Kobold Wizard's Journal

Chapter 151 Elegance and Savagery

With each swaying impact, Luger felt the shackles of blood within him loosening. Each impact on the prison cart caused runes to flash. Luger felt that the runes on the prison cart not only made it more sturdy, but also made people feel more pain. With his dragonborn kobold body, he shouldn't feel any pain from such small impacts.

Ruger rolled around, occasionally bumping into Green, who could move his arms and legs and was therefore more stable in his seat.

“Mr. Luger, let me help you.”

In the darkness, Green's voice came from the other side of the prison van.

Ruger felt a foot suddenly step on his face, but fortunately, his dragonborn kobold skin was thick and tough enough. Then, the other person pushed hard, squeezing him into a corner of the prison cart, which stopped him from rolling around in the bumpy ride.

“Thank you…” Ruger said.

"You can speak now? It seems you're physically strong; no wonder you're on the path of a bloodline wizard," Green said.

"Are those knights-dressed guys wizard apprentices?" Ruger asked.

Actually, what affects his speech the most right now is the foot on his face, but he's too lazy to correct it. Anyway, his skin is tough, so stepping on it for a while won't hurt him.

“Don’t be surprised, Lord Ruger,” Green said. “They are the Crimson Knights of Bloodfortress. This is just a small squad. The knights are all elite vampires, and their members are at least fourth-level wizard apprentices. In fact, they are somewhat weak, after all, they are a force that has fought against the City of Burning Blood for countless years, and the vast City of Burning Blood has ten or even a hundred times more fifth-level wizard apprentices than Bloodfortress… However, the City of Burning Blood did not destroy Bloodfortress, which seems very strange to me, an outsider…”

Green spoke slowly in the darkness, seemingly opening up his desire to confide, or perhaps revealing the doubts that had been growing within him over this period.

"Burning Blood City is a peculiar place. Many people gather here, but no one is the master of this place. The fact that Blood Fortress was not destroyed is partly due to the fact that Burning Blood City is a disorganized mess, since everyone came here to survive. But it is also due to the presence of high-level vampires. As far as I know, the first-level and above wizards in Burning Blood City only take action when necessary. Some people say it's because they are not in good condition, but over thousands of years, there have always been some wizards in good condition who come here to conduct experiments. There have even been high-level wizards whose experiments were interrupted by vampire anomalies, resulting in their failure."

"But for some reason, they didn't destroy Blood Fortress. In short, this is a place full of strangeness..."

Green's words made Ruger fall into deep thought as well.

But he was thinking about something else entirely. This apprentice seeker of magic seemed to have done thorough research on this place before coming here, at least more than he, the fake local, knew. Perhaps understanding the history of a place makes it easier to find some unrecorded spells.

So, since this seeker of the Dharma is so fond of learning about the local culture and history, has he been wandering around here from morning till night these past few days also to learn about the things in this small town?

"Where will we be sent?" Ruger asked, pouting.

"It's probably the deepest part of the vampire castle, the Black Prison. From what I've learned these past few days, only the most heinous criminals are thrown there, and many of them don't even get to face trial," Green said. "Instead, they're imprisoned there until they die. It's a punishment called oblivion, originating from vampire legends. They don't even provide food. The vampires' long lifespan and tenacious vitality are the best complement to this punishment."

“But don’t worry, Lord Ruger, although our storage pouches have been taken away, I have some tricks up my sleeve, so there’s no need to worry about starving to death,” Green said gently.

Ruger recalled the items in his storage pouch; it contained only a few standard-sized magic stones and some everyday items. He hadn't put anything important in it; the storage pouch was merely decorative.

“Are you sure we’re definitely going to get into that dark prison?” Ruger asked.

“These vampires pride themselves on being elegant, but in reality they are quite primitive and barbaric. From what I understand, there is about an 80% chance that they will be thrown into the Black Prison, even if they are wronged,” Green said slowly. “However, after seeing the way that Scarlet Knight captain looked at you, our chances of entering the Black Prison should increase to 100%.”

A moment of silence followed inside the dark prison van.

“Vampires, they really are a strange kind of bloodline wizards,” Ruger said.

“Yes, it’s very peculiar. They are wizards, and they often exist in the form of families. They also pursue knowledge and truth, but they also have a side that contradicts that of normal wizards, and many different ideas…” Green said. “Especially the vampires on this land, they are even stranger.”

"And then there are those infected bloodlines wandering the wasteland, unique to this place. They are neither normal people nor vampires, but it is said that they abduct vampires to reproduce. It is not easy for normal vampires to have offspring, and it becomes even more difficult as their strength increases. However, when a vampire mates with those strange infected bloodlines, it is very easy to have offspring. But such mixed-race offspring will be rejected by some vampires in the territory," Green said.

Green's words reminded Ruger of his attic neighbor.

From the day Mr. Nuondo next door went mad after the rain, this somewhat outgoing apothecary apprentice named Elena became acquainted with him. The day before she was to leave the City of Burning Blood, she even crawled out of the attic to chat with him and asked for another bottle of his stock of mushroom wine.

The angle of the prison van suddenly changed, as if it had come to a slope.

Ruger felt that they might already be on their way to the vampire castle.

Will we meet the Lord of Bloodfortress?

Will I meet a formal vampire wizard?

Rugko never believed that the lord was necessarily the strongest among the vampires. In such family-style organizations, the older members would usually hand over the position of patriarch to the younger members of the clan, especially the wizards, after they grew tired of it. There were too many things for them to do, rather than wasting time managing a broken territory.

He also heard that these bloodline sorcerers of the vampire clan also liked to perform a peculiar ritual of slumber.

However, according to Green, these savages who pretend to be elegant and whose armor is so ornate and eye-catching are a bunch of lazy and conservative fools. There will be no trial process. Their seemingly unrelated elegance and savagery will give rise to their own unique arrogance. The moment they capture the two, they have already sentenced them to death in their hearts. It seems that the Black Prison is their inevitable destination.

Ruger blinked, remembering that old Lunther had mentioned that the old vampire who was cooperating with him was a distant cousin of the current Blood Fortress Lord.

They only arrested the two outsiders. The young man in black was just scolded. Perhaps it was because of this uncle's identity that those people recognized this shop.

(End of this chapter)