Though he didn't recognize what kind of flower the bud was, it was still better than a kobold's face, he thought.

  He picked up the small storage pouch and linked it with his mental power, pressing the back of his hand against it to apply the Arcane Mark with minimal effort. The curiously constructed little bag established a connection with him instantly; from this day forward, it was entirely under his control.

  Probing inward with his mind, he found the interior of the small bag to be roughly the size of two small lockers. The space inside was irregular and constantly shifted its shape, making it difficult to get an exact measurement. However, there was no need to worry about things being crushed; as the space warped, it would simply bounce off any stored items it encountered.

  Once branded, the pouch was incredibly convenient. With a mere thought near the opening, an item would be sucked inside with a swoosh. To retrieve something, he only had to scan the interior with his mental power, and the object would appear directly in his hand.

  After tidying everything away, he spent a long time turning the Bull's Strength legacy scroll over in his hands before finally tucking it into the bag for later. Standing in his usual spot, he looked at the materials for his shorts carefully laid out on the cave wall; in the end, he decided not to put them into the storage pouch. This moment of organization allowed him to cool down and clear his mind, making his thoughts more fluid.

  Brushing aside the sparse fur on his arm, he noted that the Fetid Skin spell remained active. His skin had taken on a strange black-purple hue, yet he felt no physical discomfort. When he attempted to stop the spell, the discoloration vanished in the blink of an eye.

  After a moment's thought, he pulled out the stone strip used for testing a wizard apprentice's mental power. He gripped it tightly and concentrated; a single dot lit up as before, but it seemed noticeably brighter than last time.

  The ten dots on the stone strip each represented one standard unit of mental power. The first five dots corresponded to the five levels of a wizard apprentice. Lighting up five dots meant one's mental strength had reached the qualifying line for a Level 5 apprentice. However, the path didn't end there; the upper limit for a Level 5 apprentice was ten standard units. Only upon reaching that height could one prepare to ascend to a full wizard.

  Consequently, even among Level 5 apprentices, mental strength could vary wildly. Furthermore, many veteran apprentices who had stagnated at this level for years had accumulated vast amounts of spell knowledge. This meant the actual combat strength between two Level 5 apprentices could be worlds apart.

  Tars resumed maintaining the Fetid Skin spell. He intended to keep it active indefinitely; the less drain he felt, the more he wanted to find his true limit. As long as he didn't stop the spell, he could at least enjoy a peaceful sleep. He suddenly realized that by maintaining this spell, he was now the safest kobold in the tribe—perhaps the only one who could roam the hunting grounds alone. A newfound sense of security swelled within him. Perhaps he would never suffer from insomnia again.

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  With that thought, he pulled out his ultimate treasure: the black book. Now that he was a wizard apprentice, it was time to try flipping to the next page. He needed to continue studying the meditation method to prepare for the construction of his next Sigil.

  Rubbing the pages with his fingers, he wondered if the half-man also practiced this Sigil Meditation. Though the man had given him the book, it was possible the black book had originally belonged to the owner of the diary—the apprentice Karyu, who was now just words on a page. The half-man's state, neither truly dead nor fully alive, was terrifyingly eerie. Tars had no desire to see that fractured skull again unless absolutely necessary, but he knew there was no such thing as a free lunch. For now, he assumed the half-man simply looked down on him because he was too weak—a "Great Kobold Grub-Catching Master" was hardly worth noticing.

  His brow twitched as he flipped open the unread portion of the black book, turning many pages at once this time. He saw six new, more complex runes in one go. To reach Level 2, he would need to use the six runes he already knew plus these six new ones—twelve in total—to form the second Sigil.

  The black book's unprecedented generosity caught him off guard, but it confirmed that his mental power had reached a new stage. As a wizard apprentice, his mental energy was more condensed and better able to withstand the strain of the runes.

  "Short-lived race? Short-lived... that means at my current age, I'm already not young."

  His first thought was that his plan to grow taller and stronger was likely a failure. "I wonder if I have enough time left to successfully become a wizard," he mused while looking at the new content.

  Turning a new page, the first paragraph described a method to accelerate mental recovery—exactly what he needed. He had originally planned to wait until tomorrow to use the Bull's Strength scroll. Following the instructions, he visualized the six runes from his first Sigil directly above the Sigil itself in his mental space. Tracing runes in this state cost nothing; instead, they acted like pumps, drawing something through the Sigil to replenish his mental power.

  The mental fatigue quickly dissolved, and the energy spent on his recent spell and Sigil construction was restored. He felt invigorated. It seemed his natural recovery speed was significantly higher than what was described in the book.

  After a brief rest, he tore open the Bull's Strength legacy scroll without hesitation and began building the spell model. This model had twenty-one nodes. Once successful, he immediately began empowering it. The models for Bull's Strength and Arcane Mark now drifted around the Sigil in the void. Once the empowerment was complete, he guided a phantom image of the twenty-one-node model into the Sigil.

  The temporary spell slot of the Sigil finally had its first tenant. However, this twenty-one-node guest was destined for a short stay.

  He began meditating to recover his strength. If he couldn't grow taller naturally, he would compensate with magic, arming himself with the power of spells. As for Depilation and Mental Seethe, there was no rush; his mental space had endured enough tremors for one day, and he had one more task to perform.

  By his estimation, with a full tank of mental power, he could empower the Arcane Mark model about twelve times—meaning twelve casts in short succession—and Bull's Strength about eight times. This was the rough capacity of a Level 1 wizard apprentice. His calculations were likely accurate.

  He ended his meditation and grabbed his staff. The black book was safely tucked away in his storage pouch, so he no longer had to carry it. Now, there was only one step left to put his mind at ease: a field test to see if this "stinkless" stinking spell had actually gone wrong. After solidifying it, he felt more and more that Fetid Skin had been a superior choice to something like Firebolt.

  He was about to be very glad he made that decision.