Kobold Wizard's Journal

Chapter 270 Dreams and Destiny
Choosing sides, standing behind the winner, is the most basic survival rule for kobolds, the most fundamental logic. Rug had seen too many similar things when he lived among his tribe. Back then, he was very weak, skinny, and shed a lot of fur. Even when the kobolds fought, they considered him worthless. Just like now, he is still very weak, but he has some value in choosing sides, and he sheds very little fur. Even the fur he does shed has become valuable.

The black book tumbled in the air.

He didn't know, there was so much he didn't know. He didn't know if doing this would offend the old woman, or if it was the right thing to do. Of course, he wasn't questioning his own choice, but rather wondering if throwing away this collection of poems counted as him, the little mouse, making a choice, just as the old woman had said, gently stirring up fate.

Suddenly, the black book flipped and burst into black flames, falling towards that side.

Ruger noticed that the smiling old woman showed a hint of surprise after he tossed the book to her, as if she hadn't expected him to choose her, who was only at the wizard apprentice level.

This subtle change in expression further solidified Ruger's choice. She hadn't even taken his role into account, yet she still didn't seem too troubled or worried. This was enough to prove that his choice was correct. No matter how things developed later, at least this step was right for now.

The black poetry collection, burning with black flames, traced a graceful arc as it fell upon the old apprentice woman.

To the astonishment of the aloof one, the ribbon-like glow trembled and swayed toward the old apprentice woman. Numerous tiny points of light surged forth along the flowing glow and rapidly entered the old apprentice woman's body.

The smiling old woman's expression didn't change much when she saw the specks of light.

As the light poured in, she seemed to have crossed a certain boundary and gained a bit more of a living presence.

Ruger's focus was no longer on her.

The aloof figure was twitching her wrinkled face as she looked at the old apprentice woman whose aura was constantly changing. Her actions were not due to anger. Apart from her initial surprise at Luger, she quickly calmed down. The twitching of her face at this moment was due to the increasingly distorted eerie light.

From the initial decrease, as the dim light drifted away, it gradually came to nothing, until the wrinkles on her face began to tremble.

Ruger witnessed all of this. The old wizard, who had lived for countless years, remained silent and motionless, as if accepting his fate.

Numerous specks of light began to fly out from the aloof old woman's body, once again plunging into the graceful, ribbon-like ray of light, before swirling and surging out onto the other old woman.

Ruger looked at them, at the changes in them, and worried about his own fate.

Leiden, who was standing to the side, had opened his eyes at some point and was staring wide-eyed, his eyes filled with doubt and confusion, as well as the inevitable astonishment.

"That's not enough. Your so-called success can't be limited to this," the aloof old woman said in a deep voice.

The old apprentice didn't waste any words and slammed her long cane on the ground.

Accompanied by a muffled sound.

The entire tower trembled, and the eerie light flickered, as if someone were waving ribbons.

A hazy, indistinct image, a sight both Luger and Leiden had seen before: a vast mountain range dotted with numerous black, withered trees.

Ruger saw the places they had been.

An invisible force, from that hazy scene, from those continuous mountains, seeped into that ribbon-like ethereal light.

Ruger had always been curious about that eerie light, that terrifying thing that Rabbit Tuzel was unwilling to touch. It seemed to be a manifestation of some kind of destiny. If that were the case, then the small specks of light surging from it could be further confirmed that they were a part of them that the aloof old woman had left behind by some means at some point in the distant past.

The astonishing changes continued, but before the power could fully descend, the aloof old woman's body began to crumble.

At this moment, they are not truly alive, nor are they truly flesh and blood.

The scattered fragments were also drawn into the eerie light. After passing through the light, they turned into small, swirling points of light, mixed with wisps of invisible power from the mountain, and surged toward the old apprentice woman.

Ruger stared intently at her.

Sometime later, the old woman closed her eyes.

The dim light swayed slowly, like a tiny river flowing ceaselessly.

Time flows by along with the small river.

"Ah--"

The old woman let out a long breath.

She opened her eyes, looked at the tiny, shimmering river of light, and then glanced at Luger.

Ruger felt the downy hair on the back of his neck stand up.

"Sigh..." The old woman gazed at the seemingly endless dim light and sighed, "Fate has ultimately chosen me." Luger leaned against the lab table and blinked.

This seemed to be different from what he had expected. A large number of small points of light were rapidly surging towards the only old woman. She gazed at the dim light with deep eyes, as if looking back on her long life. There seemed to be disappointment in her sigh, but no resentment. It was as if she had already accepted certain things and calmly accepted the disappointment that arose spontaneously. She did not fight against it, nor could she fight against it, because there was not a trace of resentment.

But no matter what she was like, Luger knew clearly that she was now the aloof one, with a sense of vicissitude in her eyes that seemed capable of drowning everything.

Her aura was also changing. Although she was still in the same position and hadn't moved, she no longer looked like a wizard apprentice.

Suddenly, the old woman's gaze left the dim light and fell on Luger.

“You, the one who has altered destiny, have made your choice, but she doesn’t understand,” the old woman said softly. “None of you understand, none of you understand the mysteries of destiny. She is still me in the end; I am in her, and she is in me. Just as she cannot escape this destiny, she was born because of me, she is me. How can she escape me? If you believe in destiny, you will know that everything you have done is also preordained by destiny…”

Ruger, however, did not care about any of this.

Listening to her words, he sensed that her mood might not be too bad, and perhaps he and Leiden could still get out alive.

Judging from the withered creatures on the experimental table, it's clear that as a sufficiently ancient wizard, perhaps due to her experience or her strength, she doesn't care much about the lives of wizard apprentices. However, she doesn't kill them indiscriminately either, because that wouldn't bring her any value or pleasure, since they were all too weak.

More and more small points of light appeared in the dim light, and the old woman's aura grew stronger.

Not only the two wizard apprentices, but even Mutress couldn't help but swallow hard. While feeling amazed and nervous, she was probably also fascinated and envious of this rapid advancement.

Unlike the other two who were dumbfounded, Ruger pondered with a slight twitch of his brow.

He still believed in his own judgment. When Karyu was still half-human, he had said that every rare object was of extremely high quality and could not be replicated. He believed in his own judgment and also in the perception brought by the golden key.

Clang!

The old woman's long cane fell from her hand and rolled on the stone ground.

The small points of light brought by the dim glow have begun to decrease.

Ruger kept watching the old woman.

The old woman suddenly began to mutter to herself.

"Are you still here?" she murmured softly, calmly saying, "This is all the choice of fate. Our destinies are one. No matter how things change, even if you invite a more powerful wizard to separate our resurrected lives, our destinies will still be eternally and uniquely connected. I used this to be resurrected. This is fate... You can only accept it."

The old woman muttered to herself and started moving her hands, but soon froze again.

Ruger stared at the old woman standing there, her eyes shining ever since she began talking to herself.

Leiden, standing to the side, looked at him with even more curiosity in his eyes.

“Give up, it’s all futile. I shouldn’t be so foolish…” The old woman froze, but could still mutter to herself. The second half of her words changed, “Of course I’m not foolish, but I can unconsciously become stupid because of arrogance and faith in fate.”

Ruger sensed that his so-called worries and confusion were diminishing once again.

"Fate? How can you leave your own fate to others to decide?" the old woman said in a deep voice.

Ruger felt as if he was being referred to, and it also confirmed that the other person had not taken his choice into account in their planning. Perhaps it wasn't that they hadn't considered him, but rather that they didn't rely on the so-called power of fate.

Suddenly, the power that had been directed from the continuous mountain range also froze for a moment, and then began to reverse.

The old woman's ever-increasing aura also began to change at the same time.

"You..." The aloof person stopped mid-sentence.

Immediately afterwards, the old woman burst into uncontrollable laughter.

The faint light representing the power of destiny suddenly broke off from her body and was cast into the hazy distance, among the rolling mountains, connecting with the unseen presence within those wisps of light.

The old woman's laughter grew louder and louder, and her previously rising momentum began to decline, her imposing aura rapidly diminishing.

"It's yours! Take it! Everything is yours, sleeping lord!"

(End of this chapter)