Diary of a Dead Wizard-Chapter 478: Sudden Loss of Control

Not long after, Saul walked out from another room where he had been meditating. The moment he looked up, he saw Ann clinging to a corner of the wall like a giant spider, while Penny was teasing her by occasionally approaching and backing away.

Off to the side, Agu and Little Algae were watching the scene with amusement.

Saul walked to the doorway and put on his outer robe. “Ann, I’m taking you outside the city to test your stability.”

“Yes, Master.” Ann leapt down from the corner. The translucent tail behind her, about three meters long, pressed against her back and then vanished.

The room Saul had rented was within the city, not exactly close to Bayton Academy, but leaving the city was still quite convenient.

This time, in order to test Ann’s stability, he planned to stay out in the wilderness for seven days.

It was broad daylight, yet the streets remained mostly deserted. Those who could move freely in daylight usually had some connection to wizards.

Saul asked Marsh to take them to the outskirts. For the next few days, they would be living and eating in the forest.

Marsh seemed delighted. Living in the city’s tall buildings always made him feel uncomfortable.

Once they entered the forest, the air instantly turned cool and damp. Saul asked Marsh to stop the carriage by the roadside, then took Ann with him into the woods.

Having left the city, Ann also felt at ease. As she walked deeper into the forest, she kept swinging her new tail, brushing it through the foliage on either side.

The leaves that were struck fell to the ground, already dried and blackened by the time they landed.

This was the scorpion tail stinger that Saul had specifically crafted, focused primarily on offense, so the residual contamination on it had not been completely purged.

Moreover, Saul wasn’t worried about prolonged exposure affecting Ann—he could recall Ann’s consciousness into the diary every few days.

The diary would handle a thorough purification.

The only caveat was that he had to remove the scorpion tail each time; otherwise, the diary would treat it as a contaminated impurity and absorb it.

“Master, you haven’t taken any wraith-cleansing missions lately,” Ann said, walking backward with her hands behind her back.

“I went out frequently some time ago mainly to gather more wraiths and search for a new meditation method. Now that I’ve achieved both, there’s no need to keep going out. Once your scorpion tail stinger proves stable and problem-free, I’ll consider crafting another soul weapon.”

In truth, Saul had another concern—he occasionally noticed certain changes in people.

These changes always made him feel like this place wasn’t as simple as it seemed.

But since he didn’t plan to stay here long, he wasn’t interested in digging into any hidden secrets.

The two stopped at a clearing.

“I’m going to cast a few Zero Rank offensive spells at you. Try your best to block them with your scorpion tail.”

The scorpion tail stinger, after all, was formed from soul fragments—it had no physical body.

It was naturally effective against regular people, but whether it could withstand spells from a wizard remained to be seen.

He needed to fully understand its strengths, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities.

They had never been to the Borderland, only heard it was extremely dangerous. Having more means of self-defense would be invaluable.

However, just as the test began, the ground beneath them suddenly shifted!

Ann was stepping back, preparing to twist apart Saul’s casually cast shadow spell with her tail, when she suddenly felt something tighten around her ankle.

As a consciousness body, her perception of the vessel wasn’t as sharp as a normal person’s. Instead, it was Saul who noticed the anomaly first.

A thumb-thick, pale-colored tendril suddenly burst from the soil and coiled tightly around Ann’s leg, yanking her downward.

The tendril constricted around her ankle, and the ground beneath her abruptly softened. Her entire lower leg sank straight into the earth.

At that moment, Saul hurled a Fireball directly into the ground.

With a loud “boom,” the compacted soil violently exploded. Plant roots and rocks scattered everywhere.

Dust covered Ann’s figure, but the blast gave her the chance to break free from the tendril’s grip.

But before she could retreat more than a few steps, more tendrils—identical in form—burst from another direction.

They seemed to have locked onto Ann, wrapping around her limbs and dragging her back underground.

This time, Saul clearly saw what was happening: the things emerging from the earth weren’t ordinary branches—they were the same root tendrils he had seen in the underground sewers.

But why were they targeting Ann? Was it a distraction tactic?

Saul immediately grew alert and cast Soul Armor.

But this time, he was wrong.

Because the root tendrils completely ignored him, only lunging toward Ann.

Ann lashed out with her scorpion tail, which she had grown quite accustomed to using. Yet she quickly realized that the tendrils were completely unaffected by the pollution carried on the tail.

The stinger, in its needle-like form, did little damage. Its real threat came from the lingering wraith corruption it delivered.

Yet somehow, the corruption had no effect whatsoever on the roots.

Saul, seeing that the roots had no intention of attacking him, was confused but quickly began preparing a spell.

These roots were powerful. Given the diary’s previous warning, Saul decided not to approach them directly. Instead, he prepared a Third Rank spell to destroy them.

Flame Arrow.

The root creature had strong resistance to dark-element magic. Saul worried that his Shadow Bind wouldn’t hold them, and might even aid them instead.

Though Flame Arrow wasn’t his primary element, and both its casting speed and power were lacking, it was still a potent offensive spell.

Especially against wood-element beings—fire was a natural counter.

By the time Saul’s Flame Arrow was ready, half of Ann’s body had already been pulled underground.

Saul recalled where the attacking roots had emerged from and fired the spell toward another patch of open ground.

The massive arrow, blazing with erupting flame, plunged underground in the blink of an eye.

Unlike the earlier Fireball, the arrow didn’t explode on impact. Instead, it concentrated all its kinetic and thermal energy directly on the target.

This was the hallmark of a Third Rank spell—greater energy with less waste.

A few seconds after the Flame Arrow struck, the earth began to tremble. The entire clearing and the trees around it shook violently.

The ground split open with several cracks, and a plume of black smoke seeped up from below.

Saul flew to Ann’s side, her body still half-buried. From behind him, Little Algae emerged and propped up Ann’s arms, pulling her from the ruptured earth.

But Ann seemed to have suffered some unknown attack—her eyes were tightly shut and her body limp.

“Ann? Ann?” Saul called her through the diary, but there was no response.

Just as Little Algae was about to hand the unconscious Ann over, her eyes suddenly snapped open.

Her eyes were pitch-black, and her mouth opened unnaturally wide. Her teeth rapidly elongated, creating a horrifying contrast against her otherwise cute and delicate face.

Saul’s hands immediately shifted from catching to restraining, locking her neck and shoulders to prevent her transforming mouth from getting any closer.

Yet a translucent scorpion tail had already arched over Saul’s back, aiming straight for his heart.

Saul glimpsed the powerful aura from behind and made no move to dodge.

But the scorpion tail never reached him. In fact, the moment it moved, it suddenly vanished.

At the same time, Ann—who had been furiously trying to bite Saul’s arm—went limp again.

Saul hoisted Ann over his shoulder and cast a wary glance at the ground below.

After he released the Flame Arrow, the underground creature had gone quiet. Even after he subdued Ann, there was no further movement.

Saul couldn’t gauge the true strength of the root creature. He waited in place for a while, confirmed there were no other ambushes, then carried Ann and hurried out of the forest.

Originally, he had planned to spend several days out here testing Ann’s tail for stability.

But once he sensed something was wrong—when Ann’s condition began to resemble a case of corruption-induced mutation—he didn’t hesitate. He immediately recalled her into the diary.

Naturally, the tail, being connected to Ann, was also retracted.

In the end, Saul had no choice but to carry a lifeless body back to the road.

Marsh had just lain down atop the carriage to nap when he saw Saul emerge from the woods with Ann on his shoulder, his expression dark as night. freёweɓnovel.com

He jumped down at once. “Master, what happened?”

Saul didn’t explain. He simply climbed into the carriage and said, “Head back.”

(End of Chapter)