Kobold Wizard's Journal

Chapter 267 Confusion and Bewilderment

The people on the experimental table stopped moving, and the stone chamber became completely quiet.

Ruger guessed that the old woman's promise was simply to throw them out of the tower or out of this eerie town when they were no longer of use—a much better reward than it could be for them after such a harrowing experience. Their time here was simply waiting for him and Leiden to make their choice.

The old woman was still fiddling with something, her back to Luger and his companion, and she didn't make much noise.

Ruger glanced at Leiden, who had already begun to carefully select.

Before long, Leiden slowed his pace in front of an experimental table where the apprentice lay, appearing as a gooey mass with a sharp white bone spur at the end.

Leiden finally stopped there. The wizard apprentice on the experimental table was looking at him with a gloomy expression. Although they wanted the two of them to finish their selection quickly and obtain the old woman's promise, they did not want to be the one chosen. Losing the Nightmare Organ would mean temporarily saying goodbye to the exploration of the Nightmare World, and they would also be more likely to encounter danger after successfully leaving the town.

Leiden seemed to have made up his mind. Ignoring the man's gloomy face, he turned to look at the old woman.

But before the old woman could respond, Leiden looked at Ruger in surprise.

Ruger stood there the whole time, looking as if he hadn't moved at all.

Meeting Leiden's gaze, Ruger smiled.

“My lord,” Ruger began, “may I use magic?”

"Spell?"

The old woman murmured something softly without turning her head.

“Under the spell, I can better perceive these things and make more accurate choices,” Ruger said in a deep voice.

"Oh? That's good, don't disappoint me," the old woman said.

Ruger bowed to her retreating figure.

Leiden stood aside watching him.

As usual, Luger's body flickered with those familiar magical fluctuations, and his figure began to change. He felt a slight pain on his head, and slightly curved horns emerged. He moved his arms, making crackling sounds, and his shoulders broadened. His figure continued to grow taller, and a more obvious demonic aura appeared in the stone chamber.

As a series of changes occurred, Ruger's heart clenched. Although Leiden, who was standing to the side, was still clueless, he instinctively sensed that something was amiss. He had seen Ruger fiddling with something in the library.

*Snap!* With the unfolding of a pair of enormous wings, the noise Luger made finally attracted the old woman's attention.

Although the old woman could sense whatever the two did in the stone chamber, this was the first time she had turned around since they arrived; before, she had only glanced back at them.

This simple turn allowed Ruger to breathe a slight sigh of relief, but it also made him even more tense.

Just like his feelings at this moment, he is a contradiction. He doesn't want to do this, but he has to make this choice. He doesn't want to take this risk, but he must do it boldly.

The wrinkled, short figure turned around and looked up and down at the tall Luger, especially his enormous wings.

"Not bad, the Nightmare Organs have fused very well. You should be able to pick a suitable one..."

The old woman nodded in satisfaction and turned back to continue with her work.

Ruger paused for a moment.

He raised his hand and touched the curved horn on his head.

His expression, as if scratching his head, once again drew Leiden's attention.

Ruger had no choice but to pretend to be choosing and turn to look at several experimental tables nearby.

As he carefully selected the second nightmare organ, he quickly thought that there were more than one triangular symbol, so it was impossible for all of them to be wrong. The old woman had turned around to look at him directly, and such old wizards relied heavily on their powerful mental perception, so it was impossible for her not to have seen it.

So where does the problem lie? Is it some kind of silly joke?

Ruger stopped in front of a pale eye, pinching his chin—this was one of the better ones he felt. Where exactly did the problem lie?

He had basically chosen this one, but he paused for a moment before continuing on his way, brushing past Leiden and heading toward the next experimental table.

The more you overthink, the more likely you are to develop self-doubt.

He thought several times that he might have made a mistake somewhere, but his wizard apprentice rationality made him quickly dismiss the idea.

This time, he didn't leave the library; he stayed there the whole time, spending most of his time on this matter.

Unbeknownst to him, he had already walked around the experimental tables in the stone chamber twice.

The wizard apprentices lying on the experimental table were terrified by him.

He sighed deeply, and finally stopped looking at those pale eyes.

When the choices you make start to go wrong, at least choose a path that will allow you to land somewhere along the way.

The look Leiden gave him seemed to suggest that he hadn't chosen the Nightmare Organ that suited him. He could only respond with a wry smile, just like Vito, but then he realized that this response hadn't served its purpose.

The two stopped before their respective choices and turned to look at the old woman together.

The stone chamber fell into a deathly silence.

This kind of waiting was nothing new to Luger and his companion, and the people on the experimental table were probably the same. Everyone knew the old woman's temperament and habits, and they all tacitly kept quiet.

Ruger sensed that the effects of several spells were almost fading.

“My lord, we have made our choice,” Ruger said respectfully.

As he spoke, he moved his hand, and the book that had been hidden at his waist appeared in his hand.

In the past, he had always rummaged through the bookshelves and left in a hurry, which had given him a habitual way of thinking, as if those books could only be looked at in the library and could not be taken out. But this time they did not leave, and they were still in the tower, so he tried to take the poetry collection with him.

This is not the version he copied; this is the original version on the bookshelf.

Ruger looked at Leiden.

"grown ups?"

Leiden understood and called out softly.

Although he didn't know what Luger was doing, he had clearly noticed something unusual, not only Luger's strange behavior, but also the old woman.

As Luger bravely ventured into the new situation, he also noticed something unusual about the old woman. Although it was not uncommon for her to wait for him for such a long time, this time she did not pace back and forth, her hands had stopped moving, and she was not muttering anything incoherent.

This was very unlike her.

Leiden's soft call went unanswered.

The two looked at each other, both at a loss for what to do.

Ruger's bewilderment stemmed from his uncertainty about the success of his actions, while Leiden's bewilderment arose from witnessing the strange occurrences but being completely unaware of what Ruger had done or how to proceed.

Ruger looked next door, where Mutress, hanging there, had clearly noticed him and was looking straight at him.

This newly appointed wizard must have a stronger sense of perception than they do. Looking at her performance, Ruger became even more certain that his actions had worked.

Suddenly, a long-lost drowsiness washed over them. Luger leaned on the lab table behind him, as did Leiden beside him.

(End of this chapter)