A weeping little person had crawled out of the shattered skull. Ruger had never expected that, but he accepted it quickly. Anything was possible in the Cavern World, especially when she claimed to be a Wizard.
"You can't cast spells right now?" Ruger leaned toward the mouth of the cloth bag and stared at her.
The little person poked her head out of the bag and nodded.
He was rather knowingly asking the obvious, more to confirm it and tease her. Her feeble mental power fluctuations, along with the weakness and damage to her soul after this unconventional rebirth, would all affect her spellcasting. Even if she was special and had prepared well in advance, she would still need time to grow and recover.
Ruger watched her until the little person lowered her head, afraid to look up.
In truth, he was thinking. What he really wanted to know was exactly what rank of Wizard she was.
That was a problem, yet also not a problem.
He blinked and did not ask. Asking would only make things harder to handle.
Besides, she had never volunteered that information.
He was a well-mannered Kobold who knew how to show respect-in other words, considerate.
Zhizhi ran over to the skull fragments again and sniffed around, wriggling happily. After circling them once, Zhizhi ran back. Having confirmed that the collision had not killed a newly made friend, Zhizhi was in a wonderful mood and nuzzled Ruger.
Ruger took the opportunity to hang the palm-sized cloth bag from Zhizhi's horn.
Zhizhi instinctively tilted sideways, swinging the bag and provoking startled cries and whimpers.
The Smart Bug cocked its head in puzzlement and tried twice more, then looked at Ruger as though afraid to move.
Ruger raised his eyebrows, reached out, and took the bag down