Kobold Wizard's Journal

Chapter 206 Pale and Dark

Ruger subconsciously moved his hand; the book he had been holding was gone. He looked to the side, and Leiden was also empty-handed, appearing in the same spot as before. However, he still held the bottle containing scraps that the old woman had given him. Ruger suspected that the bottle was made from materials she had obtained from the wizard apprentices who had mistakenly wandered into the town.

The campfire flickered, its momentum much weaker than before it left, and it was about to go out if it weakened any further.

Ruger blinked slightly, noticing that Leiden seemed a little off, and then remained silent.

Before the two of them left, Ruger thought the five people at the camp would be a problem when they returned.

But when Ruger looked around, he could only find one spectator in a corner of the camp; the other four had disappeared.

Moreover, this person didn't look very well at the moment. He was a rather tall man in my memory, but now he was curled up there. He seemed to notice Luger's gaze, turned his head to look at the campfire, and for a moment showed a joyful expression, but then turned back and continued to curl up without moving.

“My campfire tells me that the tree…” Leiden suddenly whispered, “is no longer the same one. There seems to be something inside it.”

Upon hearing this, Ruger looked at the tall, withered tree in the center of the camp. The barkless, pale trunk showed no signs of anything unusual; it was devoid of leaves and, apart from the treehouse on top, offered no cover whatsoever, revealing everything beneath its bare trunk.

The man in the distance and Raden beside him both tried to remain still, which suggested that this situation was not uncommon in the Nightmare World. Ruger thought to himself that prioritizing not disturbing the thing that might be in the tree when an anomaly was discovered was a generally accepted approach.

Luger suddenly smiled to himself.

He came up with a good solution. Since they could sit still for the time being, they had more options for solving the problem. Not taking the initiative was also a solution. The man who had been curled up earlier noticed their return and smiled at them with great joy. That would make the old man cry. The two of them were different. They could stay still as long as they could. They could just sit there and wait until the old woman remembered them and summoned them to the town.

Perhaps, the moment you enter the town, you can use a little magic to play a trick on the cheerful older brother who's squatting in the corner.

Although Ruger didn't laugh out loud, Leiden glanced at him and seemed to sense his thoughts. The two of them tacitly continued to sit down, quietly waiting and admiring the flickering campfire.

This was Luger's first night experiencing the Nightmare World. It wasn't completely dark, just slightly darker, with a viscous, dark red wisp occasionally swirling in the clouds above.

The composure of the two people by the campfire seemed to make the man huddled in the corner gradually uneasy.

Ruger blinked. He had been staring at the thick, withered tree. A palm-sized black patch had appeared on the edge of the trunk, as if a piece was missing.

Gradually, the blackness grew larger and larger.

Ruger suddenly realized that his previous judgment was inaccurate. It seemed to be a huge tree hole. He had only seen the edge of the hole because a small piece of the tree trunk was missing. The reason was that it was moving. Simply put, the tall, dead tree was not moving, nor was the ground, but the opening of the tree hole was slowly moving on the tree trunk.

Yes, it was moved, not because the opening of the tree hole expanded that he could see it. The place where the tree hole was moved was still an intact tree trunk.

Since it moved very slowly on the trunk and did not turn completely, how did Ruger know that the trunk was intact?

Of course, it was because it retreated again, turned and moved to the other side, and as the location of the tree hole changed, part of the intact tree trunk reappeared in Ruger's sight.

During this time, Ruger had seen the man trembling in a corner of the camp, and he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as the tree hollow was moved again.

Gradually, the tree hole, like a black fish clinging to a pale tree trunk, began to appear from the other side. As it continued to turn, it would face Leiden and Ruger in turn.

Ruger glanced at Leiden and saw that the usually unhurried man was now sweating profusely.

This is not a good sign.

The pitch-black tree hole looked exceptionally deep, seemingly an illusion created by the darkness, appearing even deeper than the diameter of the dead tree trunk.

As more of the tree hollow was revealed, a crouching white figure came into view. It was a chubby humanoid, probably slightly taller than Luger. He was crouching there with his back to them, his skin looking as if it had been soaked in water for a long time, a pale color that was very different from the tree trunk. There was not a single wrinkle on his body. From his back, he was just a pale, bubbly body, and no hair could be seen.

The tree hollow was still moving, but no matter how the angle changed, the pale, chubby person was always facing away from them.

Ruger noticed that its feet also seemed to lack toes.

“Lord Ruger…” Leiden said.

Ruger saw the pale figure with his back turned, and his shoulders trembled slightly as Leiden spoke.

After a long pause, Leiden continued.

“I can leave here using the campfire, but…” Leiden said softly, “it’s a campfire that would be considered extinguished by ordinary people. My strength… can only take me away alone.”

Ruger understood Leiden's meaning, and it was probably more than that.

“When I leave… I’ll probably make quite a noise…” Leiden added.

"Your Excellency Leiden, please go ahead and do it."

As Ruger spoke, he was thinking rapidly about whether he could hide in the Abyss Bedroom space, and whether hiding there would allow him to avoid this strange thing, which he still didn't know what to call it.

The tree hollow was being moved so that Leiden's entrance would soon be facing the campfire.

“Lord Ruger… take care,” Leiden said.

Boom! The campfire in front of him instantly flared up! Raiden's figure leaped into the flames the instant they erupted, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Leiden's movements and the explosions from the flames caused the creature in the tree hollow to tremble violently, like a fish that had smelled blood.

The tree hollow instantly moved to a position directly facing the campfire.

The moment Leiden finished speaking, Ruger had already darted away, leaping to the other side of the withered tree. The man huddled in the distance heard the noise and turned around sharply, just in time to see the raging flames. He met Ruger's gaze with a look of terror on his face.

Ruger ignored all that; he had even made plans to temporarily use the route to take the two kobolds and their demonic companions to hide in the abyss.

The instant his feet touched the ground, he waved his hand and opened the Abyss Bedroom space at top speed.

Then, the scene that made his hair stand on end appeared.

A pale figure, which at first glance seemed to be a person, but upon closer inspection, revealed many different humanoid objects blocking his way, as if lengthening the distance between him and the portal. The object remained with its back to him, squatting on the ground.

Ruger acted decisively, closing the portal and running out of the camp, but tripped and inexplicably fell into a tree hollow. A pitch-black world awaited him.

After regaining his footing, Luger was momentarily stunned.

They were clearly not in the same direction, and they were quite far apart; the tree hole should be some distance to his side and behind.

Since transitioning to the stage of eating fat worms, he has never had this feeling again. Even after several near-death experiences, he still hasn't felt it. Even if he sees a sword coming at him that he might not be able to dodge, at least he knows which way to hide and how he might die.

Is this a feeling of powerlessness? He doesn't think so, he just feels a bit lost and doesn't know where to start.

Just like before those insects appeared, he was worried about food, worried about being so thin and weak that he was trapped in a dead end, and worried about barely surviving by eating the meager food that Aiskin provided. He knew that occasionally eating a meal could allow him to live a couple more days, but it wouldn't solve any problems. That was how he felt at the time, a predicament he didn't know where to start.

He stood quietly in the darkness for a long time; the surroundings were extremely quiet, and he could even hear his own heartbeat.

He felt as if he was stepping in shallow water that barely reached his ankles, but when he lifted his foot to touch it, it was dry, and there was no sound of water when he stepped in it.

Ruger scratched his head and raised his hand to cast a powerful light spell.

As the enormous sphere of light rose, Ruger felt as if he had wasted his energy. Looking around, all he could see was darkness. There was nothing but blackness, no distinction between near and far, up and down, left and right. There were no roads, no buildings, and the so-called tree hole was utter nonsense.

He waved his hand to try and open the bedroom space, but found that there was no response, as if he had lost his connection with it.

Until the light sphere from the Light spell slowly dissipated.

Ruger took a deep breath and decided not to linger there any longer.

Feeling helpless and having no idea what to do are different. One is not being able to think of a solution, while the other is having a sense of resignation on top of not being able to think of a solution. It may not be much, but the tendency to bow down to fate is definitely there.

He randomly chose a direction and started walking forward. Although the scenery around him did not change at all, he did not stop and continued walking at a moderate pace.

When he got bored halfway through, he even started practicing minor spells, such as the Spirit Hair Nourishment spell that he had been practicing without interruption.

Gradually, he entered a strange state.

Perhaps it was because he had been walking for too long, or perhaps it was because there hadn't been a single slope along the way, but his walking had become an unconscious action. The same was true for casting spells. The Spirit Hair Nourishment spell kept flashing on his body. He didn't move at all, he just kept walking, and the spell kept flashing on his body.

Everything seemed both real and illusory; it seemed that one would not get hungry while walking here, and that casting spells here would not deplete one's mental energy.

He walked for an unknown amount of time before being suddenly awakened by a commotion.

He was instantly terrified, just like the man he saw before falling into the tree hole. He thought back carefully, but he didn't seem to know when he had fallen into this unconscious state. He could only recall the feeling before he woke up, as if his consciousness was about to dissipate. It seemed that if that state continued, there would really be a day when it would dissipate, perhaps far away, perhaps very near.

Luger looked around.

He remembered how he woke up with a start, but there was nothing around him except darkness.

He frowned and pondered for a long time, but still couldn't come up with a solution.

In this place where you can't even feel the passage of time, he had to find a way to do something, and obviously walking alone wasn't a good option, he thought.

Looking at the pitch-black surroundings that enveloped him, he simply sat down.

Since that's the case, then let's not look at it!
He immediately began to meditate on the spot; the ever-changing runes were far more beautiful than the unchanging, silent darkness.

After two rounds of meditation, he opened his eyes and looked at the bottle in his hand. The scraps the old woman had given him were still in his hand. He had experienced that feeling of increasing mental power in the tower in that town before. He uncorked the bottle and began to try to let the wings on his back devour the various things in the bottle, including the remains of nightmare creatures and the fusion of detached wizard apprentices.

Ruger remembered that this kind of thing couldn't be consumed in large quantities at once; Leiden had said it might drive him crazy, but as the Nightmare Organ grew, the amount consumed could be gradually increased.

Watching the wings sweep away the selected pieces, before the feeling of his spiritual power increasing even appeared, he immediately began to meditate.

During his break, Ruger scratched his head. As long as he had something to do, he wasn't afraid of this strange and torturous life.

He was mastering new runes one after another, and he was even starting to enjoy it.

He didn't know if any wizarding apprentices had ever fallen into this predicament, yet managed to endure the loneliness and enjoy it, then loudly mock those who would feel fear in the darkness.

Of course, he didn't do that. As time went by, he had mastered 42 of the 48 new runes that led to the fifth-level wizard apprenticeship, most of which he had mastered here. This made him feel uneasy. Although he didn't think about it intentionally, he couldn't help but feel that he would never be able to get out or reach the end.

The contents of the bottle had long been devoured by the wings. The Nightmare Organ primarily focused on its own growth, and the feedback of mental power to him was merely a byproduct. However, each of these insignificant devourings, combined with meditation, had already pushed his mental power to the level of a fifth-level wizard apprentice.

Does this mean I have to complete the magic mark here, become a true level five wizard apprentice, and then slowly grind myself down to the limit of my mental strength? Or even complete the advancement to a first-ring wizard?

Ruger thought it was impossible.

The two sublimation rituals he currently possesses cannot be completed here.

Although in the distant past, legend has it that wizards did not need ascension rites to advance, and even in more ancient times, there were no potions to help them. Instead, geniuses relied on their own talents and clever ideas to go through the transformation.

Ruger believed he was not bad, but he wasn't confident, and most importantly, he didn't want to do it.

Over countless years of development, it has evolved to the point where it is not just about enabling more people to create miracles and become wizards, but about progress, a fitting ritual of sublimation, and an aid to the path of wizardry, rather than just the moment of advancement.

Moreover, even if he were to become a formal wizard, he wouldn't know how to leave this place, and the mark on his shoulder had never felt hot during this time.

It was as if the old woman had never thought of him, or perhaps her power was unable to penetrate this place.

Ruger sat cross-legged on the ground, stroking his chin as he pondered what kind of place this was.

At the same time, he thought about the spells he knew, but none of them seemed to be of any use. As he pondered, he tapped the ground. Beneath the thin layer of what looked like water, there was still a hard and flat surface.

As he felt that sensation, he suddenly thought of the Divine Artifact Technique, and perhaps he should look at this place from a different perspective.

(End of this chapter)