Kobold Wizard's Journal

Chapter 170 New Neighbors and Old Neighbors

Ruger strolled leisurely along, reflecting on his initial confusion and anxiety upon arriving here, and how little time had passed since then. One advantage of being in this city was that no matter how strange he looked, he was guaranteed to encounter someone even stranger within two blocks, and everyone was used to it and wouldn't give him any curious stares.

Having resolved a minor matter that had been weighing on his mind and fulfilled the contract, he felt much more at ease.

It's just that I don't know how long it will take Green to return to the Temple of Knowledge. I overheard Green mention it on the way, and it seems that returning to the Temple of Knowledge is not so simple.

Ruger stepped on the uneven bricks and stones by the roadside, feeling the gradually weakening sunlight on his body.

His gaze swept through the bustling crowd, searching for the shops he had his eye on, and he began replenishing his supplies at one shop after another.

After a flurry of activity, while observing the changes in the Blood Sun, he stretched and began his journey back to Lunser's Pharmacy.

As the sunlight from the blood-red sun gradually weakens, it's as if the sun is about to set.

As Ruger walked to Mr. Nuondo's apothecary next door, he heard a shrill scream coming from inside. The voice sounded like that of the red-eyed girl, his attic neighbor Elena.

Ruger paused slightly, listened intently for a moment, and when he heard no further sound, he continued walking back.

As I rounded the street corner and entered the familiar alley, I saw a well-dressed, slightly stiff-moving, short-haired old man.

The old man was standing in front of a door, looking up as if savoring the last vestiges of the bloody day.

As Ruger walked, he looked at him. He remembered that door; it was almost opposite the door of the apothecary, but if you walked a few more steps into the alley, you would see that door was blocked off until Ruger and his group left Blood City to deliver goods to Blood Fortress.

Hearing footsteps, the old man sunbathing smiled and slowly nodded to Luger. Luger walked along, looking at him blankly, and returned the gesture. But by the time he finished responding, the old man's gesture was only halfway done; he had just begun to slowly raise his neck, and the smile on his face hadn't changed much.

Ruger walked back to the pharmacy, and when he pushed open the door and went in, the old man had already returned to his previous posture, looking up at the light of the blood-red sun.

“That’s a new arrival, Mr. Caspar,” Old Lenser said, standing behind the counter flipping through the ledgers with a frown, seemingly calculating the losses. Without looking up, he continued, “I’m telling you this so you can be mindful of your manners. He’s a first-circle wizard, you know. Apparently, he’s been cursed with a powerful petrification curse or something similar, and he’s using the power of the Blood Sun to combat the changes in his body and maintain the vitality of his flesh. He’ll probably be staying for quite a while…”

Ruger nodded as if he understood, his expression and movements indeed making him look like he was about to turn into a statue.

"Dinner is ready, let's go upstairs and eat."

Old Renser threw down the ledger and headed for the stairs first.

Ruger followed closely behind, and the moment he saw the dining table at the top of the stairs, he guessed who had prepared the dinner.

"Uncle, where is your black-clothed shop assistant?" Luger asked.

Old Lenser raised an eyebrow, seemingly somewhat displeased.

Just then, another shrill scream rang out, a clear cry coming from next door, and it sounded like Elena's voice.

"That rascal isn't here to work at all; he only came with me for that girl next door." Old Lunser shoved a large piece of meat, still juicy, into his mouth and chewed it fiercely.

Ruger gave a look of sudden realization.

That guy asked for such a low price, so it couldn't possibly be for a job. Besides, he seemed to have mentioned in our previous chat that he was going to the City of Burning Blood to meet a friend.

"Hmph, it was fine at first. He bought these ingredients on the way and was happily preparing dinner. This is his specialty; he usually does this at that old man's shop. He even said he'd finish preparing it by the time you got back so we could all enjoy dinner together," Old Renser said, pursing his lips. "But then that girl next door yelled, and he panicked and even broke one of my plates..."

As Old Lenser spoke, he opened his big dog mouth and shoved in another large piece of bone and meat, which was instantly crushed.

Ruger ate while watching him with a smile, and it seemed that old Lenser was at least quite satisfied with Jaxeter's cooking. "If you ask me, he's in for a rough time," old Lenser said, tasting the pale yellow soup with a small spoon. "That half-blood lady wanted to give up her bloodline, but that's impossible. Even bloodline modifiers find it hard to give up their modified bloodlines, let alone her. She's a natural half-blood. Only that madman Nuondo, whose bloodline is very special, hit it off. The experiment went from giving up bloodlines to replacing them, and later it became trying to weaken one of the half-bloods..."

"Wanting to do something like this will limit her growth in strength. The stronger she is, the harder it is for her to give up her bloodline. In short, life won't be easy. This woman is a madwoman, and Jaxel is an idiot," Old Lenser sneered. "This guy is just wasting his time. Vampires can live longer, but they can't just waste it. Besides, he's my employee, yet he's helping Newondo."

Ruger grimaced at the screams, walked around the plate of vegetable rolls, and picked up a meat ring next to it.

Removing his extraordinary bloodline seemed unreliable to Luger, and it would also hinder his growth. In this strange world, growth couldn't be stopped for a moment. He still felt his method was the most reliable: gradually deviating from the kobold bloodline by raising his bloodline level. Of course, the beautiful red-eyed lady might not have this advantage, since she was born with the bloodlines of vampires and blood-infected individuals, a natural bloodline wizard. Adding another bloodline to enhance her would involve the more difficult and dangerous realm of bloodline fusion.

After finishing their meal, the uncle and nephew got busy and began organizing the goods.

When old Lenser saw that his highly paid, beloved shop assistant had not yet returned, he angrily stuffed his dinner into his own mouth, leaving Ruger only able to grab a steak.

The small tree at the corner of the stairs twisted towards Luger.

The second floor has several rooms containing small subterranean animals that can be kept in cages. Some are only the size of a palm and jump around in their cages. Others are in special cages, otherwise they would float out. The breeding bags are only suitable for outdoor use; for long-term keeping, they still need to be kept in cages.

Ruger carefully distinguished and remembered the different feeding methods. He only participated in these occasionally, focusing on understanding them. Afterwards, feeding and care would be handed over to Jaxey, while Ruger would concentrate on learning potion making.

Besides Old Lunser's bedroom, the other rooms on the third floor were also quite elaborately decorated, each equipped with different magic arrays to create different environments for growing some slightly precious materials in order to reduce costs. Those that were needed in large quantities were basically purchased elsewhere, with only one exception: purification potions. Even though these were not expensive, the raw materials were still cultivated in small quantities in the shop, just in case of special circumstances and stockouts. They could forgo making money, but they had to protect their own lives.

The same was true on the fourth floor, where all the seeds and seedlings that had been purchased, as well as the young animals, had found their homes in the hands of the uncle and nephew.

Of course, Luger was just there to broaden his horizons and do some manual labor.

During this period, he also used writing for the first time, writing down the key points that old Rensser mentioned according to his understanding while working.

He was busy until late at night, until the last vacant room on the second to fourth floors was filled, when Luger remembered something.

"Uncle Lenser, where is that Jaxel going to stay?" Ruger asked, holding a bag of subterranean beast dung.

He didn't want his cramped attic space to be shared with others, as that would make many things inconvenient.

"Down there, under the stairs behind the shelves, they've already thrown a blanket at him there," old Lenser said angrily.

Upon hearing this, Luger recalled the small corner on the first floor.

"Alright, that's enough for today! If you have time tomorrow, continue refining the purification potion. I'll take care of the rest. You're still far from being good at those delicate tasks." Old Lunser said as he walked downstairs.

Ruger carefully sorted the last bag of subterranean beast dung and began to get creative.

As he walked toward the attic, he muttered to himself, a pen moving incessantly across the notebook in his hand under the control of his writing technique. He tried to be as concise and clear as possible, and he even intentionally separated sentences according to their speaking habits.

This was certainly not written for himself; the idea came to him while he was helping old Lunther set up this four-story house.

He wanted to teach the two dragonborn kobolds how to cultivate these low-level extraordinary plants, and transform his abyssal bedroom space into a small, multi-partitioned haven, far more spacious than this cramped little house.

He looked at the seeds he had specially brought in his hand, starting with the herbs that would be used in the purification potion. These seeds were cheap enough and easy to buy in the city, so they weren't rare in this shop. Most importantly, he was already very skilled at making this potion, so he could directly test what he had grown.

In this way, he would need to set aside some time to help old Lenser and Jaxel with their work and get involved in cultivation as much as possible.

(End of this chapter)