Saul shouted in his mind.

“Saul… big brother…”

Penny’s reply echoed faintly in his ears like a voice drifting from a mountain valley.

In the next second, the red glow beneath the sheet began moving toward him. The air grew hot and dry, and the bedsheet began to yellow and warp from the heat.

“That’s not right… I didn’t…”

Saul, pinned by the bodies around him, couldn’t move his arms. His eyes strained to the corners, locking onto that red glow.

“Penny!”

At his second shout, Saul’s body suddenly vanished from beneath the scorched bedsheet!

When he next opened his eyes, he found himself curled up in a tight space.

All around him was white, and the floor beneath was one he recognized.

He raised his head slightly, hearing the fabric around him rustle strangely.

Then Saul saw the white cloth above him gathering in one place, forming a heap.

Its folds looked just like… someone’s hand, gripping from the outside…

(End of Chapter)