Exploring Technology in a Wizard World

Noon.

In a patch of forest.

"Bang Bang Bang!"

Heavy footsteps sounded as a burly black shadow slowly approached a cave.

One could see that this figure was about 1.6 meters tall, yet weighed up to 400 kilograms—it was, indeed, a black bear.

Yes, a black bear.

At that moment, the black bear, holding most of a beehive, waved its thick bear paws to chase away several dozen bees buzzing around it, and greedily licked the sweet honey inside the beehive with its barbed tongue, clearly enjoying itself.

After enjoying for a while, the black bear approached the entrance of the cave, ready to enter and slowly savor its feast, but suddenly, it sniffed the air and smelled an unfamiliar scent.

Yes, an unfamiliar scent, the scent of an intruder!

"Smack!"

The black bear dropped the beehive it had been holding, landed on all fours, and warily looked into the cave, taking a combat stance as it sniffed the air even more vigorously.

The longer it sniffed, the more certain it became that a hateful creature had entered its territory and boldly moved into its cave.

"Roar!"

The black bear roared into the cave, both as a show of force and a warning. It wanted the damned intruder to come out so it could break its neck and kill it—it didn't want to fight inside the cave, which was both narrow and dark. Not only would it restrict its powerful combat abilities, but it could also damage the cave.

Truly, if the cave were damaged, finding another suitable dwelling wouldn't be easy.

Thinking this, the black bear roared a few more times, but there was no response from inside the cave.

The intruder seemed to have made up its mind not to come out.

Was it afraid?

The black bear didn't know the intruder's thoughts, but was infuriated and didn't want to wait any longer. It started to rush toward the cave.

However, just as it took a step forward, it stopped, as if it had thought of something.

Turning back, the black bear picked up the beehive it had dropped on the ground, licked it vigorously a few times, and carefully hid it behind some nearby stones to prevent it from being stolen by other wild animals or peers.

After finishing these precautions, the black bear loudly roared and charged into the cave, ready to teach the accursed intruder a lesson and reclaim what belonged solely to it. It wanted to show who truly owned this territory.

"Thud Thud Thud..."

The black bear charged in!

"Roar Roar Roar!"

The black bear roared loudly!

"Pff pff..."

The black bear... fled out.

Yes, the black bear fled out, looking very disheveled with eyes filled with terror, as if it had seen the most horrifying thing in the world.

At that moment, the black bear thought, forget its cave, forget being the lord of its domain! It just wanted to leave this accursed place as quickly as possible, the further the better, never to return.

Right, if possible, it would be best to take the beehive it had just picked from the tree. After all, there was still plenty of honey left inside.

"Thud Thud Thud!"

Quickly stepping forward, most of the black bear's body had already left the cave entrance when it turned and ran towards the place where it had hidden the honey. Then, just at that moment, an incredibly pale hand stretched out from the cave, and with a "snap," accurately grabbed the black bear's short tail.

"Au! Au!"

The black bear yelped in pain, never before so resentful of its short tail.

Tail!

Damn, why would it have such a thing on its body? Not only short and useless, but now it also got caught because of it.

"Awoo! Awoo!"

The black bear howled loudly, howls of anger, reluctance, and despair.

Amidst the howling, it was dragged into the cave by the hand that reached out from within and disappeared from sight. After that, its howling gradually weakened, eventually ceasing altogether.

...

An hour passed.

"Tap tap tap..."

Light and frivolous footsteps sounded as Mr. Sande, wrapped in a Black Robe, emerged from the cave.

His complexion was still pale, his eyes cloudy and icy, like two Ice Balls. The charred wounds on his body had healed significantly except for the most severe one on his chest, which remained as it was.

"Cough cough..."

Mr. Sande coughed lightly, spitting out dark blood. He slowly raised his head, squinting at the sunlight filtering through the trees, finding it somewhat irritating. The light didn't actually harm him, but as he delved deeper into the spells from that book and his power increased, he grew increasingly averse to light and preferred darkness.

He knew this aversion was not genuine, just the latent influence of the spells from the book.

And this was just one of the costs of learning from that book—there were many more.

In a sense, the spells in that book were truly malevolent and should not exist in this world, but he had learned them to resurrect Sofia.

In his view, if he could bring Sofia back and stay with her forever, any price was worth paying.

However, who knew that such a thing would happen later, causing everything to fail.

He had lost Sofia forever and had to continuously bear the consequent aftermath.

Without Sofia, he really didn't know why he should continue to live, perhaps only fueled by the anger of avenging Sofia and the faint hope that a miracle might resurrect her.

However, those alone were far from enough to fill his entire heart. Facing enemies, he could focus completely. But once alone, he felt lost, clueless about what to do besides studying the spells from the book.

"Cough cough..."

Mr. Sande coughed again, spitting out more dark blood. He then thought of something, turned his head toward the cave entrance, and rasped out, "Hey, stop playing dead in there. Come out! I know I've drained a lot of blood from you, but I'm aware you're far from dead, alive and well. If you continue to feign death, I don't mind turning you into actually dead."

A creature from the cave seemed to understand Mr. Sande's words. Following some "fluttering" noises, the black bear, which had been despairingly dragged into the cave earlier, slowly walked out.

Stepping out of the cave, the black bear looked fearfully at Mr. Sande. Bracing itself, it crawled closer and pleasingly licked Mr. Sande's hanging hand.

After being licked, Mr. Sande lifted his hand and slapped the black bear on the head, scolding, "Do you think you're a dog?"

The black bear hesitated, not quite understanding Mr. Sande's words, but it could tell Mr. Sande didn't appreciate this way of appeasing, which was somewhat insulting.

But it was clear to the bear what was more important between pride and life.

So, it kept licking without any mistake.

Mr. Sande frowned, slapped the black bear again, and waved his hand in disgust, "Alright, I've had enough of your blood for now. I won't need any more for a while, get lost."

The black bear, observing Mr. Sande's actions, felt even more insulted. Then it thought it might be a trap.

Yes, a trap.

The cunning human in front of it must be pretending to let it go, only to ambush and kill it from behind.

It wasn't going to fall for it, determined not to leave the human's sight, even at the cost of losing its freedom.

Which is more important? Freedom or life?

Of course, life!

For the third time, the black bear licked Mr. Sande vigorously.