Kobold Wizard's Journal

Chapter 215 Rabbits and Wizards

The newcomer seemed very familiar with them, and sat down generously by the campfire. He smiled at Ruger and Leiden, and immediately reached out to take the roasted meat. However, the expected feast did not happen immediately. Instead, he closed his eyes, raised the meat to his forehead, muttered something to himself, smiled sheepishly, and then began to eat. He praised the meat highly after each bite.

“It’s even more delicious than I imagined, my friend. You’re absolutely right,” he said to Ruger, his mouth full of meat.

"Is that a prayer to the gods?" Ruger asked curiously.

The man choked for a moment, then reached out and took the soup that Leiden handed him.

“If a wizard prays to a god, he must be praying to get a god to use as experimental material,” the man said, drinking half a bowl of soup in one gulp. “It’s just one of my little habits. My father was a druid, and he would pray while eating when he was a child. But we don’t pray to gods; we give thanks to the world. It is the crypt that has nurtured us.”

Upon hearing this, Ruger recalled his conversation with the old dog Lunser about the world and garbage. Regardless of whether the world was essentially a giant garbage dump, it would never be a dilapidated garbage dump for the people living there.

Seeing that the man was eating his second serving of roast meat and his fourth serving of soup, Ruger and Leiden remained patient and did not urge him on, even though he seemed to be eating too much.

“By the way, my name is Vito, Vito Belfort,” the man said in a moment of pause.

Luger and the other man also gave their names.

Vito even ate the soup bowl clean.

He seemed to notice Ruger's gaze.

“I’ve been used to this since I was a child, never wasting a single grain of food, especially since it’s so delicious, I can’t bear to waste it.”

Vito spoke and acted as if he were talking to two old friends.

This made Luger feel somewhat awkward, but it wasn't all that bad.

“That’s a good habit.” Leiden looked down and stirred his long-handled spoon.

Ruger felt that he had fully recovered.

Vito stopped wolfing down his food, but didn't stop eating altogether. Instead, like Ruger, he slowly savored a small skewer of grilled meat.

“Let me think about where to begin. Such unimaginable hospitality, I must tell you everything I know,” Vito squinted, as if pondering a question, or perhaps savoring the skewer of meat in his hand. “Legend has it that it was an experiment of a wizard, this rabbit Tuzel. The biggest mistake in the experiment was allowing it to speak. After a series of experiments were completed, the wizard, unable to bear it any longer, threw it away. It doesn’t possess great strength, but it’s also very difficult to die, because the experiment has a long lifespan. That wizard then had it guard something…”

“That does seem somewhat similar to your story,” Vito said to Leiden, then squinted and tilted his head back. “That sir also gave the rabbit Tuzel a promise that it could be free as long as it could find a way to leave.”

Vito tilted his ear as he spoke, as if listening to something.

“Oh, sorry, there are many wizard apprentices here, so I made some small arrangements,” he continued. “The rabbit Tuzel is guarding a well, which is said to have been an entrance to the ethereal spirit world. Although it is no longer passable, it still emits a trace of the spirit world’s aura. The wizard placed the well here, in this crevices of the nightmare world, so that some power of the nightmare world could suppress the aura emanating from the well.”

“The really interesting thing is that,” Vito said. “The wondrous convergence of the two forces causes the well to glow periodically. When it glows, one can connect with it spiritually and ask about three questions. These questions cannot be too profound, or the opportunity to ask will be exhausted. As for the timing, it is said that long ago it was once every ten years, and ten people could ask questions each time. Later it became once every hundred years, and the number of people asked questions has decreased. Now only three people can ask questions, provided they are at the wizarding apprentice level. Formal wizards will quickly exhaust their spirituality and will not be able to get any answers.”

Ruger suddenly understood, realizing the content of the rabbit's swear words and why they were so vulgar and so incessant. "It's just what you think," Vito said with a smile. "Initially, the rabbit Tuzel made a deal with the wizard apprentices. Unable to ask questions of the well itself, it allowed the apprentices to use one of their own questioning opportunities to ask the well how it could escape. It is said that the wizard designed the escape to be in three steps, and over countless years, only two wizard apprentices kept their promise and helped it ask two steps... The last step, escape, has remained elusive."

"This world has such a magical place," Luger thought to himself.

While he was surprised, he also imitated Leiden, putting on an air of being knowledgeable and unperturbed.

"Could it control who asks the questions?" Leiden asked in a deep voice.

Vito touched his nose.

“It seems that the rabbit Tuzel became a half-spirit being during the experiment, so it was able to borrow some of the power emanating from the well in its early years. However, the power of the well weakened later, and it gradually became powerless. Now it only has the power to curse,” Vito said.

“If the power emanating from that wellhead weakens further, won’t it lose this strange ability?” Ruger said.

"Perhaps that was the reason why the wizard placed the well here."

Leiden poked the campfire and added a bowl of soup for Vito. Today's soup used a lot of ingredients they had gathered along the way.

Vito nodded and thanked him repeatedly.

“Only three people can ask questions, so this opportunity is not easy to get. These questions are related to the spirit world and are more like a guide. Many people value them... Among those who can come here and don’t know anything about this place, there are probably only the three of us,” Vito said. “I found out this information by using some tricks. I accidentally fell into a ravine and ended up here. I guess you must have stumbled in by mistake, right?”

As Vito spoke, he suddenly pretended to listen intently.

Ruger glanced at Leiden, realizing that Vito, the guy attracted by the barbecue, probably wasn't just there for the smell; his words made it quite clear.

The three of them are ignorant.

Those who come here belong to another level. It's not just about knowing more things; they are able to understand this matter and know the exact time. They are probably people with great strength or extraordinary status. Intelligence is also a resource. It would be difficult for an ordinary wizard apprentice to learn about something that is not widely known. At least one would need a good mentor.

Vito suddenly showed a look of joy, but just as he opened his mouth to speak, his expression turned to terror.

“The day that well lights up is fast approaching,” Vito said, raising an eyebrow and creased his forehead. “But what I meant earlier might have taken a slightly different turn. It wasn’t about joining forces to do something. My suggestion was that we just sit here and have a nice barbecue, spend the rest of our days resting and meditating, and then leave… preferably far, far away. I’m not kidding, even though that well is very tempting…”

"Did you hear anything interesting just now?" Ruger asked.

"A little bit, but it's quite interesting. It's about a Nightmare Wizard apprentice who's about to be promoted, a guy who's said to be able to briefly contend with low-level Nightmare Demons in the Nightmare World because he controls a magical pet that's about to become a Nightmare Demon. That's about it. A weirdo who combines the paths of Nightmare Wizard and Beast King Wizard..."

Vito Belfort said nonchalantly, seemingly already prepared to give up.

(End of this chapter)