"You're awake." An old man with long white hair and beard was standing next to me. His long beard reaching halfway down his chest, his hair was unkempt and some deep wrinkles furrow his lower forehead. He was wearing a dark gray robe and holding a pipe with his left hand. Smoke rises from the pipe and fill the whole room as he let out a few puffs.
"Where am I?" I asked him.
"You're in my humble hut."
"Did you save me?"
"I saw you fighting with a bear nearby the river. You passed out, so I have no choice but to take you back before the monsters eat you."
"Thank you for saving me."
"Hmmm…" He just nodded and walk out of the room.
I stand up and look around me. There's a door on the left side, and window on the right side. In front of me is a shelf stacked with books and glass bottles with different colors of liquids inside. In the middle of the room was a square wooden table. On top of it was a stack of books, a lamp, pitcher, paper scrolls, and a set of ink and quill pen.
I turned around and realize there is a fireplace behind me.
'Holy shit, that's a big soup pot!'
There was a black cauldron that big enough to fit an entire human placed above the fire. The sound of bubbling, boiling hot cauldron with the fire crackling under it filled the room. Smoke rises from the boiling liquid, emitting gleaming purple light from inside the cauldron.
The old man enters the room and realizes that I was staring at the cauldron with curiosity.
"Hehe.. That's a very big soup pot." I laugh awkwardly as I pointed at the cauldron on the fireplace.
"It's a cauldron, not soup pot." He looks at me with an offended face as if he was just been insulted.
'What's with that look…'
"So what are you cooking with that big cauldron? Me?"
'Better be straightforward than beating around the bush.'
"I'm brewing a magical potion," He stopped talking for a while before he continues, "And stop talking like everyone was trying to eat you."
'But I'm not wrong, right?'
This old man seems to guess what I was thinking inside my head.
"Can't help. I was almost roasted alive by a group of werewolves and shredded to pieces by a fierce bear."
"Werewolves??" He seems to be thinking about something.
"Yes, the werewolves in that small village," I ponder for a while, "I can't remember the name."
"Dacian. The forbidden village of the werewolves." There was a complicated look on his face.
'Did I say something I wasn't supposed to say?'
"Ahhh… Yes, that's the name. The village in the middle of the forest."
"The whole clan of the werewolves was annihilated a few days ago, their village was burnt down and reduced to ash."
"Ahh.. Really? What a pity. They must have offended someone."
'Who asked them to try to cook me.'
"It can't be helped. They deserve it anyway. They killed too many innocent lives."
"I know, right. They should just stick to potatoes and wild animals. Who knows they have such an extravagance appetite."
The old man just smiles at me.
He walks over to the cauldron and take out a wooden spatula out of nowhere and start mixing the ingredients inside the cauldron.
'Where did that spatula comes from?'
He made a gesture with his hand. In a blink of an eye, a glass bottle appears in his hand. He was murmuring something but I couldn't hear what he is saying. He makes another hand gesture, suddenly the boiling liquid inside the cauldron move on its own and filled the glass bottle. Such a huge cauldron, but the liquid inside it was just enough to fill the glass bottle. The glass bottle looks like it can fit around one liter at most.
I walk over and look inside the cauldron. It was empty, I can even see the bottom.
"Whoa…! What kind of sorcery is this?"
Thousands of questions crossed my mind. I've seen a lot of magic tricks before, but this is new.
"What other magic you know? Come on, show me!" I grab his shoulder excitedly.
With a proud look on his face, he turns around facing the wooden table, lifts his hand, and perform another series of hand gesture. Suddenly, the broom starts swiping the floor on its own, the feather duster starts dusting the shelf, books flying back to the shelf and the quill start writing on the scroll as if someone was holding it.
"Whoaa, amazing! You're such a resourceful magician!"
'If I know this magic, I don't have to do labor work anymore. I can just open a cleaning service company and let magic do its work.'
"What magician? I'm a wizard."
'Isn't it's the same thing?'
He takes another look at me and says, "When are you leaving?"
"Huh?"
"The door is over there."
"…"
"Its getting dark. You should leave now."
"Sigh… Alright Mr. Magician, I shall take my leave now. Thank you for saving me today."
I walk towards the door in agony.
Five minutes later.
"Can I stay here tonight?"
"No."
"Alright."
Ten minutes later.
"Where is the nearest town?"
"To the south. Around one day walk."
Thirty minutes later.
"I catch some wild rabbit. I will make some stew tonight, alright?"
Mr. Magician: "…"
'I thought you are supposed to leave.'
***
"That was a good dinner." I pat my belly and clear the dish on the table as I speak, "So, when are we going to start our first lesson?"
I look at Sir Tristan, the wizard whom I just learn his name during dinner, and whom I shamelessly begged to teach me spells in exchange for my cooking service and helping him to exterminate monster.
He walks over to the bookshelf, takes a thick book and hand it over to me.
"After you're done reading this book."
"Holy shit! This is a very thick book. Perfect for killing a cockroach."
The word "Spellbook Collection for Beginner" was written in front of the book.
"It's about ten inches thick. I'm probably dead before I finished reading the whole book."
"If you don't want to read this, then leave."
He pointed at the door as he turned around to put the book back on the shelf.
'What a fierce old man.'