Kobold Wizard's Journal

Chapter 167 Right and Wrong

Ruger sensed something was amiss, so he quickly said goodbye and returned to his little nest to continue catching words.

Moreover, the bald old wizard's words were tantamount to an admission that the art of artifact manipulation could be dangerous. Some things exist in the world for countless years, leaving traces of various accidents along the way. It is understandable that one might occasionally observe some unexpected little surprises through artifact manipulation. As for how many of these so-called superfluous things can be observed, that is determined by spirituality.

As Ruger returned to his seat, he couldn't help but glance at the apprentice spell seeker who was engrossed in magic.

He sensed that this guy had something he wasn't saying.

Ruger cast his spell again, and this time he saw the blood-red tree again, but unfortunately he couldn't find the eye anywhere. Then he witnessed a bloody battle, his first encounter with the so-called Bloodborne Infected. A group of people were fighting and roaring, and in the end, Blood Fortress won a great victory. The warriors in the battle shed their own blood in a ritual.

Ruger was increasingly surprised as he looked. The infected bloodline individuals all had crimson skin, and their two fangs were so long that they would protrude from their lips when they closed their mouths. They preferred to simply call themselves bloodline. The vampires hated them, and the main way the infected bloodline individuals gave birth to offspring was by abducting vampires, regardless of gender.

What truly surprised Ruger was that he had actually seen another way in which Bloodline Infected individuals were born.

That was rain, the peculiar blood rain of the City of Burning Blood.

Moreover, it seems to have nothing to do with the amount of rain; some people fell ill after just a little rain, and after a serious illness, they inexplicably became new bloodline infected individuals.

Once they become vampires, they are guided in one direction, gathering together to form tribes. They are not beasts or monsters, and can communicate normally. Just as Old Dog Head Lunser wanted to go into business, becoming a vampire would make them taller and stronger. The offspring born from plundering vampires generally fall into two categories: those who also have protruding teeth and those who are more like vampires but are mixed-race.

Perhaps many brave warriors who fought valiantly in Bloodfortress throughout the ages left their blood on the book, allowing Ruger to see many fragmented scenes.

At one point, it was claimed that there was a third-circle wizard among the vampires of Bloodfortress, but despite their efforts, they still failed to capture the City of Burning Blood.

Luger gradually became engrossed in watching, searching for fragmented images within the constantly drifting characters.

Unfortunately, none of those words were what he was looking for.

As Green said, these guys are savage and primitive, yet elegant and magnificent. They follow their ancestors as if those were the roots that allowed them to live here. Even after repeated defeats, the City of Blood remains powerful, and the number of infected bloodline members is increasing. This place has become less suitable for the development of the clan, but the vampires have not left, and have never given up on resurrecting that ancestor.

Occasionally, after a moment of rest and relaxation, Ruger would delve into the Black Book to learn new runes before continuing his search for words in the Great Book.

And so it went, in pursuit of those words.

Sometimes fast, sometimes slow, but the remaining five words are decreasing one by one in a tangible way.

Green found one more word only after Ruger had found three more.

But from that day on, the three people in the cave seemed to have collectively hit a bottleneck.

“One word left…” Green muttered as he looked at Ruger, his eyes filled with anticipation.

Don't look at me like that.

Ruger scratched his head. The last word was clearly a mischievous fellow. In his opinion, these words were the ones with spirit, and he had used up all his miraculous power in a short period of time.

Every few days, after reaching a dead end, they would exchange glances and sigh, as if it had become a fixed routine for the two of them.

"Haha, hahaha!"

The bald old wizard burst into unprecedented laughter.

Ruger and Greene stood up instantly and looked into the large hole. Ruger was overjoyed at first hearing the laughter, but then, seeing the old wizard's maniacal laughter and his frenzied expression, he became worried. He feared that the last word might drive him mad, and that the sudden hope would cause him, who had waited for countless years, even more torment than the two of them.

Ruger glanced at Green, whose expression clearly showed he had the same thought.

"Finally! I finally did it! I finally did it! This is what you deserve, this is what you forced upon us, this is what you wanted, you don't deserve to be called wizards! True wizards!"

The bald old wizard shouted loudly, then suddenly turned around.

"You two come here, let us witness this hard-won success together," the old wizard said with a smile.

Perhaps because he had shouted too loudly and made too exaggerated expressions, the old wizard was now laughing, and the expression on his face was a little hard to hide.

Ruger and Green emerged from their hiding place and approached the old wizard step by step.

“Of course, before that, you need to sign a contract,” the old wizard said with a smile, waving his hand. Two yellowed sheets of paper appeared before the two of them. “One for each of you, to leave your secret magical imprints.”

Ruger and Green exchanged a glance, walked forward, and stopped in front of their respective contracts.

Looking at the pile of requirements and terms in front of him, Ruger couldn't help but glance at Green's side. He had only glanced at it briefly before and thought that Green only had two simple lines of text. But now, when he looked over again, Green's face had turned ashen.

“My lord, this…” Green looked at the old wizard.

“You’re not mistaken, young seeker of the law. That is the contract prepared for you. I’ve been here for over a hundred years. The events of that year have spanned nearly two hundred years,” the old wizard said calmly. “Answer me one question. If you can answer it, I can remove the line at the bottom of the contract.”

Upon hearing this, Green took a deep breath and nodded.

"All those things happened just to obtain my magic?" the old wizard asked.

Green opened his mouth, bowed to the old wizard, and then said, "Before I came, the two lords told me that you might ask some questions. I don't know the specifics, but I can only tell you what they asked me to convey. They said that if you ask, I should say that it was indeed the Seekers' plan to lead you to meet, but your love and everything that happened with the vampires afterward was both accidental and inevitable, due to your identities. The Seekers were not involved. If you want to blame someone, you can only blame the Seekers for leading you to meet, but I'm sure you won't regret meeting them."

After speaking, Green bowed again.

The bald old wizard opened his mouth as if to say something, but seemed to have nothing to say.

With a wave of his hand, the last clause on Green's contract disappeared.

But when Ruger looked over, the remaining rule was still enough to make Green's face turn black. Under that rule, without the consent of the owner of the divine artifact, Green could only use the divine artifact he possessed and could not do anything that would directly or indirectly lead to the artifact being recorded and presented to the Temple of Knowledge.

This completely blocked Green's purpose for coming here. As for allowing him to use it himself, it might just be a way of thanking this junior for being able to help.

Green opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to try again.

Ruger shook his head at him.

Seeing this, Green hesitated for a moment, then dejectedly lowered his head.

The old wizard was in a daze at the moment, clearly not someone to be disturbed, nor someone a mere wizard apprentice like Green could advise. At this crucial moment, Ruger didn't want to see any accidents happen.

(End of this chapter)