Quietly exploring the mysteries of runes and focusing on learning spells was what he ought to be doing. As for venturing out to scavenge legacies—that wasn't an adventure; it was done to better learn magic.
Along the way, after that sharp-eared elf, he encountered a band of his fellow kobolds as well as two lizardfolk. He did not show his face before his kin, nor did he make a move near the lizardfolk. He was like a perfect passerby, truly keeping his objective clear.
Catching grubs now could actually be corrected to just picking them up.
Seeing no one around, he activated Fetid Skin and maintained it for just an instant. Dealing with grubs only required the spell's ordinary form—simple and direct. The five nearby shallow-pit nests were already ripe for gathering.
Only after gathering ten—any more and he wouldn't be able to carry them—did he start his journey back.
Two in hand, eight stuffed into his storage pouch.
By the time he carried the grub and set out toward Half-Man, only one was left in his hand.
With his meeting with Half-Man imminent, he felt a bit uneasy.
The cavernous tunnel echoed only with the sound of his footsteps. Usually, walking back and forth, he paid them no mind, but right now each step felt as though it were treading directly on his heartstrings.
The large boulder finally came into view once more.
Dangling the grub, he poked his head about and crept up to the boulder. Aside from a few more mushrooms, nothing had changed since his last visit.
"Your mental power has grown more condensed, little kobold."
Half-Man's hazy figure appeared as expected, his position and posture identical down to the finest detail, his voice once again echoing directly in Luge's mind.
"Greetings, Great Being! I have become an apprentice wizard."
Luge bowed humbly to Half-Man, raising the grub in his hand above his head.
This was modeled after the typical behavior of kobolds he had observed in the pack. If he truly were just a slightly clever kobold, such actions would be entirely natural.
Half-Man, however, reacted oddly. Acting as if he hadn't heard a word, he remained silent, leaving Luge no choice but to keep holding up the grub.
Suddenly, a breeze seemed to brush across his face.
He instinctively looked up and was astonished to find that Half-Man had actually sat up.
Though the figure remained hazy and ethereal, that posture of lying on his side—which had never once shifted before—had changed to sitting cross-legged atop the large boulder. Recalling and comparing carefully, Luge saw no obvious change in his facial expression.
He seemed to hear Half-Man chuckle.
For a moment, he could not tell whether his ears had heard it, his mind had perceived it, or if it had happened at all.
His unease deepened.
"Clever little kobold, you truly surprise me."
Half-Man's voice was as devoid of emotion as ever, which actually brought Luge a wave of relief.
"Hm? This grub has a foul stench," Half-Man suddenly said.
"This is a gift for you..." Having likely grown accustomed to it, Luge hadn't smelled a thing.
Seizing the opportunity to look up, Luge noticed that Half-Man's eyeballs, mouth, and other features were still immobile. He had no idea why hearing that he had become an apprentice wizard would suddenly allow Half-Man to sit up.
"Clever little fellow, which spell did you choose to solidify?"
Half-Man's solitary eye did not blink once; having sat up, he looked all the more awkward.
"It's Fetid Skin..."
"I learned it from the inheritance scroll you gave me."
He chose to tell the truth.
Half-Man fell silent once more.
"Very well. It is a fine choice, perhaps just the right one. You truly are a little kobold who knows how to surprise me, understanding how to make the right choice under the right circumstances."
Half-Man's figure, perpetually fluctuating between hazy and distinct, rippled.
Along with the ripple, two small objects appeared out of thin air and drifted before Luge.
"Your reward. You will soon have use for it. This will make the zero-ring spell Demonskin even stronger," Half-Man said.
Luge reached out and took them. One was a palm-sized piece of crimson hide of unknown origin, and the other was a bottle of yellow potion. From the look of it, Half-Man clearly intended for him to learn Demonskin first, though perhaps he harbored other designs as well.
He pondered for a moment. Though his question wasn't about Demonskin, he still wanted to voice the doubts he had been harboring for so long.
With another ripple, three more potion bottles materialized.
"Never mind. Take these. The black bottle contains a potion that rapidly expands mental power to help you break through to second-rank apprentice wizard more quickly. The two white bottles contain potions that boost focus and aid in learning spells." It was still that jarring, uncomfortable discordance—words carrying strong emphasis, yet delivered without the slightest ripple of emotion.
Luge wondered if it was because Half-Man had sat up, but it felt as though words with emotional coloring were growing more frequent in his speech.
Luge swallowed back the words at the tip of his tongue. He recognized the two bottles; they were known as Clear Mind Potions, exceptionally potent, and a single bottle might be enough for him to break through those final intractable difficulties. Kaliu's diary had mentioned them; they were something Kaliu was reluctant to drink casually, only splurging on one when contemplating some vital problem.
He was fairly sure he recognized the potion in the black bottle as well. Mentioned in Kaliu's diary, it was a relatively common concoction:
Mind-Awakening Potion. It increased mental power and rapidly filled the mental space. In fact, someone newly introduced to a meditation method with only elementary mental power training could take it and push their mental power in one go to the threshold of opening a spell slot; from there, working backward to master the runes of the meditation method, they would smoothly become a first-rank apprentice wizard.
For someone hesitating before the threshold of second-rank apprentice wizard, whose mental power grew sluggishly despite exhausting every method of training, drinking it also offered a great chance at a breakthrough.
Why did he say he was only "fairly sure"?
The sole drawback of Mind-Awakening Potion was that consuming it made all future growth of mental power far more difficult.
Mind-Awakening Potion had always been quite famous among foolish apprentices.
It was mostly used by exceptionally dim-witted senior apprentices who had abandoned any hope for their future. Kaliu's diary had been scathing: such people could at best scrape by to become second-rank apprentice wizards, leave the wizard academy, and make a living out in the world. In Kaliu's eyes, individuals like that should never have been admitted to the academy in the first place. It was said that if one risked their life to down several bottles at once, it could even provide some benefit in striving for third-rank apprentice wizard.
Luge was somewhat dumbfounded. The diary had come from the storage pouch Half-Man gave him—could Half-Man be unaware? Or did he know, and if so, why intentionally gift him such a potion? He truly found it hard to believe, yet the potion's traits matched the diary's description point for point, and the potions available to boost mental power at the apprentice level were extremely limited.
Drinking this was nothing less than throwing away his future.
"Thank you,"
Luge said, bowing his head in thanks.
Come to think of it, he still didn't know Half-Man's name.
Then again, a great wizard likely had no custom of announcing his name to a kobold encountered by chance in the wilderness.
Half-Man's figure began to fade away, only to suddenly become clear again.
"Oh? Little kobold, do you seem to have doubts in your heart?" Half-Man said unhurriedly.
"I merely regret that you did not accept my gift, Great Being."
Luge lowered his head even further. He seemed to hear Half-Man chuckle once more.
"The negative side effects of this Mind-Awakening Potion have already been erased by me, though naturally its potency is somewhat weaker. Clever little kobold—I know not how many times I have said this—you never fail to astonish me. At times I even take you for a human, instinctively offering you explanations."
Half-Man's figure gradually faded into nothingness.
"Once you have learned Demonskin, come see me here. I shall give you an interesting gift."
Chapter 18