Not Smelly and Smelly

Quietly studying the mysteries of runes and focusing on learning spells were what he should be doing. As for venturing out to pick up inheritances, that was for the sake of learning spells better.

After passing the pointy-eared elves along the way, he encountered a group of kobolds from the same tribe, as well as two lizardmen. He did not show himself before his fellow tribesmen, nor did he make a move near the lizardmen. Like a mere passerby, he had truly kept his purpose clear.

Catching flesh worms could now more accurately be called picking them up.

After making sure no one was nearby, he activated Foul-Smelling Skin for only an instant. The ordinary form of the spell was more than enough to deal with flesh worms, simple and direct. The five shallow-pit worm nests nearby were now ready for him to loot.

Only after gathering ten, when he could not carry any more, did he begin his return journey.

He carried two in his hands and stuffed eight into his storage pouch.

By the time he carried the flesh worms onto the path leading to the Half-Man, only one remained in his hand.

With the Half-Man about to appear before him, he felt a little uneasy.

The only sound in the empty passage was his footsteps. He had never paid attention while walking back and forth before, but now every step seemed to land on the tip of his heart.

That great boulder finally appeared before his eyes once more.

Holding the worm, he crept cautiously up to the boulder. Other than a few more mushrooms, nothing here had changed since his last visit.

"Your spiritual power has become more solid, little kobold."

The Half-Man's hazy figure appeared as expected. His position and posture were exactly the same as last time, and his voice still rang directly in Ruger's mind.

"Great one, greetings to you! I have become a wizard apprentice."

Ruger humbly bowed to the Half-Man, raising the flesh worm in his hand above his head.

This was based on how the kobolds in his tribe usually behaved. If he truly were only a slightly cleverer kobold, there would have been nothing wrong with these actions.

Yet the Half-Man seemed somewhat strange. It was as though he had not heard Ruger at all, and he said nothing. Ruger could only continue holding up the flesh worm like that.

Suddenly, it felt as though a breeze brushed across his face.

He instinctively looked up and discovered that the Half-Man had actually sat up.

Though his form remained phantom-like and hazy, his unchanging sideways reclining posture had become a cross-legged seated one atop the boulder. Thinking back carefully, there was no obvious change in his expression.

Ruger seemed to hear the Half-Man laughing.

For a moment, he could not tell whether he had heard it with his ears or his mind—or perhaps neither.

He grew even more uneasy.

"Clever little kobold, you truly surprise me."

The Half-Man's voice still carried no emotional fluctuation, and that instead made Ruger breathe a sigh of relief.

"Hm? This worm carries an unpleasant smell," the Half-Man said.

"This is a gift for you..." Ruger could not smell anything at all.

Taking the opportunity, Ruger looked up and noticed that the Half-Man's eyeball, mouth, and other features still could not move. He simply did not know why hearing that Ruger had become a wizard apprentice had allowed him to suddenly sit up.

"Clever little one, what spell did you choose to solidify?"

The Half-Man's single eye did not blink. Now that he was sitting up, he looked even more awkward.

"It was Foul-Smelling Skin..."

"I learned it from the inheritance scroll you gave me."

He chose to tell the truth.

The Half-Man fell silent again.

"Not bad. It is a decent choice, perhaps even just the right one. You truly are a little kobold who knows how to surprise me, understanding how to make a choice when the situation calls for it."

The Half-Man's figure, forever wavering between hazy and clear, rippled.

Two small objects appeared out of thin air with the ripple and floated before Ruger.

"Your reward. You can make use of these. They can make the zero-ring Demon Skin Spell stronger," the Half-Man said.

Ruger reached out and took them. One was a palm-sized piece of hide from some unknown source, while the other was a bottle of potion. It was clear that the Half-Man wanted him to learn the Demon Skin Spell first; perhaps he had other plans as well.

After thinking it over, although it was not about the Demon Skin Spell, Ruger still wanted to raise a question he had been saving for a long time.

With another ripple, three more bottles of potion appeared.

"Forget it, take them. The black bottle contains a potion that can rapidly increase spiritual power and help you break through to a second-level wizard apprentice sooner. The two white bottles contain potions that improve concentration and assist in learning spells." There was still that uncomfortable tearing sensation, and his words contained plenty of strongly toned expressions, yet his delivery remained utterly flat.

Perhaps because he had sat up, Ruger felt that the Half-Man's speech now contained more words with emotional tone.

Ruger swallowed the words that had reached his lips. He recognized the two white potions. They were called Spiritheart Potions, exceptionally potent things. Perhaps a single bottle would be enough to help him overcome the last difficult hurdle he had yet to master. Ka Liu's diary had mentioned them—something even he could not bear to drink casually, only splurging on a bottle when pondering important matters.

Ruger also roughly recognized the potion in the black bottle. Ka Liu's diary had mentioned it as well; it was a relatively common item.

Meditation Awakening Potion. It could increase spiritual power and rapidly fill one's spiritual space. Even those who had only just begun the meditation method and possessed a basic foundation in spiritual power training could drink it and, in one burst of effort, raise their spiritual power to the level needed to open a spell slot. They could then work backward to master the runes of the corresponding meditation method, smoothly becoming first-level wizard apprentices.

For those lingering before the threshold of second-level wizard apprentice, whose spiritual power grew slowly no matter what methods they used to train it, drinking it also gave them a great chance of breaking through.

Its only drawback was that drinking it would make future spiritual power growth more difficult.

Meditation Awakening Potion had always been quite famous among slow-witted apprentices.

It was mostly used by foolish, hopelessly mediocre old apprentices who had already given up on the road ahead. Ka Liu's words in his diary were especially sharp: such people could barely muddle their way into becoming second-level wizard apprentices, then leave the wizard academy to scrape out a living. In Ka Liu's eyes, people like that should never have been admitted to the academy. It was said that if one risked their life and drank several bottles of this potion at once, it could also offer some help in breaking through to become a third-level wizard apprentice.

Ruger was a little stunned. The diary had come from the storage bag Half-Man gave him—did Half-Man not know? Or did he know, but still intend to give him this kind of potion?

Wouldn't drinking it mean cutting off his future path?

"Thank you, sir."

Ruger lowered his head in thanks.

Come to think of it, he still did not know Half-Man's name.

It seemed that even great wizards had no habit of announcing their names to a kobold.

Half-Man's figure was gradually fading away when it suddenly became clear again.

"Oh? Little kobold, you seem to have some doubts?" Half-Man said.

"I merely regret that you did not accept my gift, great being."

Ruger buried his head even lower. He seemed to hear Half-Man laughing again.

"I have already erased the negative effects of this Meditation Awakening Potion. Of course, its effects have weakened somewhat as well. Clever little kobold—who knows how many times this is that I've used that word? You always surprise me. Sometimes, I even think you are a human."

Half-Man's figure gradually faded away.

"Learn the Demon Skin Spell, then come here to see me."