Kobold Wizard's Journal

Chapter 160 Failure and Success

Unbeknownst to him, meditation had become his entire life. Ruger was no longer overly excited about mastering a new rune; he simply maintained his unchanging smile and began mastering the next rune, as if his heart had reached the same rhythm as the birth and death of the runes.

Boom! boom!

Ruger suddenly opened his eyes.

Green, who was sitting on the outside, shrank back even further.

"Why! Why did this happen—" the bald old wizard roared from afar.

Boom!

It was another shocking impact.

As soon as the sound subsided, Ruger and Green looked out and saw the gaunt, bald old wizard resting his head against the cave wall where he had pointed earlier. The old wizard was emitting a strange, ever-changing light, which, as they looked at him, was changing from a white that was about to go out to a hazy gray.

"There can't be any mistake! Why? Why!"

Boom! The bald old wizard slammed his head against the cave wall, sending a shower of rubble flying.

The emaciated old man sometimes shouted loudly, sometimes muttered softly, seemingly contemplating a problem while fiercely banging his head against the wall.

Ruger and his companion shrank back into their shelter, instinctively protecting their heads and moving further in.

Whether the tall, thin old man was truly insane or feigning madness, Luger noticed in a fleeting glance that when the old man made his impacts, he always struck the very spot he had mentioned, breaking through the newly formed, blood-red stone.

Short screams could still be heard from the other end of the passage in the distance, probably from people who came to collect stones and were hit in vulnerable spots by flying pebbles.

Boom! Boom!
The sounds of impact were deafening.

The bald old wizard kept muttering to himself.

Ruger curled up and pricked up his ears, searching for the old man's murmurs amidst the rumbling of impacts and the flying debris. He could vaguely hear names and various unclear questions intermittently. The old wizard seemed to be asking and answering himself, truly venting his frustration through the impacts while pondering the issues.

After a while of commotion, the area around the large hole finally quieted down.

Luger and his companion quietly emerged.

The bald old wizard glanced at the place where the two were hiding, his eyes seeming to have just remembered them. The tall, thin old man was wearing a tattered robe, but he gave the impression of a fierce wild beast. However, he only glanced at them and did not pay much attention to them, as if he had already decided that they would not learn the spell in such a short time.

Ruger could sense that when the old man subconsciously glanced over, Green's body trembled, and that fierce aura rushed towards him.

“My lord, I have some questions about magic…” Green said as he rushed out.

Ruger silently gave him a thumbs-up from behind, while also listening intently.

However, he soon discovered that he could only understand a limited amount of it, since he had not yet begun to learn the spell.

Ruger simply went back to meditating. The spot where he lay had been piled up with red pebbles that Green had picked up. They had been alternating between these pebbles and the stored food, which was one of the few changes they had experienced here.

He took out the black book and flipped through it. Before he knew it, there were only four runes left. His mental strength, which had already reached the standard of a fourth-level wizard apprentice, had become even more refined through training, including potion making and meditation. He should not find it as difficult as he had initially expected when he finally constructed the fourth magic mark.

Ruger stroked the cover of the black book, feeling its insect-shell-like texture. He hadn't slept with the black book under his pillow in a long time, nor had he used it as a plate, shield, or amulet.

He smiled, put it away, and continued meditating.

The Demon Mark Meditation Method is the only meditation method, precisely because of this black book.

The thing that Karyu and Bayont fought over, the half-human Karyu said, and the fire man with extraordinary culinary skills also said, this black book, like those books born from the Mystery City, was created by sacrifice and the leakage of knowledge from the world. It is a product of timing and coincidence, and therefore it is a unique thing in the world.

The final four runes of this phase, following previous traditions, gradually became more complex. But they were no challenge for the clever kobolds who had nothing else to do but meditate.

When he had only one rune left, the bald old wizard went mad again. After the old wizard went mad, Green mustered up his courage and rushed up to ask questions. Green seemed to be in a tough battle.

Ruger noticed that the novice seeker of the law, who had always maintained a calm smile, seemed to have become somewhat haggard.

On the contrary, his hair was still shiny.

“I should really consider doing some physical modifications,” Green said from the side, after being shooed back by the old wizard.

"How was it?" Ruger asked with a smile.

"It'll be soon, probably in the next day or two..." Green's thoughts were brought back on track, and he looked at the book in his hands with shining eyes.

Ruger smiled, which made him feel more confident.

After all, it's a good thing that someone around me can succeed, which means it's not something that can't be done.

Both of them were a little tired, so they took out some food and wine and put them together. Behind the protruding cover, they began to enjoy themselves, deciding to take a long nap afterward to be in better shape for their final push.

After several days of habit, Luger unconsciously entered a meditative state when he lay down.

He decided to postpone his planned long nap until after he mastered the runes, so that he could be in better condition to construct the magic mark.

Time slipped by unnoticed, and the last rune was continuously perfected in his mental space through repeated sketching and observation. Just when it was almost finished, a short exclamation pulled him out of the meditation space.

Ruger opened his eyes, not annoyed, but looking at Green beside him with surprise.

"It worked?" Ruger said.

Green looked even more haggard, clearly indicating that he had no desire to sleep and would only take a nap when he couldn't take it anymore.

Green nodded excitedly, his lips curving upwards more than usual when he smiled.

“What a peculiar spell, a divine artifact spell, Lord Ruger, you’ll love it,” Green said, his eyes sparkling.

After saying that, Green staggered to his feet and ran toward the old man sitting in the large hole, a situation that had been mentioned beforehand as per the rule that it was permissible to disturb him.

Ruger glanced at the two who had started talking, then returned to his meditation.

When he opened his eyes again, he had almost completely mastered the runes.

Ruger thought for a moment, then felt an urge to start constructing the magic mark right now. He took out the potion the bald old wizard had given him earlier. Green had already finished his bottle long ago; Ruger felt he hadn't kept any for survival, or rather, he always exhausted himself every time he learned this spell. The old wizard had said to drink it when he felt his mental energy was too depleted and he was about to die, but this guy had clearly been fighting desperately.

Judging from the way the old man hesitated before throwing one over, it was clear that this thing was not easy to get.

Ruger first meditated to restore his mental strength, took a deep breath, then drank a large gulp, and began to try to construct the magic mark.

Twenty-four newly mastered runes, plus twenty-four runes he already knew, totaling forty-eight, took shape one by one under Luger's stable and solid mental power. He was adept at every expenditure and every allocation of mental power. The potion he drank in large gulps before starting also showed its effect, increasing the natural recovery speed of his mental power, allowing him to be even more at ease.

Luger, focused, felt neither surprise nor disappointment, but simply used his mental power to sense the flow of the runes, which in turn revealed a corner of the world to him. Although it was small and he couldn't see much, he had long sensed that if the runes were likened to a kind of writing, then they were the unintentional writing of the world. At the same time, the runes also had different levels, different angles, and countless layers, existing in all sorts of ways.

The metaphor of words came to him after seeing the ripples left by the ancestors of Bloodfortress in the Black Prison. Those were traces left after a life reached a certain level. Runes are the traces left by this ever-moving world.

The moment the fourth demonic mark was successfully constructed, the mental space trembled slightly, seemingly becoming more stable.

Luger settled down in the mental space, admiring the beautiful scenery of the four magic marks stretching across the sky. According to the previous plan, he empowered the mental boiling spell model and stored the projection in the fourth magic mark.

(End of this chapter)