Under the Oak Tree

Chapter 168

The next morning, Max ran to the library as soon as she finished grooming herself. Ruth had come back last night and she saw him sleeping next to the brazier. She frowned as she looked down at the man lying like a corpse. There were various rooms where he could sleep comfortably just three floors below the library, but it was too tiring for him to make such an effort, and she felt sorry for the man who slept on the stone-cold floor all the time, looking sad and pathetic.

Max looked around, picked up a kindling on the wall and poked him on the back.

“Ruth, it’s morning... wake up.”

“Hng... “

Ruth grunted annoyed and turned his back to her, wearing his cape all the way to his head. Max continued to poke his back like a grumpy kid pushing a wiggling caterpillar.

“Come on, w-wake up... as soon as I opened my eyes this morning... I came here right away.”

“Ugh... I wish you came an hour later...” He squinted his eyes narrowly and looked up at her with a frown. “Did you just poke me like firewood with that?”

Max quickly hid the kindling behind her back. Ruth opened his eyes like he was fully awake and then leapt up to his feet and snapped.

“I’ve been thinking about it before, but aren’t you treating me so harshly?”

“I can’t just carelessly touch the hair or b-body of a s-sleeping man, right?”

“Can’t you at least do it in a more polite manner!” He looked at her displeasingly and sighed. “Anyway, it’s alright. I’ll prepare for class.”

Ruth began to tidy up the parchment and bookshelves on the floor. Max felt a little sorry and quietly helped him clean up. He gathered parchment papers with dense writing, rolled them up, tied them with a leather string, and threw them into a large box.

“Did you read all the books I recommended yesterday?”

“Only half of them... I couldn’t read the others.”

“Did you finish studying element theory?”

“N-not yet...”

He squinted and stroked his chin. “It’s hard to learn defensive and offensive magic without having a basic understanding of geometry and elemental theory. At the least, you should read all of the books I’ve recommended.”

“I will read a l-little more.” Max replied with an interested face. “When I finish reading the books...will I be able to learn how to attack with magic?”

“I thought it would be better for you to learn some basic self-defense magic first.” Ruth shrugged his shoulders. “When you are in a dangerous situation like last time, you should have at least a means to protect yourself.”

Max nodded sullenly as she recalled the wyvern’s attacks. Ruth leaned back and looked at the ceiling with a contemplating face, then snapped his fingers.

“Fine. Today, let’s train you to master the magic you’ve learned so far. I have asked the apprentices to collect the necessary ingredients.”

“I-ingredients?”

When Max asked with a curious face, Ruth gave a soft ominous smile. “It’s a special material that will help greatly improve the lady’s skill.”

Max had an anxious expression written on her face. Just what in the world is he up to?

She glanced at Ruth dubiously as he packed something into a sack he had placed under the desk and walked straight out of the door. Her steps were reluctant as she followed him.

“Where are we going?”

“We’re going to get the materials I told the apprentices to get.”

“What kind of i-ingredient is that?”

“You’ll know once you see it.” Ruth hummed and went out of the castle at once.

Max stopped bombarding him with questions: as Ruth said, she would be seeing it for herself soon. She swallowed the anxiety in her throat as they passed through the long promenade and a wooden building emerged.

Two elm trees towered on both sides of the antique building like gatekeepers. In front of the building were three boys, including Garrow and Yulysion, sparring with wooden swords. Ruth waved one hand at them and greeted them loudly.

“Greetings, everyone.”

“Sir Wizard!”

The apprentice knights laid down their wooden swords and turned their heads towards them.

“We were going to visit as soon as we finished the morning training. You asked yesterday...”

Yulysion, who was speaking cheerfully while wiping his sweaty face, found Max standing behind Ruth and his eyes opened wider. He hurried to her and started chatting happily.

“The lady is here too! How are you? It’s such a relief that you have regained your health! You don’t know how very worried I have been. I should have been able to protect you better...Are you feeling well now?”

“Yuly, calm down. You’re embarrassing the lady.”

The teenage boy Garrow looked at her as he called out Yulysion for his behavior, then smiled politely and talked with a softer tone.

“Greetings, Lady Calypse.”

“G-greetings. I-It’s been a while... since we’ve seen each other, both of you.”

“But what is milady doing here? Does milady have anything to ask us?” Yulysion asked, his eyes shining like lanterns.

Ruth stated his business on behalf of Max, who found herself in a bind. “I’m here to pick up what I asked for yesterday. It’s for the lady’s magic training.”

“Ah! So that was what milady needed! Kindly wait for a moment. I’ll bring it right away.”

Yulysion quickly jumped into the outbuilding while Max looked bewilderingly at the dark entrance. After a while, he came out with a large bucket in his hands. Ruth, who received the bucket, lifted the cover and nodded with a satisfied expression.

Just what is that? Max, intrigued by it, looked over his shoulder and into the bucket. Inside the large container was full of something like a reddish piece of flesh. She was terrified and took steps back in response.

“W-what in the world is that!”

“This is a special helper that will be crucial in training you on your detoxification magic.”

Ruth grinned, reached into the bucket and lifted the thing, which had the size of his palm. It was a large reddish-brown toad with black spots on its back. The dead toad’s black limbs drooped down weakly. Max shuddered at the sight of the creature.

“W-what in the world are you going to do... with that?”

“We’re going to do the so-called ‘detoxification magic special training.’ This black spotted swamp toad is very poisonous. If you practice with this, you’ll be able to decipher drawing out most of the poison at once.”

He shook the dead toad in anticipation. Max’s stomach curled at the sight of its swaying, long, slimy limbs. She stepped back and looked at the path she had come. She wanted to turn back and run away but Yulysion and Garrow were looking so curiously that it was difficult for her to escape from the situation.

Didn’t you pretend to be bold in front of them the other day and brag with all kinds of stories? Max bit her lips with a calm face and gulped.

“W-with that frog... What kind of training are you planning to do? P-perhaps... Are you thinking of poisoning someone for an experiment?”

“No way. Who would cooperate with such a foolish method of training?” He laughed lightly and turned his head towards the apprentices. “Someone bring me a bucket of water. It doesn’t matter if it’s a pot, brass bowl, or basin. Just bring it with plenty of water. “

“I’ll bring it.”

Garrow looked at him with an excited expression on his face and stepped forward. While he was in the outbuilding getting the water, Ruth counted how many toads were there by placing them on a tree stump one by one. A total of 31 toads were counted. Max was on the verge of throwing up, but the wizard let out a burst of admiration.

“How did you manage to catch so many of these in just one day?”

“I used a dead rabbit as a bait. If you put a rabbit or a bird near the swamp, they will surely flock around it.” Yulysion explained with a proud voice. “When the swamp toad had gathered, at that moment, I pulled up the net I had set beforehand and caught them all at once.”

“Indeed!” Ruth struck his palm with his fist and poured out endless compliments. Max murmured deeply, saying she didn’t want to know much about how to catch a swamp toad.

“Will this be enough?”

While they talked about how to collect toads, salamanders, and various poisonous worms, Garrow returned with a bucket of splashing water. Ruth took the bucket and nodded his head with satisfaction.

“It’s perfect.”

Max watched his actions with curiosity. He lowered the bucket by the base of the tree stump and picked up a toad. Then, he took a small knife out of his bag and stabbed it deep into the toad’s back. Black essence flowed from the opening of the toad’s body and fell onto the clear water.

“Now, try purifying this water.”

“Here... do you mean I have to u-use detoxification magic?”

“That’s right. It’s a well-known method used by magicians to master detoxification magic.”

Max looked down through the bucket. A gooey liquid from the toad’s body spread like ink in the water. As she hesitantly placed her hands over it and increased her magic power, she felt a faint sense of resistance. Max tilted her head. The feeling was obviously different from applying magic to the human body, and it was vague to know where to draw the magic formula. As she struggled for a long time not grasping the sensation, Ruth, who was watching silently, gave her some advice.

“Try injecting mana in a circular motion, from the edge to the center. Once you’ve got the trick, it’ll be easier than casting a spell on a human body.”

Max followed as he instructed and let her mana flow from the edge of the surface. The blue energy from the palm of her hand slowly began to purify, focusing on the black energy in the water and drawing it into the center, slowly cleansing.

After a long time, the water that had been contaminated with a cloudy tint returned to its clear color. Ruth nodded as he tasted the water with his fingertips.

“Well done. One thing to note is that you’ve wasted too much mana, but you’ll be able to work on that with repeated practice.”

“Are we repeating t-this exercise... over and over again?”

“You have to do it over and over again.” Ruth said firmly and threw the toad’s corpse to the base of the tree stump. “These toads were caught eagerly by these apprentices, so why not make use of all of them meaningfully?”

Max looked at the bucket filled with toads with a pale complexion. Do I have to keep going until they’re all used? Her shoulders drooped unexcitedly while Yulysion, who wasn’t able to read the room, declared proudly.

“I’ll catch them again so milady can use as many as she wants. To serve the lady is a great pleasure and an honor to a knight.”

“Next time, please catch a long-tailed lizard.”

“Please leave it to me! I’ll find you as many as you want, there are plenty of them in the west cave.”

Yulysion exclaimed confidently, tapping his chest with his fist and she smiled stiffly. Before Ruth left for the expedition, it really seemed like he was making sure to improve her skill. Without hesitation, he picked up one more toad. A long tongue hung from the dead toad’s mouth. Max barely swallowed the vomit coming up her throat as he chopped off the tongue with a dagger and held it out in front of her.

“Would you like to try it yourself this time?”

Max’s shoulder stiffened, she wanted to shake her head in disagreement, but the apprentices watched her with anticipation so she couldn’t show a sign of disgust. She eventually accepted the wet, slippery toad with tightly closed eyes. The cold, soft, texture made goosebumps travel all over her body. It was the worst texture that she had ever touched in her life. Max flipped the body of the toad, holding back the urge to throw it away. Ruth placed a dagger in her hand and pointed with his fingertip on a spot just under the head of the toad.

“Now, with the knife... you can stab this part deeply and cut it long.”

Max hesitated for a while, and then pushed the dagger into the toad’s cold body. Its skin was tougher than she had thought, so she had to exert more strength with her harm for it to budge. As her hands rattled and barely slit the toad’s back, a black, sticky liquid oozed.

She was in a hurry to throw the toad away and finally reach the end of this experience, but Ruth mercilessly gave the next order.

“Now squeeze the toad. There should be enough poison flowing out.”

The next time she found that wizard sleeping, she swore deeply to her heart that she would poke a hole in his back with a kindling.

Note – Nymeria: Okay I’m vomiting here. Ruth... YUCK!