Meditation and Spells

Ruger strung the four fat grubs together one by one and slung them back over his shoulder.

He leisurely made his way back.

He had more or less figured out what the large Kobold had meant. In the end, he chose not to dirty his long staff and let the big fool go. On the way back, he suddenly found it amusing. Stupidity had actually become a life-saving ability. He could not even bring himself to consider making the other party help him hunt.

The so-called Gray Longneck Saint Lord truly did not allow Kobolds to hunt grubs for food. But its command was that every grub they caught had to be offered to it, the Saint Lord. They could catch them, but not eat them.

If he had not misunderstood, that was probably what it meant.

He could not be bothered to think about it anymore. It was simply a waste of brainpower.

He returned to his little nest, happily ate some grub meat, and then had a comfortable sleep.

Then he continued meditating.

The sleeping book had temporarily become a head-exploding book.

He had many guesses, but fear was not one of them.

He believed that the pages that had always been difficult to turn were a form of protection for people like him. As his spiritual power grew, turning the pages one by one was a kind of trial. Those two Kobolds probably had spiritual talent that was too poor. They could not even endure the initial runes. One glance made them lose control until their heads exploded. They could not even look away.

Since he did not believe the book was some evil object, he naturally was not afraid.

As time passed.

He finally managed to trace the fifth rune with ease.

During that time, he ate another half a grub. He had still not gone to the hot spring he had wanted to visit. After forcing himself to eat slimy raw grub meat for so long, his mouth was truly sick of it.

Yet he still had no intention of moving his butt.

He could finally turn the next page. He was extremely curious. Opening this page would let him see the contents of the seventh and eighth pages. One of them was surely a rune. Could the other be the spell he had been waiting for? Just thinking that he might one day master such a miraculous thing made him feel wondrous, as if he were dreaming. Why would he care about eating boogers then?

He spread the book open on his knees and lightly touched it with a finger. Sure enough, he could turn the page now.

Before his eyes was a rune more complicated than the previous five, though it was not beyond his expectations. The next page contained a long, densely packed explanation of precautions, something he had not seen in a long time.

When he turned further, it became an unyielding iron bolt again.

He scratched his head. He had not found the spell knowledge he had imagined, but he was not too disappointed. Once he mastered the sixth rune, or truly completed a Demonic Mark, he should be able to see the ninth and tenth pages. Perhaps what he wanted would be there.

With that in mind, he skipped over the rune and read the lengthy explanation first.

After reading for a while, his expression turned ugly.

The knowledge on this page about six runes forming a Demonic Mark was very helpful to him, but the later notes on becoming a First-Rank Wizard Apprentice dealt him a heavy blow.

Once one became a Wizard Apprentice, one would gain a zero-circle spell slot.

This was an extremely precious thing that brought a qualitative change to Wizard Apprentices. After that, one would have to wait until becoming a First-Rank Formal Wizard to gain another spell slot. At that point, one could solidify a first-circle spell, bringing another qualitative change.

A solidified spell required no incantation or gestures. Casting it repeatedly would not cause fatigue, and it was easier to gain insight and understanding of it. It could even become instinctive. In short, it had countless benefits.

What made his Kobold face change color was that he had to immediately solidify a prepared spell upon becoming a Wizard Apprentice.

In other words, normal Wizard Apprentices began studying spell knowledge in advance and mastering the relevant spell models.

While cultivating their meditation methods, they would begin making choices and studying with a specific goal in mind.

To him, that was simply an absurd fantasy. Forget carefully and strategically choosing a solidified spell to accompany him for the rest of his life, perhaps even modifying and expanding it slightly—he did not even have an ordinary spell he could make do with. He had never seen one. There was nothing for him to choose.

After thinking for a moment, he decided to first try mastering this final rune.

From mastering this most complicated rune, to being able to trace them all in one go, to attempting to fuse six runes into a Demonic Mark, all of it would take time. He did not want his progress to fall behind because of anything.

Perhaps this time, like before, mastering the sixth rune would allow him to turn to the next page?

With that thought, he meditated even more diligently and intently.

But there was always a voice in his heart telling him that perhaps he needed to become a Wizard Apprentice before he could continue reading the book. And perhaps there would be no spell models in the later pages, only further knowledge about the meditation method. Maybe this book did not cover low-level spells at all.

Time passed in meditation.

The grubs gradually dwindled away, their rich nutrients and terrible taste becoming an alternative clock.

He successfully mastered the sixth rune.

He let out a long breath.

But then his fingers rubbed the corner of the book until they trembled and shed fur, yet he still could not turn a new page.

He tossed the book aside, then thought about it and picked it back up, using it as a pillow before lying down.

During breaks between meditation over the past few days, he had carefully considered his past. Aside from the Black Book, his avenues for obtaining spell knowledge were practically nonexistent—unless some miracle suddenly appeared before him, the kind that could inexplicably grant one wish.

Of course, he still had to make one final struggle, such as returning to the place where he had found the book.

But when he had found such an exquisite object, something obviously made by civilization, he had already been so excited that he searched the surrounding area thoroughly. In the end, he found nothing.

Maybe he had missed something because he had been hungry at the time.

He comforted himself as he swallowed grub meat. His thin body had already set off along the path from his memories.

Unlike when he went out hunting, he had found this book while exploring the caves occupied by the Kobolds. So he did not need to leave. Instead, he followed the other end of his not-quite-safe little safe nest and entered a side passage.

These caves, suitable for creatures about human height to move through, reached four meters at their tallest and around two meters at their shortest. They could block some particularly enormous underground beasts to a certain degree, but this place was no more peaceful than the vast hunting grounds outside, each like an independent world.

These seemingly narrow passageways were intricate and endless. Calculated carefully, they might even be larger than those enormous hunting grounds.

There was no true safety here, including the section of cave where he had been living and eating. It was open at both ends, with no cover or barriers. The only reason he could live here so comfortably was because it was remote and no Kobolds came this way. Since the Kobold tribe had occupied this area for many years, ordinary predators rarely appeared nearby either.

Though the odds of an accident were low, theoretically, every time he slept, a small underground beast passing by could still carry him away in its mouth.

As he walked, he memorized the route and left simple marks at the forks along the way.

Getting lost was another danger that could threaten his life.

He grew hungry once midway through the journey and ate some of the grub meat he had brought with him. It seemed that the growth of his spiritual power had made his brain more useful than before, and things in his memory had become clearer.

Judging by the reminder from his stomach clock and the details of his surroundings, his destination should not be far away.

"Shouldn't all of this have been built by people?"

A sudden urge rose within him. One day, after becoming a Wizard Apprentice, after gaining enough means to face all kinds of dangers, he wanted to follow these paths to their ends, until there was nowhere left to go, and see where these interconnected tunnels actually led.

That might be an extremely long journey.

When his stomach grew a little hungry again, he finally reached the place from his memory: a spacious crossroads like a small plaza.

The Black Book had been beside that large rock ahead. Compared to last time, some small mushrooms emitting a faint white glow had grown there.

The silent crossroads lay fully exposed before him.

The mushrooms' faint glow made the passages in all four directions seem even darker.

"Ugly little Kobold, you finally came..."

A flat voice suddenly sounded directly in Ruger's mind.

He immediately opened the Black Book and held it before himself like a shield.

"I have been waiting for you. It seems you have already forgotten me."

Holding the Black Book up, he widened his Kobold eyes, which could see in the dark, and swiftly turned in a circle.

In the end, his gaze returned to the large rock.

"It seems you like the book I gave you. Unfortunately, you are only a Kobold. You are destined to never become a Formal Wizard. Even if you are quite different from the other Kobolds and cleverer than them, the limitations of a short-lived species are not something you can break..."

The person's voice continued to echo in his mind. Squinting, he vaguely saw the outline of a human figure lying on its side atop the rock.