Kobold Wizard's Journal

Chapter 223 Hands and Mouth
As the child strained until black tears streamed from his eyes, those somewhat clumsy little black handprints finally found the canine monster's large mouth and suddenly burrowed inside, as if the canine monster itself were sucking up black broth.

The child fell to the ground again, clapped his hands, and giggled.

Snapped!
The Yellow-Robed Nightmare Wizard Apprentice snapped his fingers.

"Ah!"

The child covered his mouth and fell to the ground, with a lot of black smoke billowing out from the gaps between his small hands.

The pale, dog-like monster, frozen in place, gradually became indistinct and disappeared.

With a snap! A twisted and elongated pale white left foreleg emerged from the child's mouth, which was filled with black smoke, followed by the other foreleg, and then the head of a dog without eyes, nose, or ears. The child's mouth was stretched and widened, and when the entire dog body emerged, it exploded, scattering black smoke everywhere.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t stop,” the yellow-robed apprentice said softly. “The reason the curse is so effective is that it hasn’t completed its transformation yet. I only needed to give it a hand, but then I would have difficulty controlling it perfectly. A Nightmare Demon that has lost control is a true Nightmare Demon…”

This wasn't just a remark directed at the bald, middle-aged apprentice; it also implied that he hadn't given it his all from beginning to end, Ruger thought.

Wow! Ah!

A loud cry rang out.

The bald apprentice tossed over the agreed-upon nightmare organ and immediately ran toward the little guy with the shattered skull.

The broken child's chest twitched slightly, its clothes were torn open, and an even smaller creature emerged. Crying, it climbed up the bald man's outstretched arm, crawled into the man's sunken chest, opened its little mouth, bit a bloody hole, and began sucking until it stopped crying.

The bald man bowed to the Nightmare Wizard apprentice, stepped aside, fastened his clothes, and covered his deformed chest again.

In the instant he was covered, Ruger saw two more bloody holes from which even smaller, black children emerged and began to lie there sucking blood.

Ruger scratched his chin; this seemed to be an unexpected clash of civilizations.

I wonder if this is a common scene among wizarding apprentices.

Ruger pondered. Compared to the yellow-robed, withered-haired, forked-hair man, these wizard apprentices seemed ordinary. However, if they were to face a wizard apprentice who only knew how to solidify a fireball spell, they would probably beat the opponent to a pulp.

Sure enough, after the Yellow-Robed Nightmare Apprentice finished speaking, no one stepped forward to block his way.

The chubby apprentice of the faith wizard finally moved, stepping out to face the apprentice in the yellow robe.

The apprentices who had been gathered nearby all moved away to a safe distance.

"Who do you think will win?" Ruger asked.

"nightmare."

Leiden uttered two words softly.

Vito paused for a moment, then smiled and picked up his hat, putting it back on.

“My judgment is the same as His Excellency Leiden’s,” he said.

Ruger nodded in agreement, while also wondering if this unhurried man wasn't afraid the other wizard apprentice would snatch the golden key. Did the two apprentices have some kind of unspoken agreement? Did he not want to be tricked by Rabbit Tuzel? Or perhaps, in his heart, the chance to compete with this apprentice who believed in the path of wizardry in this nightmare world was no less important than obtaining the key? Perhaps it was all of the above, coupled with a strong confidence that as long as Rabbit Tuzel didn't interfere, he could seize the opportunity later.

Suddenly, he lost his footing and reached out to grab a tree trunk next to him.

It seemed as if the entire crevice was trembling.

"It can't be that exaggerated, can it?" Luger thought to himself.

He looked at the two wizard apprentices, who remained still, also looking up with serious expressions.

Looking at the expressions on these people's faces, Ruger knew this wasn't normal. After a moment of surprise, he had wondered if it was a normal phenomenon caused by the well being about to be opened.

The tremors lasted for quite a while before disappearing.

The group of wizard apprentices were all confused, but they also became alert.

The rabbit's snoring suddenly grew louder, echoing throughout the entire crevice.

Ruger had thought the guy would wake up from the tremors, but it was still dark, and instead, his snoring had become unusually louder.

He looked at Vito.

Vito simply shrugged helplessly.

The sudden and unusual situation meant that the two wizard apprentices in the center of everyone's attention had clearly lost their will to fight, but this was not good news for Ruger and the others. Some wizard apprentices had already begun to quietly leave.

“Perhaps there are beings at the level of formal wizards or higher... trying to force their way into this crevice,” the Yellow-Robed Nightmare Apprentice said softly.

Although the sound wasn't loud, the wizarding apprentices who were leaving stopped in their tracks, clearly wanting to know more.

The fat man standing opposite the yellow-robed apprentice also looked enlightened. Clearly, this apprentice from the Endless Sea knew far less about this place than the Nightmare Wizard apprentice.

Ruger noticed his wording, saying that it referred to something above a formal wizard. That could be a wizard or some powerful monster, like the Tree Hollow Nightmare they had encountered before.

Vito had previously stated that asking questions of the well by a formal wizard would quickly deplete the accumulated resources that had become a century-long cycle. From the very beginning, this place was not intended to welcome powerful wizards. Perhaps the arrival of these apprentices was partly to benefit future generations, and partly a way for that wizard to have teased the rabbit Tuzel back then.

The crowd stood quietly for a long while.

The tremor did not occur again.

But Tuzel the rabbit's snoring kept getting louder.

The yellow-robed wizard apprentice turned and left. Everyone watched the direction he went and quickly followed, including the previously composed and aloof faith wizard apprentice.

Luger and his two companions followed at the back.

When they arrived at the rabbit hut, the first thing they saw was a big mouth.

Tuzel the rabbit was still asleep, but for some reason, its mouth was wide open, almost as wide as a door. Everyone could see the darkness deep in its throat, the end of which looked like a black vortex.

The wizard apprentice in the black robe with dark red trim arrived in front of the hut.

This student of the demon wizard, seemingly ordinary, appeared extremely bold. While everyone was at a loss, he directly raised his hand and cast a fireball spell of slightly different color on the rabbit's face.

Seeing that the rabbit did not react, the short-haired man with an ordinary appearance and short stature cast several more spells at its face.

Tuzel the rabbit just kept sleeping, which made everyone uneasy.

After observing for a while, Ruger noticed that the guy's mouth was actually getting bigger.

Suddenly, Ruger looked at Leiden, who also turned his head at the same time. The two exchanged glances in that instant.

Ruger touched his shoulder; it was getting warm.

"Haha! You guys are truly my lucky stars... to have found such a wonderful place..."

The apprentices were shocked to see a wrinkled hand emerging from the rabbit's throat, seemingly struggling to squeeze it out.

(End of this chapter)