Kobold Wizard's Journal

Chapter 144 Apprentices and Wizards

Old Lenser immediately adopted a serious, thoughtful expression.

“Mr. Lenser,” Elena said from the side.

Old Lunser interrupted his thoughts, grimaced at his enormous dog mouth, and once again threw out the chain in his hand to fix the figure in the slime in place.

As he passed by Luger, old Lunser said, "He is indeed my nephew. Let's talk in detail when we get back."

The monster gradually returned to its original form, its scales disappearing one by one under its skin, fixed in place without any other reaction, only twitching occasionally.

Old Man Lunser took out various bottles and jars and began to feed them to the immobilized insect beast. Some were poured onto its body, and he even took out a dagger and cut open a wound, pouring some unknown substance down the cut. Ruger watched silently from behind as Old Man Lunser operated on the beast, checking its condition and adding more substances as needed.

Looking back now, even if Luger had risked going to call old Lunser last night, he probably would have waited until dawn to come here, because after dawn, the other party's strange bloodline would be soothed by the Blood Sun and would be easier to recover.

Old Lunser worked for a while, and a large amount of black slime was expelled by the strange insect-beast. The monster's body continued to shrink, eventually turning into a short, bald old man who was probably no more than a shoulder-length above Luger's.

"Stop pretending to be asleep!" Old Lunser kicked the other man's butt without any politeness.

The thin old man was kicked and sent flying along the slime on the ground, crashing into the only remaining room on the third floor.

Ruger and Elena stood silently to one side.

A moment later, the bald old man, wearing a brand-new robe and with a gloomy face, walked out of the hole in the wall.

“Old dog, you have a fine nephew.” The bald old man said, and began to pull out large pieces of magic stones.

He clearly remembered what he heard when he turned into a monster.

“Not enough,” old Lunther said, grimacing. “I came to rescue you when I wasn’t feeling well, so I’ll need an extra five dollars, plus that gold-flecked weeping bug.”

Upon hearing this, the short, bald old man glanced at Elena.

Elena nodded with a smile.

The old man, with a gloomy face, continued to rummage through the insects. Then he went to the room behind him, took out a small cage, and began to poke at the golden particles on the insect's body. The insect made a series of cries as he poked at it.

"You've almost killed it," old Lenser said weakly, glancing at it as if he had already guessed this would happen.

"Hmph, I'm talking about giving you the insects, but the newly sprouted bitter grains on them aren't yours. As a wizard, you have to be careful."

The bald old man looked quite old, but his movements were fast and precise. Ruger couldn't help but admire him. He was much better than when Ruger was concocting potions. Perhaps this was a benefit of bloodline modification. Even though he hadn't broken through to the first-ring wizard level, he could still maintain an outstanding level of performance despite his age.

A moment later, old dog-headed Lunser hummed a little tune and led Luger away in a long stride.

The streets were deserted after the rain; I only saw two people after walking for a while.

The uncle and nephew walked one after the other.

"Uncle, what is a real wizard like compared to a wizard apprentice?" Ruge asked casually, seeing that old Lenser was in a good mood. Old Lenser hummed a melodramatic tune: "What, my humble nephew, do you think you're so great that a wizard apprentice can no longer arouse your interest in exploring?"

"I'm just curious and want to hear Uncle Lenser's opinion," Ruger said with a smile.

"So, what do you consider a wizard's apprentice to be?" Old Lunther seemed to be in a good mood for conversation.

"Transformation, initial contact with the extraordinary, striving to master more spells, and improving one's mental strength through meditation. Strong mental strength will allow one to further explore and learn about the extraordinary realm, and see more extraordinary knowledge," Ruger said thoughtfully.

"A good understanding, but also a very common and vulgar understanding, an understanding that can be found everywhere."

Old Lenser shook his big dog head, his ears swaying back and forth.

“For a wizarding apprentice, striving to acquire more spells and knowledge at this stage is only one aspect of the apprenticeship. It’s about making choices and finding your own path,” Old Lenser said. “Because the realm of the extraordinary is boundless, and the knowledge of the extraordinary can never be fully learned. So you have to make your own choices. If you want to go far, you not only have to make choices, but you also have to make the right choices. Even those so-called erudite wizards have their own focus, and they will have a straight path under their feet without any forks.”

Old Lenser laughed again: "This is what my mentor told me back then, and of course, it's an insight I agree with. Unfortunately, I can only be considered a failure."

"As for the truly powerful wizards I've seen, compared to wizard apprentices, they pursue simplicity. In terms of spells alone, most wizard apprentices pursue complexity to deal with different situations, while powerful wizards go further and further towards simplicity. Their simplicity becomes incredibly complex when you break it down," Old Lenser said. "Some powerful wizards have gone decades or even centuries without anyone ever seeing them use a second spell."

Old Renser's words made Ruger open his mouth in surprise, momentarily unable to understand.

What is simplicity, and what is true complexity?

The two chatted idly as they walked, navigating around puddles, and slowly made their way back to the shop.

The first thing they did upon returning to the store was to each drink a bottle of purification potion.

“Have another bottle, it’s free, it’s already included in that old man’s bill,” Old Lenser said, handing over five large magic stones. “These are for you, my dear nephew.”

Ruger simply accepted it silently and put it into his storage pocket, without caring about the amount at all.

"Uncle, are you still not feeling better?" Ruger asked.

“It’s been fine for a long time, it was fine yesterday. Don’t worry about me, we still have a lot to do,” Old Lunser said excitedly. “Now, we need to make at least three thousand bottles of purification potion within three days. Of course, it has to be done together. Just do your best, and I will take care of the rest.”

"If this stuff sells so well, why haven't I seen any customers yet?" Ruger wondered, looking at the shop door.

“No, of course not here. I’m not going to sell even a single bottle of purification potion here, hehehe,” Old Lunser rubbed his hands together. “Three days from now, you’ll come with me out of town to deliver goods. The sudden blood rain should be sold to those guys for at least double the price, maybe even triple… You’re stronger than I thought. That spell is very peculiar, which will save me a lot of effort. You know, going all out is not good for people like us; it can easily cause us to lose our minds, my nephew.”

"Yes, uncle."

Ruger pursed his lips and walked upstairs.

He was also looking forward to going out in three days, but it sounded like there might be some minor friction.

(End of this chapter)