Kobold Wizard's Journal

Chapter 207 Fireplace and Campfire

Although the Divine Object Spell is a spell without a fixed level, the condition for increasing the spell's strength is the strength of the caster's mental power. Moreover, during this period of only darkness and no light, Luger did make good progress in his mental power. However, that was only an improvement for a wizard apprentice, rising from the standard of a fourth-level wizard apprentice to just above the standard of a fifth-level wizard apprentice. Therefore, he was still somewhat uncertain.

He reached out his hand and then withdrew it, finally deciding to continue meditating. He was just a little short of constructing the fifth demonic mark, and completing the construction would make his mental space more stable.

In complete darkness, the meditation practice began once again.

Ruger sometimes has a strange feeling.

Sitting here, it's as if time has forgotten him, rather than him forgetting the passage of time.

This feeling isn't bad, he thought.

The last few runes were more difficult than expected, but that was no problem for Luger at the moment. When there was really nothing to do and plenty of time, anything that could be used to exercise the mind was enjoyable.

He anticipated that this final demonic mark would be exceptionally large, with forty-eight new and forty-eight old runes, totaling ninety-six runes, forming the fifth demonic mark. Abundant and solid mental strength is the driving force for progress. Just as knights and gladiators train their bodies, mental strength is also tempered through countless meditations and spellcasting applications. Encountering the demonic mark meditation method was Luger's good fortune, as its effect on training mental strength was exceptionally excellent.

In between meditation sessions, he would practice spells to relax, with the most frequently used spell being Spirit Hair Nourishment. The anxieties of advancement and being trapped made him unconsciously more inclined to practice this spell, even though even if he nourished his hair to the required standard, he still couldn't complete the Hair Shepherd Ascension Ritual here.

Once he had fully mastered the remaining runes, he began to practice the old and new runes one by one. He did not seek to combine them into a magic mark in one go, but rather let them flow slowly in his mental space, at his center. Perhaps the first few runes he had drawn had already begun to dissipate when he had only drawn half of them. That did not matter, as long as they had been there, it was as if they were really flowing in his heart.

Gradually, he slowed down his sketching speed, ignoring the disappearing ones and simply sketching in sequence.

This experience was unlike anything he had ever had before. His usual training, no matter how well he prepared, was always affected by various things. Even if he ate beforehand, he would still get hungry; even if he took expensive elixirs at the beginning, his mental energy would always be depleted too quickly and he wouldn't be able to recover. But none of these things would happen here. If the runes didn't dissipate over time, he was confident he could complete the construction of not just ninety-six runes, but even thousands of different runes, under these conditions.

He had never experienced them so for so long and in such detail, especially from beginning to end, from the first rune he had mastered while nestled in his large bedroom with its four-sided passageways, to the last rune he had recently mastered. It was a process of sorting through and a wonderful feeling from start to finish. The ninety-six runes flowed through his mind dozens of times.

He gradually discovered some patterns hidden in these runes, but he couldn't quite put his finger on them.

At one point, he suddenly accelerated the process of constructing runes.

The unbroken river composed of ninety-six runes became turbulent, surging and flowing within the mental space. Instantly, one rune after another appeared, twinkling like tiny stars in the night sky above the mental space.

The fifth demonic mark was constructed amidst the rumbling vibrations of the mental space. The moment it was completed, the flashing runes quieted down, transforming from fragments into a single whole.

Five demonic marks of varying lengths stretched across the sky, resembling five deep canyons, but now they looked more like the claw marks left by a giant claw.

His mental strength has also increased significantly.

He stared at it for a long time, tilting his head back to examine the five demonic marks and the spell models that swirled and floated around them. He had finally reached the point where he needed to accumulate and hone his spiritual power to the limit of an apprentice.

If anyone knew exactly when he came into contact with these things, they would be absolutely astonished.

In many people's eyes, he was a young man around twenty years old who had been transformed. He was probably one of those people who had been exposed to meditation at a very young age and had been practicing for more than ten years.

Ruger let out a long breath, stood up and jumped around in place, then did a set of stretching exercises in a proper manner, while also completing a full set of Spirit Hair Nourishing Techniques.

After dawdling and making all the preparations, he nervously reached out to touch the ground.

One thing he learned on the very first day he mastered the Divine Art was that it was a dangerous spell.

Ruger took a deep breath.

But he still didn't cast the spell. He was waiting for the spiritual within him to send a warning, such as a sudden feeling of unease.

After waiting for a while, there was no movement. The anchor-shaped spell model in the mental space had been fully activated.

He silently cast a divine spell on the ground that his palm was gently stroking.

The moment he successfully cast the spell, he was even stunned for a second. He went from one darkness to another, and everything in front of him seemed unchanged.

For a fleeting moment, Ruger even doubted whether he had succeeded in casting the spell.

The pressure emanating from his mental energy space was responding to his wild doubts. At the same time, in this special environment, his mental energy seemed inexhaustible, allowing him to withstand the pressure for the time being. The mental energy space, which he had felt was exceptionally stable after his advancement, was now creaking under the pressure.

Ruger began to explore the dark space under the divine artifact's spell, and this time he truly lost all sense of direction.

It was still pitch black, but Luger knew that his perspective was changing. The place that trapped him seemed to be infinitely large, an infiniteness in a different sense. At the same time, there seemed to be more than one similar place. He felt himself floating up, whether upward or downward into the depths of darkness, he couldn't be sure, because there was no up, down, left, or right. As he floated, he was also constantly spinning. He no longer knew which direction he had been standing on.

The only thing that never changes is the constant darkness that accompanies me.

If this continued, Ruger felt that he could appreciate the beauty of black, that similar shades of black could have different kinds of beauty.

He made self-deprecating jokes while feeling the increasing pressure in his mental space.

Suddenly, he seemed to sense someone, who rushed past. That person was also trapped in that kind of place, seemingly another endless darkness.

The unexpected change lifted his spirits considerably; it was a small surprise in the otherwise unchanging darkness.

He sensed the pressure in the mental space and continued to drift, ready to end the spell at any moment.

The tense yet boring moment has arrived.

In the long, drifting darkness, there was no more surprise.

He felt a sense of being forgotten and abandoned by time.

He felt himself gradually merging into the darkness, and it seemed that the feeling of pressure was lessening as a result.

Perhaps it's time to end this exploration, he thought.

As he weighed his options, he continued to drift, seemingly guided by some unseen force, which made him want to persevere and explore the truth.

He seemed to have truly come to appreciate the beauty of black. He noticed that this place was slightly darker than the previous one. The seemingly unchanging pitch black was actually gradually changing.

The joy brought by the new discovery did not diminish his sense of crisis. When he decided to terminate this exploration of divine artifacts for the fifth time, he found that his consciousness was beginning to become muddled.

For a moment, I was stunned, and then I drifted for a long time.

He came to his senses and realized that he really couldn't continue like this.

This strange place, after the divine object spell was successfully cast, was completely out of my control. In the past, when I used the divine object spell, although it was also a passive "reading", I still had some autonomy. At least it wouldn't drift around like this, completely out of control.

He felt as if his eyes were playing tricks on him, and he saw a door in the darkness, the most common kind of room door, not much bigger than the door to his small alchemy room on the fourth floor.

The dark little door was only discovered because he could appreciate the beauty of different shades of black. If it had been when he was first thrown in, he probably wouldn't have noticed its existence.

It seemed that his discovery and observation provoked the reaction.

He suddenly burst through the door, as if he had merged into it and adhered to it.

Behind the door was a bright and magnificent room with chairs and sofas covered in carved upholstery, a rug with a unique red and white pattern, a heavy dark brown desk, and even a fireplace. What attracted Ruger's attention the most was a small round rug in front of the fireplace, with two chairs placed opposite each other at the edge of the rug.

Two indistinct figures sat facing each other on the two chairs.

Ruger's vision became very blurry, or perhaps the two figures were blurry to begin with; under this double blurriness, they looked like two human figures shimmering with a hazy white light.

One of them started to speak; this person was sitting in a recliner with a smaller angle than the one Ruger preferred.

The figure opposite was sitting in a chair with armrests and a backrest.

"This won't do you any harm. You've thought about it long enough... Adults have almost endless lives, but they have a lot to do and can't wait indefinitely... Your help is actually very insignificant..."

The person speaking was intermittent, and the glowing figure sitting in the opposite chair seemed to be merely listening.

"You should understand that what wizards do never fail... it's just a matter of how much they pay the price. Time, for us, is also a price to pay..."

"Huh? A little guy actually wandered in?"

The glowing person on the recliner suddenly changed the subject, as if they had discovered something interesting.

"Oh? It's a peculiar little spell I've never seen before, how interesting..."

A buzzing sound echoed in Luger's mind. He heard the voice coming out intermittently, but the content was still coherent. When it was transmitted to him, the voice was drawn out and not interrupted, rather than missing words.

“Such talent cannot be confined here… Look… this is the vibrant life force among our wizards… many of these little ones can even create minor spells that surprise me… and these little ones… are countless in every corner of the boundless caverns. We have prepared the necessary compassion for them, but also left behind unavoidable cruelty. Through the trials of life's symphony… one in ten thousand can reach the top, and the wizards will only grow stronger…”

As the luminous figure on the recliner spoke, it seemed to turn its head and glance in Luger's direction. Although Luger couldn't see its expression clearly, he felt that the other person seemed to be smiling at him.

Then the world began to spin.

Layer upon layer of darkness receded as Ruger broke free from the magical state enhanced by the divine artifact, but this retreat did not stop, and the surrounding darkness continued to change.

He was overjoyed; things seemed to have taken a turn for the better.

It's unbelievable that such a place would have a luxurious room, and even a fireplace, which is probably just for decoration.

Ruger said he couldn't understand it.

He thought about what he had overheard earlier, and the two people chatting. One of them sounded like a senior wizard, which was why he felt there was a chance. As he was thinking this, he suddenly realized that he couldn't remember some of what he had just heard, but he knew he had heard every single word. At the same time, he knew it wasn't some magical knowledge; it was probably just casual conversation. Even if he forgot it, he wouldn't be too upset.

Perhaps forgetting is a form of protection, he thought.

A sound of pebbles colliding.

Luger rolled uncontrollably a considerable distance on the ground.

He jumped up and looked around.

It was the same campsite. The campfire had gone out, but wisps of smoke were rising from it. The tall, withered tree still stood in the camp.

Fortunately, the tree hole has disappeared.

Ruger continued to survey the area. He couldn't see Leiden's figure, and the bookstore upstairs was extremely quiet, so there should be no one there. As for the one who had been curled up in the corner, he was nowhere to be seen. He wondered if he had suffered the same fate as Leiden or if he had escaped unscathed and left.

Ruger was about to sit down by the campfire when he stopped.

Could it be a dream?
The campfire looked like it hadn't been there for very long. The fire hadn't burned out; rather, it had been extinguished by a burst of flames when Leiden hurriedly left. Everything was just as it had been when he left.

He stood and entered a meditative state. At the highest point of his mental space, the solidified, foul-smelling skin spell slot resembled a star, reflecting the five demonic marks below.

Luger was relieved.

Whether it's real or illusory, real or fake, the tangible benefit is that I've gained something, Luger thought.

He suddenly felt a pang of regret, then shook his head. Perhaps staying there for a while longer to practice and accumulate more experience would bring more benefits, but it would also risk missing the chance to escape. That would be a foolish decision, and an extremely foolish regret.

Ruger went to the campfire, sat in his previous spot, thought for a moment, and began to empower the spell model of Fireball, trying to rekindle the campfire.

After experiencing these things, he was very grateful to Leiden. Having Leiden by his side to remind him was really convenient, and he also unknowingly gained more knowledge about the Nightmare World.

"So... this guy should be able to sense it, right..."

As Ruger tended to the remaining campfire, he muttered to himself, seemingly because the fire was burning well, as a warm sensation came from his shoulder.

(End of this chapter)