Kobold Wizard's Journal

Chapter 209 Progress and Primitive

Ruger withdrew his Clear Dreaming Technique and quickly ran up to the upper library, where the real rewards for the perilous adventure were. Raiden clearly thought so too, his gait even lighter than Ruger's.

As Ruger rounded the corner of the stairs, he instinctively quickened his pace, and the wings on his back unfurled, allowing him to fly a considerable distance.

Leiden looked behind him with some surprise, clearly not expecting his Nightmare Organ to grow to this extent in just three days. It looked not only bigger, but also very stable.

“Lord Leiden, share this after we go outside,” he said.

“Okay,” Leiden said.

This was something we were supposed to do on our last trip; it was a little unspoken agreement between the wizard apprentices who were traveling together.

Ruger went straight to the bookshelf from last time to see if the book about the Dragon Slayer Ascension Ritual was still there.

Whether the book is there or not is no small matter; it involves two issues. First, will the book they disturbed recover? Second, will the book that has become clear again become blurry over time, as the old woman stops thinking about it? Especially the second point. The old woman is probably already talking about the Nightmare Wizard downstairs. If the positive side doesn't work out, then they'll have to grit their teeth and look at things related to the Nightmare Wizard to pass the time.

Ruger's fingers slid along the edge of the bookshelf, gently hooking a book above his hand and immediately flipping to the last page.

The Dragon Tamer Ascension Ceremony was indeed held, and its content was exactly the same as what I had seen last time.

Ruger believed that this should be the old woman's true form, the library that the real wizard originally had in his dream. After the death of the original body, this place may have begun to become blurred. The existence of the spiritual consciousness prevented it from completely disappearing, which may also be related to the integration with the town. Things in the nightmare world are always strange. The tower being in the town does not mean that the old wizard's dream was in such a town, nor does it mean that this library was originally in a small tower. Perhaps in the previous dream it was a towering tower.

Ruger glanced at Leiden, and seeing nothing amiss, began to search according to plan.

Since there was once a book about the Ascension Ritual here, there is probably an area nearby that contains similar content. Most wizards like to do things in a certain way, so the books on the bookshelves are naturally not placed randomly.

I just hope it follows the pattern he envisions, since the classification of a book can be viewed from many perspectives.

He flipped through the books one after another, like a merciless book-turning puppet. Even though it had been proven that books would eventually return to their original positions after being tossed around, he would still casually put the previous book back when he picked up another. This didn't waste time, and there was no particular reason for it; he just felt uncomfortable throwing books on the ground.

Unfortunately, his efforts to cherish it failed to move this damned, lifeless bookshelf.

A blurry book remains the mainstream.

Ruger hooked his finger and flicked the book, almost dropping it. It was an alien book, seemingly made from materials from some kind of subterranean beast, and its shape was irregular, almost trapezoidal.

Ruger instinctively wanted to sniff it again, but then he remembered that these were fakes he couldn't take with him, and found it somewhat ridiculous. Then he laughed.

This strange thing turned out to be a well-written book with clear handwriting, unlike those lifeless ones.

The book's special material results in incredibly thick pages; although it looks like a very thick book, it actually doesn't have many pages.

Ruger's suppressed smile rose and fell, his large dog mouth constantly tracing arcs.

It really is another book related to the sublimation ritual, which confirms his previous guess. This is the most gratifying thing, as it means that even if he is not satisfied with the content, he can find another one.

This book recounts an interesting experiment regarding ascension rituals, inspired by iterations of meditation. Since meditation established levels for wizarding apprentices, lowering the difficulty of becoming a wizard, the author conceived of dividing the ascension ritual into three parts to reduce its difficulty and increase the success rate. This book, created from the best-performing subject in the experiment, is a reward from this self-proclaimed benevolent wizard, allowing him to be remembered forever in a different way.

Ruger felt nauseous thinking about how he had been curious and subconsciously wanted to smell it. The one who could cooperate with the sublimation ritual experiment must be another wizard apprentice. The strangely shaped book clearly had non-human components, which meant that he was probably a bloodline modifier, just like the wizard apprentices he had seen on the streets of the City of Burning Blood.

Were all wizards like that during that period?

Ruger couldn't help but feel puzzled.

The experiment in the book ultimately failed, but it wasn't a complete failure. Dividing the sublimation ritual and completing it in three stages required more resources, which increased the success rate, but only slightly. The cost wasn't just the waste of resources and time, but also that the sublimated individuals who ultimately succeeded were significantly weaker than those who completed the sublimation in one go. The wizard's words were filled with barely suppressed anger regarding the results of the experiment.

Ruger speculated that the test subject also died because of this, and the wizard made it the end of the experiment, making it into a book, and at the same time recording the experiment and the hypothesis forever.

The book includes an example of a sublimation ritual, a sublimation ritual of primal instincts, in its experiments.

Upon seeing this, Ruger recalled that in the libraries of high-ranking wizards, books containing records of ascension rituals were casually placed on the shelves. Moreover, the records of ascension rituals were usually not the main content of the books, but rather used to illustrate the experiments or arguments in the books. The apprentice seeker of magic, Green, had accumulated a lot of time before obtaining the ascension ritual he desired.

However, according to that old drunkard, the Ascension Ritual cannot be given indiscriminately, and the process of obtaining it is a test. Those who lack the ability not only waste the world's resources but may even fail and turn themselves into monsters. Many wild wizard apprentices fail to receive the Ascension Ritual precisely because they are mostly those who failed the talent test in their youth, the initial eliminations, and they don't even have the means to obtain it.

The Primal Instinct Ascension Ritual is suitable for wizard apprentices who follow the conventional bloodline wizarding path. One important additional requirement is that the ascendant must first master an extraordinary spellcasting path, just as the old drunkard is both a wizard and a gem summoner. The spellcaster name listed in the Primal Instinct Ascension Ritual requirements is Druid.

Like knights and gem summoners, druids are theoretically equivalent to full-fledged wizards at their highest level. Some wizarding apprentices pursue this extraordinary path to better assist their mentors in managing the arbor.

(End of this chapter)