NOVPUB
Chapter 102: 010: Teach you something you can’t learn from books
"Master!"
"No!"
"It’s over..."
As William Heim was consumed by flames, the undead servants he left behind also met their demise.
Skeletons collapsed, zombies fell, and wisps of ethereal blue soul flames surged out of their confined bodies. In the air, the flames twisted into distorted human figures that, amid eerie or agonized or relieved wails, were swept away by the power of plane rules, heading to the legendary Reincarnation Hell.
In a moment, the once-noisy castle descended into silence. Everywhere Lynch looked was a dense overlay of bones and decomposed corpses.
Shaking the sparse sweat off his hair, Lynch pulled out a space pocket, crouched down, and began collecting. These bones and corpses were no ordinary remains; they were refined undead materials, crafted with a wastefully large amount of precious resources. Their value was significant.
Avery stepped out and was stunned when she saw Lynch picking up bones all over the ground. "What are you doing?"
Without lifting his head, Lynch replied, "After killing people, of course, you gather some loot."
Saying so, he handed Avery a piece of a hand bone. "Want it?"
Avery rolled her eyes. "You are... incredibly ambitious!"
Then she turned and walked off in another direction.
Lynch asked, "Where are you headed?"
Avery replied, "Unlike you, I can’t see the hidden value in these scraps, so I’d better look for the treasure house or something."
A... treasure house?
"I’m coming!" Lynch quickly followed.
Looking at the unfamiliar surroundings around him, he asked, "Do you know where this guy’s treasure house is?"
Lynch hadn’t spotted any space rings or space pockets on William Heim, nor had he seen any living people around the ancient castle. The undead had dissipated, leaving no chances to resurrect corpses for interrogation.
Avery glanced at Lynch with a slightly smug look. "I thought you knew everything."
Lynch said, "I’ve never claimed that."
"Tch~"
Seeing him admit defeat so quickly, Avery found it rather dull but decided to explain things slowly to Lynch. "Let me teach you something that books won’t cover."
"The Haim Family belongs to a third-class Wizard Family, under the Water Spirit Star Position. According to the Wizard Family Convention, they can use silver magic patterns, and their living arrangements can follow the second official layout model."
"If their residence is three floors, the first floor will house servants, attendants, and guards. The second floor serves as the dining area and reception rooms, while the third floor is for the master’s bedroom, study, and other private quarters. The treasure house is also located here."
Lynch remarked, "How complicated."
Avery replied, "This is just the start. Wizard families adhere to a detailed convention, meticulously dividing everything from attire, daily living, to resources for cultivation. Specific ranks dictate the type of clothing, patterns, dining utensils, even the colors of the bed sheets in rooms."
Lynch was speechless. "You remember all that?"
Avery responded matter-of-factly, "Of course. Memorizing the Wizard Family Convention is a basic competency for every pureblood. If you wore the wrong outfit at a banquet, even a minor error in the pattern would lead to ridicule."
Pausing for a moment, she sneered at Lynch with a hint of mockery, "Muggle thinking might grasp knowledge, but certain things remain forever out of their reach."
As they spoke, she led Lynch up to the third floor.
"William Heim is a direct descendant of the Haim Family, ranking third in the household. According to the convention, his treasure house should be located in the third room on the third floor. But since he defected from the family, aligning with the reverse star position, the sequence would be flipped—making it the third room from the end... Here."
She guided Lynch to a doorway and pushed it open.
Suddenly,
A dazzling array of items presented itself to Lynch’s eyes.
The room was spacious, about the size of a basketball court, with neat rows of shelves. Bottles and jars filled with formalin-soaked eyeballs, brains, and various organs lined the shelves, resembling a biological laboratory.
Is this...
Modos’s eyeball?
And biological cells from a blue-skinned giant troll?
Wow! There’s even a complete set of high-level biological Petri dishes! This guy is outrageously wealthy!
Seeing the strange and rare materials and magical items on the shelves, Lynch was ecstatic. For any necromancy wizard, the items in this room were priceless treasures.
Even with just a quick glance, the value easily surpassed tens of thousands of magic stones—not to mention the rare materials that couldn’t be bought with magic stones...
"Disgusting!"
Avery frowned. While these items were invaluable to Lynch, they were utterly worthless to her as a wizard specializing in Light Attribute elements. She even found being in such an environment revolting.
She complained, "Necromancy wizards are all freaks. These disgusting things should be burned to ashes!"
Lynch’s eyes sparkled. "You just don’t recognize their worth."
Avery shot him a glare. "Be careful not to let the Frost Speaker hear that, or..."
She made a threatening gesture. "She’ll turn you into an icicle."
The Frost Speaker, one of the Seven Great Judges.
Rumor had it that she intensely disliked necromancy wizards.
Avery said, "I’ll wait for you outside."
These items held no interest for her.
Holding a jar of formalin-soaked brain, Lynch asked, "You don’t want to share any of this?"
Avery’s mouth twitched; she desperately wanted to slap him to death.
"Go to hell!"
She stormed out.
Lynch held up the brain, peering sincerely through the glass jar, musing, "Look how beautiful this brain is. If I boil it with some seasoning, it’d surely taste amazing!"
"!!!"
Avery bolted faster...
"Speedy, huh..."
Watching Avery sprint off, pale-faced from his teasing, Lynch wondered if he’d gone too far. But then again, she started the mocking—if she didn’t get a taste of her own medicine, she’d think he was scared of her.
Still, this brain... it wasn’t from a human or other creature, merely a normal pig’s brain, presumably for some experiment. Objectively speaking, it could indeed be used in hotpot.
Plus, it really is beautiful... the shape, the sheen...
"Tch-tch, what am I thinking!"
Lynch shook his head vigorously, shoving aside such absurd thoughts. No wonder people said a wizard’s character was influenced by their field of study. To avoid becoming a freak like William Heim, Lynch reminded himself to stay alert.
Knowledge should be wielded, not become a master to enslave its possessor!
Resolving to stay grounded, Lynch began his grand sweep.
After the battle on Ghost Island, Lynch had looted over twenty space pockets. Back on the ship, he organized his plunder, clearing out more than ten pockets ranging from three to five cubic meters in size.
Initially intended for selling later, they now served an early use.
He packed every organ, undead ingredient, and magical relic tightly into the space pockets. Specialized materials like undead dust and gray luminous stone were stowed in separate bags. At the far end of the room, Lynch also uncovered an even greater treasure.
Two bookshelves!
Necromancy Manual by Aldos
Bone Immersion
Corpse Preservation Manual
Brain Nerve
...
All related to necromancy, some even contained spell models. Lynch’s eyes gleamed with excitement.
Haha, new knowledge to grind!
And these were all resources on necromancy, a field underrepresented in the Shadow Tower. The repository of necromancy knowledge there was scarce, and the sum total of its library likely paled in comparison to what Lynch extracted from these two shelves.
A jackpot, truly a jackpot!
Like prized treasures, Lynch packed all the books and research papers into a dedicated space pocket. Not sparing even a scrap of drafts from the nearby experiment table, he swept it clean.
Like locusts ravaging a field, in mere minutes, Lynch emptied the vast hall. Only lesser items like the pig brain remained on the shelves.
These had limited value and could be easily sourced elsewhere. Better to save space for bones and corpses outside.
Just as he finished this, Lynch prepared to continue scavenging. But suddenly, a roar echoed from outside:
"You wicked witch, I’ll kill you!"
And then came the sounds of a fight.
