Kobold Wizard's Journal

Chapter 43: Tenacity and Insignificance

To give the lizardmen a chance to perform, Ruger paused his Stinking Skin spell and stood in plain sight. Now the spell flowed smoothly again, and the performance drew to a close. Lizardmen fell one after another, and he caught flying spears with his bare hands. Of course, for safety, he had already quietly cast Bull Strength and Demon Skin on himself while standing still.

The performance didn't offer anything new, but it didn't disappoint. At least judging from the reaction of audience number two, Ruger was very satisfied. He struck the last syllable for the curtain call and raised his hand to pat Ai Sijin on the head.

He was about to say something.

Aisijin suddenly jumped up, took out the claw blade made of the big black claws, ran hurriedly to the lizardmen, and began to pounce on them. At first, she pounced on them and stabbed them directly, but later, seeing that the lizardmen were really unable to get up, she was no longer so fast, but walked over one by one in an orderly manner and stabbed them two or three times.

Ruger watched Ai Sijin busying around, and forgot what he was going to say for a moment after being interrupted. Later, he thought about it and decided to forget it. Ai Sijin had her own opinions. She would definitely listen to some things, but not necessarily others.

The two set off again.

After passing a strange path covered with jagged rocks, we arrived at a valley.

He followed Aisijin's footsteps and not long after entering the valley, he saw the target of his journey.

A black tree, only slightly taller than him, but covering a large area, seemed to be crawling on the ground, with numerous branches extending in all directions, like a person stretching, or struggling painfully and stretching his limbs and body with all his strength.

Ruger only needed to glance over to see dozens of fruits hanging on the branches. This was because the fruits were black. If they were light-colored, he would probably see more.

"Did Old Gold Teeth say anything?"

He looked at the various traces around him and casually stirred the soil with his feet.

The larger traces and broken branches nearby were probably caused by large underground beasts like the Black Claw Saint. Occasionally, some underground beasts might mistakenly come here to eat the fruits.

"Old Gold Teeth asked me a lot of questions. He told me to look carefully around to see if there's anything strange. If not, I should dig under the tree." Ai Sijin stood behind Ruger, looking around. "Brother Ruger, if there's something better to eat than this fruit, can it save Old Gold Teeth?"

"can."

He started walking around here.

"Thank you for your hard work, Dasha Heng. As long as his blood can keep Old Gold Tooth alive, even if there is nothing good here, I will find a way to save Old Gold Tooth."

He kept walking, circling around and around, first around the strange-looking tree with its branches spreading all over the ground, and then around the entire valley, touching and looking around. Ai Sijin followed him silently, looking around.

Finally, he stopped in front of the tree and kicked the stones under his feet hard.

"I'll go find Bald Tooth and Big Hengheng, come together, and then call the tribesmen..." said Aisijin.

"You step back."

He did not directly squeeze to the tree trunk to take action, but pulled Aisijin back and began to use the bedroom space to collect the soil and rocks around the strange tree.

Under Aisijin's surprised gaze, he quickly used this special method to dig a long, wide and deep trench.

Ruger jumped into the ditch for a quick look, then continued digging by collecting soil.

The place where the strange tree was located soon became a small isolated island.

After running around again and again, when he was tired, he asked Aisijin to stay by his side while he sat down to rest, meditate and restore his mental strength.

The digging track gradually inched closer to the center of the tree trunk, the island gradually shrinking. But still, nothing was found. Aeskin's face was filled with worry. Failed hopes were a bad feeling. He, too, felt the odds were slim, but he remained calm on the surface. Perhaps this had something to do with the differences in their situations. For Aeskin, this was her only chance: to transform into a dragonborn kobold and save Old Gold Fang. Meanwhile, Ruger held onto the promise of a wizard's transcendental path.

The island barely existed anymore, with only the lonely tree trunk remaining.

Ruger glanced at Aisijin and continued digging without saying a word. Some shallow tree roots had been dug out, but there were still more roots deep in the earth.

Until a faint strange smell caught his attention. Hidden among the many roots was a black and red tree root, spreading obliquely into the distance.

He meditated briefly and rested, then changed his target and continued digging in the direction of the strange tree roots.

Following it all the way, I found that this tenacious tree root drilled out a distance beyond imagination. Although it was not a very thick thing, it was amazingly capable of drilling and running.

Ruger followed it to a corner of the valley, meditating and resting several times. The construction progress in the bedroom space had made good progress.

It’s not over yet, keep digging down. The valley is surrounded by a circle of hard rock walls. The tree roots continue to extend downwards, drilling down along the rock walls, demonstrating its tenacious vitality.

He felt that he was getting closer and closer to the answer.

Ai Sijin watched anxiously from a distance.

He felt more and more at peace. When the mystery was about to be solved, he was relatively calm. He would only become anxious when he could not find the direction and clues.

The closer he got to the answer, the more stable he had to be. He even stopped digging temporarily and expanded the opening above to prevent it from collapsing and burying him.

It turned out that he was right. A thin and inconspicuous tree root led him to an astonishing depth.

He didn't stop chasing the small tree root until he saw the hole in the rock wall.

The tree roots spread along the top of the cave entrance, but he was not in a hurry and began to clear the soil around the cave entrance. However, he stopped after clearing only half of it. The cave entrance was too big and there was no need to waste energy. Half of the size was enough for him to pass through, or even just a corner was enough for him to pass through. He continued to clear out the soil just to estimate the size of the cave entrance.

He continued collecting dirt and stones as he went along, but soon he had nothing left to collect.

A large empty hole, a conspicuous pool, and a huge monster sleeping soundly beside the pool.

He tried to take a step, but his posture was a little off.

After thinking about it, he cast a zero-ring spell, Mental Boiling, on himself, trying to suppress the fear in his heart. He didn't know if it was a psychological effect, but it really didn't work.

Is this a dragon?
He saw the roots of the tree extending from the soil at the entrance of the cave all the way to the pool of water. He turned his head and looked at the sleeping giant.

I bravely walked forward. The pool was at the feet of the giant creature, and the source of the water was obviously from it.

There was a faint smell of blood in the pool.

This pool of water... the smell of blood... this big guy...

He looked around, examining it from different angles, and an answer gradually emerged in his mind, but it seemed a little outrageous. This was a giant dragon that had been hiding here for who knows how long, and had been injured to the point of urinating blood. It was also a giant dragon that would urinate blood from time to time even in its sleep.

Of course, if it really is a dragon.

(End of this chapter)