Luge stopped and began to think seriously. He was wondering whether he should leave the white city at once and get far away from it.
Suddenly everything around him darkened.
He looked up at the apprentice wizards who had inexplicably blocked his path. He did not speak first, nor did he show any panic.
His calmness and silence seemed to make the other side uncomfortable.
A decent-looking male apprentice stepped forward and broke the silence.
"We'll give you fifty standard magic stones. You help us fetch some books. We'll designate the places. For every extra book you carry out, we can add five more magic stones. If you can find the ones we especially want, that's another fifty magic stones per book..." the male apprentice said thoughtfully.
The others exchanged glances, as if discussing the price—how many magic stones each of them could offer.
Luge looked at the library on the other side of the street, then looked at the people in front of him.
"You—right now—give me all your magic stones." When Luge said the first half, the ones opposite first looked startled, then pleased, but he went on, "Then go inside and carry books out for me. If you don't carry enough, don't even think about leaving this city."
Under his hood, the little kobold grinned maliciously, baring his teeth.
"Friend, there are five of us..."
"Six."
"Seven."
Two more people loitering in front of the library heard the voices and joined in, even shouting cheerfully.
Seeing that he had successfully drawn everyone's attention, Luge cast Fetid Skin and all the spells in his temporary spell slots at the same time.
Let these fellows, who were all full of malice toward him, experience the backlash of the purest malice in the world. Of course he knew these fellows would sooner die than agree to go in and carry books for him, and he himself did not dare enter. Since he already planned to leave, he figured he might as well make one last haul before he left. That would also make up for the loss caused by leaving the white city early.
Three zero-ring spells—Bull's Strength, Demonskin, and Demonic Form—were applied to his body at the same time, and a wondrous sensation welled up in him.
He felt his frame shoot upward at high speed, and with that release, a sense of exhilaration arose in his heart. His whole body was filled with power.
The six apprentice wizards nearby did not even last the space of a breath before the sound of heavy bodies hitting the ground came. Part of that was certainly because they had not expected Luge to dare attack, but Luge believed that even if they had been on guard, it would not have changed the outcome.
The distant apprentice turned and ran, but Luge darted out in a single stride and brought the other within the range of Fetid Skin.
As he learned more and more spells, he had come to realize the limitations of Fetid Skin, as well as its power. What had seemed a simple alteration made by the spell at the time now looked like an extremely powerful effect, and a most inconceivable one.
All the changes had begun with seeing that skeletal hand, like a bare, towering tree.
Luge frowned and suddenly cast Boiling Spirit on himself to clear his head. Just now, he had actually felt an urge to destroy.
He scratched his head. The cost of these three temporary spell slots seemed not quite worth it. He had still been guarding against a counterattack from these apprentice wizards, but they had all turned out to be useless.
Suddenly his hand stopped.
To his surprise, he felt two small sharp horns on top of his head.
Luge did not panic. He first dispelled Bull's Strength, and the two small horns vanished as expected. Then he empowered the spell model, applied Bull's Strength again, and the small horns reappeared.
This was very wrong. Bull's Strength was, arguably, the spell he had used most often, and this had never happened before.
He thought for a moment, then dispelled the zero-ring spell Demonic Form, and the pair of small horns vanished again.
At the same time, he noticed that Demonic Form also had a certain effect on Demonskin. As the spell was dispelled, the skin generated by Demonskin was visibly less thick, and lost a trace of roughness.
This was truly an interesting discovery.
His interest was piqued for a moment, but he restrained himself and first looted the storage pouches of these people.
Seven storage pouches were now in his hands, and he tossed them all into the Abyssal bedroom space.
He hoped these people were a little wealthy, he thought.
But judging by the looks of them, that hope was likely to come to nothing. None of the fellows looked like wealthy people.
He strode away. Before leaving, he even forcibly pulled up a male apprentice to compare heights, and the result disappointed him greatly: even with the height boost from Demonic Form, he only reached the standard of an ordinary person.
Luge dispelled the spells on his body, adjusted his hood, and first found a place to meditate and recover. He then stored spells into the emptied temporary spell slots again.
If he wanted to leave the white city, he still had to go to the city's edge, take those stairs, and enter the Abyssal bedroom space. Unless he wandered off into the Abyss and did not come back, the exit on this side would always remain within the white city.
The annotations for Demonic Form flashed through his mind again, along with what Baonte had said when evaluating the spell: a minor spell created from the transformation of demonized flesh and blood; when casting it, one must have a trigger, and it requires casting materials carrying a demonic aura.
An immature, second-rate little spell.
After resting, he began to wander around the edge of the white city.
For a while, he felt reluctant to leave again. After all, there were still many places he had not visited, and the many apprentice wizards who had entered the city with him had all scurried off somewhere.
Soon a whiff of food caught his attention. It was the first time since arriving here that he had sensed a trace of life in this monotonous world. Following the smell, he made his way to a small tavern at a street corner.
The fire man's figure was busy inside.
Luge noticed that this was a black building.
"You can come in here," the fire man said without looking up from his work.
Luge pushed the door open and entered, and the two doors swung back and forth behind him.
He glanced around the small tavern, and his pupils trembled slightly. There seemed to be some blurred figures seated inside. Some were raising and clinking cups, some were watching the fire man cook delicacies, and a blurred bartender, the fire man's partner, was from time to time serving the customers with indistinct drinks.
The big pot of meat soup the fire man had simmered outside earlier had also come into use, becoming the main dish.
"Satisfying them can give me some knowledge in return," the fire man said as he placed a cup of water in front of Luge. "Do not drink the wine he offers you, and do not try to talk to them."
"If you want, you can come help in the kitchen. I'm a little too busy myself," he added.
Luge nodded, avoided the bartender, stepped forward, and began to help.
He called it helping, but in reality he only stirred the pot, passed along some finished dishes, and picked out some bones.
"Have you run into Baonte?" the fire man said.
Luge nodded and continued with his work.
"He is too obsessed, and too anxious as well—eager to become a wizard. There are many opportunities in this city, but he has fixed his eyes on that book alone. Actually, when he and Kaliu were fighting over it, I also saw that book fall from high above. That worm-person, who gathered the power of its kind and briefly rivaled a formal wizard, crashed into this city and awakened it. But I did not go fight for it. I believe that even without those things, I can still become a wizard. At the same time, I know that once Baonte fixes on something, he will not hold back against anyone."
As they spoke, a dish was finished: oddly shaped deep purple flowers entwined with rings of meat. The fire man placed it on the counter.
When the dish was brought over, it seemed to satisfy the customers greatly.
Luge, who had helped in the kitchen, also gained a small benefit: his understanding of Demonic Form deepened somewhat.
Chapter 74