Luge bent his own legs in a very doglike manner and struggled to assume a standard cross-legged sitting posture with the soles of his feet turned upward. This was genuinely a bit much for a kobold, especially one who was the shortest in his tribe. In the end, accompanied by faint cracking sounds in his legs, he succeeded.
Perhaps this wasn't necessary. After all, the Demonic Mark Meditation Method didn't require such a thing.
Only after he had finished arranging himself did he think of that.
It had purely been a whim, a way to fulfill a childhood flight of fancy—like the masters in those stories practicing peerless secret manuals.
As for the part of this cool-sounding meditation method he was most familiar with, it was the old friend that often danced for him: the image occupying the entire second page.
By now he understood that he needed to trace six runes within his meditation space to form the first demonic mark. During the process, his mental power would be trained. For a normal apprentice wizard, the growth of mental power and the completion of the demonic mark would be achieved together. At the instant of success, he would become a qualified first-rank apprentice wizard.
The pattern that danced on the second page was the first rune he had to master.
When he could trace the first rune, normally his trained mental power would already be enough to support him in turning to the third page of the Black Codex, where he could see the true form and explanation of the next rune.
These mischievous runes would slowly dissipate after being traced.
If he wanted to stop these speechless little rascals, the only way was to form the first demonic mark as quickly as possible.
In other words, he needed to keep trying and tempering himself. After successively mastering the six runes, he had to trace them all in one breath in the meditation space.
Luge relaxed his mind and once again beheld that mysterious sight he had caught only in passing.
He immersed himself in his meditation space. After reviewing the key points for beginning the meditation method once more, he did not rush to start.
This mental-power space of his own was intoxicating at this moment. Feeling this unique tranquility, with his feet standing on the seemingly substantial mental-power sea, a strange sensation filled him. Looking up at the starless deep sky, though it seemed infinite, he could still faintly sense the size of the mental-power space.
After a long while, he finally began to trace the first rune in midair.
Moments later, his brows furrowed slightly.
The old companion he had seen countless times now felt unfamiliar. From different angles, it changed differently; even as time passed, it underwent subtle changes. He had to understand it to a certain degree, then trace it out in one breath.
This requirement of doing it in one breath was also a test of his control over mental power.
In the limited inherited knowledge in his head and in the Black Codex, there was no mention of how long a normal apprentice wizard had to try before completing the first rune tracing in his life. So he had no reference for comparison.
Until hunger forcibly pulled him out and ended that wonderful meditation state.
He had just barely managed to trace the first rune successfully.
A constantly changing rune floated in the meditation space, transforming endlessly in cycles while slowly dissipating, bringing a trace of vitality to this silent place.
Gurgle, gurgle! His stomach rumbled at the perfect moment.
He toppled over. His legs were so numb that he couldn't move them.
That was it?
Was it hard? Harder than he had imagined.
But it wasn't as solemnly warned in the meditation method, with all sorts of precautions emphasized.
He was most familiar with the stomach clock. Before that fat grub appeared, he had often gone hungry. Now, feeling the degree of hunger in his belly, he made a judgment. If the later runes were all of this level, it would only take a few days to master the six runes and complete the first demonic mark.
Maybe it really would be fast.
As he thought this, he looked up at the cave wall, where one and a half grubs remained hanging.
As long as food was sufficient, he could go several days without leaving and keep meditating here desperately.
Gurgle, gurgle!
He couldn't be bothered to look at the new rune on the third page. Crawling, he dragged his still-recovering legs toward the half grub he had left from last time.
After eating, he began meditating again. The successful tracing of the first rune seemed to have slightly soothed the fatigue in his heart.
The only difference was that this time he chose to meditate lying flat.
As the grub dwindled bit by bit, he began to ration every meal.
From the third page onward, there were no explanatory words as he had guessed. Page after page contained only new runes, so when he turned to one page, he could see two runes at once—those on pages three and four.
At last, the food ran out.
Luge looked at the only thing left before him: a grub leg no longer than a thumb. He had deliberately kept it to line his stomach before going out hunting, lest something happen outside and he lack the strength to run. After all, he had been in a state of not starving to death but never being full for many days.
“I wonder how that Gray Longneck Holy Lord is doing...”
He muttered in his heart. Carrying his long staff, he followed his usual route, intending to go to the gully he often hunted in and catch a few more grubs.
He had thoroughly mastered four runes and could trace them all in one breath. The fifth was still somewhat difficult.
Now everything he saw seemed filled with happiness; the joy welling up from his heart seemed to overflow.
Only making shorts would have to be delayed again. But he thought that once he truly became an apprentice wizard and grew strong, he could make better ones, make them more perfect. Besides, his beloved Black Codex was still that thick; who knew what was written later—maybe some powerful spells.
Once again the journey was safe; he didn't encounter a single kobold.
Kobolds usually amused themselves by bullying weaker kin. Such boring and foolish behavior—he had no time to tangle with them now.
“What master? So mighty, yet I don't see him leading them to hunt on the surface...”
He wanted to see the surface, to bask in sunlight after so long. Though in his current appearance he might scare people, might get chased and beaten, poked in the butt with a sword, he really missed the feeling of sunlight shining on him, and fresh air—the kind of air with the scent of sunlight in it.
So far he still didn't know how to find the path to the surface. He had asked Aisjin before, and she was equally clueless.
He came to his hunting preserve and, for the first time, caught four grubs before heading back.
This time catching grubs hadn't gone as smoothly as last time, and with the increased hunting quota, it really took him quite a while.
He had a premonition that tracing and fusing the six runes might not be so simple. He didn't want to be interrupted halfway by something like food again.
Three detestable figures appeared before him at the worst possible time.
Two in front and one behind, they blocked Luge in a stretch of cave.
“Heh heh.”
The leading kobold grinned foolishly, looking so stupid.
This fellow wasn't very tall, only half a head taller than Luge. He was the most conspicuous of the three fools. His dog head was missing an ear and an eye. The ear naturally had nothing to do with Luge—he was a kind little kobold—but he knew the details of that empty eye socket.
He remembered: a bone club with a sharp point. First it stabbed in diagonally, then flicked upward, then yanked out. Then came a miserable howl. He had been nearby at the time and seen it most clearly, because that piece of bone had been in his hand.
He had had no choice.
At that time he had already been starving. If he hadn't intimidated them like that, his scrawny self would have become a target for every kobold nearby.
Food would have been snatched away again and again.
He just wanted to protect the bitter piece of beast meat in his hand. It was his share of the spoils from his first time joining the tribe's hunt.
“Grub.”
“Give it to us!”
“The great Gray Longneck Holy Lord has ordered: do not eat grubs.”
The three kobolds spoke one after another in short, ugly kobold tongue, gradually closing in on him.
Luge nimbly flicked the grub off his long staff, then slowly moved to one side so that his back was against a solid cave wall.
One kobold immediately dashed toward the grub. The other two, holding dagger-shaped weapons made from the foreclaws and fangs of underground beasts, continued to close in on Luge.
Luge smiled and set the long staff steadily aside, then untied the cord at his chest.
“Let me show you something good...”
After learning the Earth Cave common tongue, he no longer wanted to speak this ugly, puckered-mouth kobold tongue, but this time he felt especially exhilarated, because he had always been looking forward to it and had long wanted to say this line.
The pages turned with a loud rustle.
He carried the Black Codex with him all day, not only because he cherished it, but because he wanted it to be one guarantee of his safety. More than that, he wanted an opportunity to run an experiment.
The two kobolds were indeed drawn in. Their three eyes stared wider than bronze bells.
He first opened a page, spreading it flat, then gripped both sides of the book with his hands and fully displayed both pages to them at the same time.
The important thing was not the text on the left-hand first page, but the image on the second page.
The rune that made heads dizzy and helped him fall asleep.
According to his plan, he would keep turning pages, showing them the runes one by one.
But the hand turning the page suddenly froze. The situation had somewhat exceeded his expectations.
He saw that the two kobolds' eyes seemed to be sucked onto the page. Their whole bodies began to tremble uncontrollably, veins bulging on their foreheads, yet they did not move their gaze away a fraction.
Luge raised the book with both hands and tried taking another step forward.
He saw the two kobolds' eyes grow wider and wider, their eyes shot with blood, as if they had completely lost the ability to resist.
Just when he was about to continue observing.
Bang! The heads of the two kobolds burst open at the same time! Their headless corpses collapsed limply to the ground.
Silence.
This ordinary stretch of cave fell into eerie stillness.
Plop! Plop!
The kobold holding the grub looked dumbstruck, and the grub slipped from his grasp again and again.
Luge lowered the book he had instinctively raised to his face to block the splattering blood. An ear that had splattered onto the pages was sliding down. The inner pages of the book, like the cover that had been used as tableware, were liquid-repellent.
This was his sleep book?
Unbelievable.
He had originally only wanted to stun the two kobolds. The long staff had been leaned against the cave wall so he could pick it up easily. He had already designed ninety-nine staff techniques for beating them after they were knocked out, and he had even wondered whether he could try to subdue them, beat them into submission, and make them catch grubs for him.
He quickly analyzed cause and effect in his mind to calm himself slightly.
Still, the result wasn't bad.
At least it had thoroughly solved one trouble.
On the other hand, he had already given up the idea of letting Aisjin get involved with the meditation method.
After calming down, he tucked the book under one arm, lifted the long staff with the other hand, and struck a leisurely, composed pose.
Step by step, he walked toward the dumbstruck kobold.
This kobold was the only one left of the trio of troublemakers. He was the tallest and biggest of the three, and also the stupidest—so stupid that he had abandoned the cunning of the beastly side of kobolds. Usually, within the trio, he played the roles of porter, rear guard, first to face danger, and so on.
Luge approached step by step, his pace very slow, even getting slower and slower, yet it directly frightened the big oaf into falling backward, sitting on the ground at a loss.
His blank stare was full of fear of the unknown—he could not understand, had no way to respond, and it had exceeded the capacity of his brain.
“Did the Gray Longneck Holy Lord ever say we weren't allowed to catch grubs?” Luge planted the long staff in the ground beside the other's feet and looked down at the kobold sitting on the ground.
The big kobold looked at him fearfully. First he shook his head, then immediately nodded.
Seeing Luge frown.
The big fellow hurriedly grunted in explanation.
“Grub.”
But the more frightened and anxious he became, the less he could explain clearly.
The big kobold sat slumped on the ground, repeating the word while waving his hands and gesturing nonstop.
Chapter 3