For Sauron, these words were quite devastating.
[Corruption: 0.002%]
Along with the sudden increase in corruption, there was also palpable anger and killing intent radiating from the deep shadow in the center of the flames.
A scorching sensation seeped through the stone into the room, illuminating it with unnatural brightness.
Whispers constantly emanated from the shadow, trying to climb into Levi's mind like invasive parasites.
And Levi actively leaned his ear closer, finally understanding the meaning of those malevolent whispers:
"You will meet death."
[Corruption: 0.031%]
"Is that so? That's not particularly bad. After all, in my view, whether living or dying, both are much better than being half-dead like you."
Thud!
A heavy pressure suddenly assaulted his consciousness, shadows spreading in his heart, striking like a supernatural hurricane, tearing at his reason with invisible claws.
Levi's breathing suddenly became much more labored, even somewhat difficult to manage.
However, the inner flame didn't extinguish due to the darkness's harassment but instead became more resilient and tenacious, impossible to scrape away.
"I will find you, then kill you."
The evil and filthy declaration echoed in his consciousness like a curse.
"You cannot kill me."
Levi responded to it with quiet confidence.
Flash!
The shadow in the stone disappeared abruptly, and no more images appeared.
Levi's eyes flickered as he stepped back, feeling slightly weightless and disoriented.
[Corruption: 1%]
"I'll help you!"
Saruman raised his staff to strike down, the weapon whistling through the air with obvious intent.
Clang!
It was unclear whether it was the sound of metal meeting metal or wood colliding with wood.
A plain wooden staff blocked in front of Levi, the pipe hanging from it still swaying from the shock of impact.
"Gandalf."
Saruman called out with considerable displeasure.
"No need. He hasn't been corrupted."
Gandalf smiled, slowly moving Saruman's staff aside and steadying Levi with gentle support.
"How are you feeling?"
"Fine. Thanks to your help, it's not a big problem."
"Not a big problem? I'd say it's a huge problem. You've completely enraged Sauron. He'll definitely try to retaliate. You'd better be extremely careful recently."
"After all, Sauron's dark magic is always hard to guard against. Who knows when it might sneak up on you."
Gandalf hadn't forgotten that magic was Levi's primary weakness.
"If anything goes wrong, remember to go to Rivendell or the Golden Wood. There are people there who can help you."
"Or if that doesn't work, go find Radagast. He might have some solutions too."
"And me."
Saruman put away his staff and naturally stepped forward: "You can also come find me. I'd be happy to help."
Gandalf nodded with trust.
He still believed in Saruman's good intentions.
But Levi didn't consider this a priority option.
If he sought out Saruman, he might truly help, but it probably wouldn't be free.
"Alright, alright, understood."
While agreeing verbally, Levi covered the palantír again, ending this dangerous topic.
Too dangerous.
It was only because he'd spent these two years running around Middle-earth, experiencing enough events and having his will somewhat tempered through trials.
If this had been when he first arrived in this world, it might have been even more perilous.
The purpose of using the palantír had been achieved, and this matter came to an end.
Under Saruman's inexplicable regret, Levi came to the library on both sides of the tower, searching through the book titles on shelf after shelf, looking for things that might trigger some new discoveries.
"What do you want to read, Levi? I've been here for some time and have some memory of the books here."
Gandalf volunteered to serve as a guide.
"About magic."
"Magic?"
"There are quite a few of those. Let me think... over here."
A moment later, in front of a towering bookshelf, several stacks of books were piled on a table. Levi looked up and down at the titles, feeling his scalp tingle.
These titles alone could compile a small booklet.
"Alright... I'll read."
From this day on, Levi lived directly in this enormous library, reading books day and night without apparent rest.
Gandalf, serving as guide, also read books with Levi for several days, but after confirming there were no new conflicts between Levi and Saruman, he departed.
"Time waits for no one. I must continue my journey."
This Gray Wizard never had idle moments.
Several more days passed like this, with little activity in the library.
During this time, Saruman came once. He felt somewhat puzzled by this guest who, once he started working, would go without sleep or rest.
"Do you truly not need sleep?"
"I don't want an extra corpse in my tower."
He issued a warning to Levi.
"Mind your own business."
Levi couldn't be bothered to explain to him.
Saruman gripped his staff tightly, turned, and left, never coming again.
But outside the library, he called over a servant:
"Go watch him. Don't let him die in there."
If such a prominent figure died in his tower, it would bring many troubles. Even if he didn't do it, he'd be considered involved.
That would be impossible to clear up even jumping into the Bruinen.
Not minding Saruman's little schemes, Levi continued his research.
These days, Levi's book reading made him scratch his head in frustration.
Unlike what he'd expected, most of these so-called 'magic-related' books were history books or some legendary stories, plus poetry.
The content was chaotic, covering almost every era.
One even recorded a mysterious person living deep in the Old Forest of the Shire...
The variety was comprehensive, but none were useful.
Not one taught magic or recorded any craft. The few related ones are mixed in with large amounts of humanities and general knowledge, with pitifully little substance. Or rather, even that little substance was mentioned in passing while describing the humanities and history of certain places.
Unwilling to give up, Levi continued staying in the room reading.
But even after finishing all those thick and thin volumes, he couldn't figure out anything significant.
But it wasn't entirely without gain.
Among these books, two had Saruman's annotations, where he'd noted some of his own inspirations. Many of these characters mentioned certain research he was conducting.
And this research was related to the 'elements' that composed the world's essence.
Unfortunately, these were just things casually jotted down, none containing real substance. The essence of Saruman's research was probably all in his private laboratory...
It seemed he'd have to make a trip to find him.
"Sigh..."
Sighing, Levi stood up, dusted himself off, pushed open the door, and walked out.
This push startled a servant who was dozing by the door.
He quickly greeted Levi, then hurriedly left.
Not minding this servant, Levi walked up the stairs step by step, observing the tower's internal structure as a way to relax.
It had been quite a while since he'd stood up.
Looking up and around, even Levi had to sigh with appreciation. There really were a lot of books here.
Bookshelves were practically the main interior decoration of this entire massive, mountain-like black tower. From bottom to top, most rooms were used to store books, connected to each other in some pattern.
The remaining small portion of rooms were for living and research.
Thinking this, Levi turned and entered a room with proper alchemy tables and grinding tools.
On the desk by the window lay scattered notes, the ink on them seemingly not long dry, still fresh.
"On the Enchantment of Metal Materials."
Levi picked up a page of notes to read.
If this had been when he first arrived at this tower, he definitely wouldn't have understood the jargon and terminology mentioned above.
But after experiencing the baptism of that large stack of books, the current Levi was no longer a complete novice.
He could barely understand a few lines.