Luge actually still wanted to ask how much longer it took for other apprentice wizards to learn an unaligned zero-ring spell. In Kaliu's diary, almost everything was about himself; there were too few examples to compare against. Besides, Kaliu was convinced he was a genius—his confusion came from the profundities of magic and his consistently demanding standards for himself.
Reflecting on the diary's description of the Mind-Awakening Potion, Luge realized Half-Man might be even more formidable than he had imagined. The potion's drawbacks were not so easily resolved; a mental power potion without side effects that could be used during the apprentice stage could certainly rake in a fortune.
Half-Man was probably past caring about the meager magic stones earned from apprentice wizards. There were bound to be countless treasures in his storage pouch, with heaps of magic stones piled in a corner of its spacious interior.
*Unlike me, crammed to bursting just holding a few bugs,* Luge thought.
Since he hadn't given the grub away, he naturally had to take it back himself.
As for whether the fat grub stank, he didn't care much. What amused him was that Half-Man could still smell it. Did that mean Half-Man was still a living, normal human? Still, his nose might not be very sharp; Half-Man had shown curiosity toward the grub's stench, but only smelled it after sitting up.
He truly wanted to scramble up the large boulder from the side and see Half-Man's missing brain.
Strictly speaking, Half-Man was just like him—having strayed beyond ordinary bounds, a monster in the eyes of normal folk.
Yet a powerful wizard like Half-Man, no matter how terrifying his appearance, even missing half a head or becoming far more horrifying, would surely face no obstacles if he wished to enter those spacious, brightly lit Earth Cave Cities.
So all he needed to do was find a way and strive to become a wizard.
Power was the path to respect, and a license to act with impunity.
Perhaps by then, once he grew powerful, he wouldn't even care to live in those Earth Cave Cities.
He took a ferocious bite out of the grub, sending juices flying.
Eating as he walked.
Deep in rambling thoughts, he arrived unnoticed at a familiar junction he hadn't visited in a long time—precisely the mouth of the hot springs he had longed for. If he went a little further in, he would be able to feel that warmth.
He hadn't expected taking that path just now would lead here as well.
He looked at the remaining half-grub in his hand.
He decided to treat himself before burying his head in spell study. In any case, there were plenty left in his storage pouch; he could cook several more grubs to take back and give a few to Aisjin. She would certainly be delighted.
He stopped eating the half-grub in his hand and carefully felt his way forward.
Subterranean beasts usually disliked this place, but nothing in this world was foolproof; there might well be some peculiar beast with eccentric tastes. So no matter how fond of cooked food he had been in the past, he had never dared visit often. This place wasn't merely warm—it was a stifling, vapor-choked heat, like a natural steamer. Within the Great Cave were over a hundred hot spring vents of varying sizes. They seemed to cycle over time, peaking in temperature before dropping, but even at their lowest temperature, this was no place an ordinary creature could linger for long.
He stepped into the cave and found a vent only as thick as a waist—exactly the size he wanted, safe and efficient.
One by one, the grubs changed color, giving off a strange, savory meat aroma.
He wondered what those powerful wizards ate, and whether there were delicacies normal people could never taste in a lifetime.
Splash! Slosh!
Luge's hair instantly stood on end.
Even in this roiling wave of heat, nothing could stop the chill running down his spine.
The sound was right nearby, behind him, in the direction of a large hot spring vent he remembered.
One had to know, kobolds and lizardfolk instinctively shunned this place under normal circumstances; liking warmth didn't mean wanting to steam oneself alive.
He slowly turned his neck.
A pair of eyes locked onto his, right through the swirling, rising steam.
The two of them were remarkably close.
Mimicking the kobolds of his tribe, he let out a strange screech and bolted for the exit, not forgetting to snatch up the last half-cooked grub in his hand before scrambling up.
*So this sharp-ear is a woman! And up close this time, she doesn't seem quite so dark—dark gray?* he thought.
At their first meeting, he had only found her handsome and striking, without truly telling whether she was male or female. Of course, he hadn't seen clearly this time either, as the rising mist had only shifted slightly from her movements, and most of her body was submerged under water.
Still, this elf was truly a monster, diving and soaking in a place like this. He wouldn't even dare boil grubs for that long.
He had been squatting here boiling grubs for quite a while, which meant she had clearly submerged herself before he even arrived.
Now he only hoped that, seeing he was merely a foolish little kobold, she wouldn't pursue him to pick a fight to the death and they could just go their separate ways in peace. Otherwise, he, a little kobold, was no pushover either; it had been an unintentional blunder, so he had every right to stand tall—and he wouldn't compensate her with a single grub.
When choosing the vent's location, he had deliberately picked one closer to the entrance.
Taking several strides at once, he could already glimpse the passageway outside through the mist.
"Take one more step, and you'd best prepare to see the inside of a subterranean beast's stomach—and its bowels. I will keep you wide awake, soak you in a Stiffening Potion first, and then feed you to the subterranean beast with the slowest digestion. If you survive, I'll feed you to it again... until you no longer come out in one piece..."
The elf's words struck his ears like a chisel, and the sheer detail widened his horizons.
Even as she spoke, she had already closed the distance.
Luge looked at her. She hadn't even bothered to put on clothes, strolling leisurely right before him.
He stared at her, shuffling his short little legs as he slowly backed toward the cave entrance behind him.
"Relax, I have no interest in you."
As she spoke, she reached within a few paces of him and came to a halt. Billowing pale steam curled around the elf's bare, dark form.
Luge dropped straight to his knees, throwing his hands high into the air as he shrieked out a torrent of kobold babble.
It was mostly the usual rhetoric about revering supreme might, groveling in terror, and worshipping the sacred master.
"Trying to irritate me won't do you any good. I've never heard of a kobold wearing a storage pouch at its waist."
She spoke in the Earth Cave common tongue, cutting off Luge's wild kobold screeching before her sentence even finished.
He simply dusted the dirt off his knees with his hands, rose in silence, and waited for judgment.
"Fascinating..."
With her arms crossed over her chest, the dark gray elf circled Luge over and over.
"I've long heard that some madmen experiment on themselves, pursuing bloodline fusion paths no one else dares try. But I never imagined... someone would actually transform themselves into a kobold! What an audacious fellow."
The female elf began appraising him.
"A miracle!"
"What do you plan to do next? Reverse-engineer a dragonborn kobold and become a pureblood true dragon? That path won't be easy to walk..."
She finally stopped circling, though her gaze still swept up and down him.
"Beautiful lady, you might consider putting on some clothes first—it would be far more elegant. Small kobold though I may be, I am also an elegant gentleman. Please do not ignore me."
Luge could finally bear it no longer.
He had already realized that this woman wasn't part of any wandering dark elf slave-hunting party Old Gold Tooth talked about; she was a bona fide wizard.
As for just how powerful she was—whether a formal wizard or a higher-tier apprentice wizard—that was beyond what a kobold's eyes and experience could discern.
Yet of one thing he was certain: her eyesight was not as sharp as Half-Man's. Half-Man had seen through him at a glance, knowing he was not some modified kobold.
Chapter 19