The wizard's journey

Thud, thud, thud, intense knocking sounds came from the heavy door. Inside the small thatched cottage, Grim, who was sleeping under a worn blanket, was instantly awakened by the noise. The icy numbness under his feet made him gasp for air, but Grim didn't dare to delay, shouting, "Coming!" Grim swiftly put on his tattered clothes, grabbed the leather coat serving as a second blanket, and opened the wooden door. The cold winter wind, mixed with ice particles, made Grim's body shudder. Outside, Old Ham was huddled on a broken wooden cart, holding a whip in one hand and clacking his tobacco pipe with the other. "Hurry up, the road's bad today, we'll get a scolding if we're late." After taking a puff from his pipe, Old Ham muttered to Grim. "Oh, got it." Grim closed the door, nimbly climbed onto the cart, everything as usual. Since taking on this steady job with Uncle Ham, Grim heard him grumble this every day. Ham didn't say much more. After another puff of his pipe, he cracked the whip fiercely. The old horse groaned and continued trudging through the snow-covered road. Grim leaned against the cart's railing, closed his eyes to nap again. Based on past experience, in this snowy weather, it would take at least half an hourglass for the old cart to reach the viscount's mansion in the city, by which time it would be nearly dawn. Leaning on the cart, Grim, smelling the familiar scent of dry tobacco, felt deeply grateful to Old Ham. Grim's earliest memory was of a winter with heavy snowfall. Before that, his memories were a blank slate, and no one had seen Grim, as if he had popped into this world out of nowhere. Since then, Grim often roamed with a group of orphans in the city of Biser, living a begging life, barely surviving, until one day the childless elderly Ham saw Grim's lively spirit. Thinking of his childless state, Ham took Grim in. Old Ham chuckled, "When I'm gone, these two cottages and the old horse will be yours." Truthfully, these two rural cottages and the old cart weren't worth much, but they made Grim feel a profound gratitude towards Old Ham, viewing him as a parent. As for the livelihood that allowed Old Ham and Grim to survive, it involved getting up before dawn each day to go to the viscount's mansion in Biser city. They cleaned up the massive amount of trash left behind after the nobles' nightly revelries, disposed of it outside the city, and then procured all the supplies needed for the next night's festivities in the viscount's domain. This routine took up most of their day. Half an hourglass later, the road began to smooth out as it was paved with stones. Grim, dozing off in the cart, woke up without needing Old Ham's reminder, knowing they had arrived at Biser City, and they were soon to reach the Viscount's mansion. He hurriedly brushed off the snow from his body as a way of grooming. Usually, by the time Grim and Old Ham reached the Viscount's mansion, the nobles who had partied there all night had mostly gone. Even if some had not left, those high and mighty nobles wouldn't spare a second glance at these lowly servants. However, the Viscount's mansion's old butler was a tough character, always making things difficult for servants like Grim, waiting to scrounge some benefits. He had more than once extorted silver coins from Old Ham using the excuse of improper appearance. The two tall, muscular knight guards at the entrance of the Viscount's mansion, after a night of vigil, were already exhausted. They glanced at Old Ham and Grim, familiar faces over the years, and paid them no mind. Old Ham gave a forced smile while Grim jumped down from the cart, bowing his head as he entered the Viscount's mansion, not daring to look around, and headed straight for the luxurious hall that needed careful cleaning every day. Suddenly, Grim and Old Ham sensed an unusual atmosphere today; the old butler at the entrance of the hall looked grim, his sharp, triangular eyes fiercely glaring at them. He quickly approached them. The old butler whispered harshly, "Stay here, block your ears, and close your eyes." "Yes, yes," Grim and Old Ham hastily complied. Muffled noises of a commotion could faintly be heard from the hall, though not clearly, it seemed like a girl was making a fuss. Instinctively, Grim and Old Ham knew she must be someone important. After about another half an hour, as the day fully dawned, Grim and Old Ham were freezing and stomping their feet to stay warm. The old butler, who had been waiting at the entrance, came over with a grim face and barked, "If you can't stand the cold, don't come back tomorrow." Grim and Old Ham's faces fell. After struggling a few times, Old Ham took out a silver coin from his tattered clothes and handed it to the butler, repeatedly apologizing, "We can bear it, we can." The butler skillfully pocketed the silver coin and ignored them, anxiously waiting at the entrance, occasionally peering inside. Grim couldn't help but whisper bitterly, "Damn, he just took benefits from us a few days ago, and now he wants more!" "Ah, let it be. Plenty of people would want our job, and the old butler would love to see us gone." Old Ham sighed. Just then, a girl in luxurious noble attire, her delicate face covered in tears, ran out from the hall, stopped near Grim and Old Ham, and shouted back into the hall. "I won't go to Lilith Cottage Wizarding School, nor will I become a wizard!" Fuming, she threw a book out, then stormed off from the Viscount's mansion. "The insolence! What are you two standing there for? Don't just stand there; go after her!" a corpulent noble furiously yelled at two knights in armor. To Grim's disbelief, the normally aloof Viscount now appeared helpless and apologetic next to the irate noble, softly trying to reason with him. "what does she know? To forsake the wizard I've arranged with great expense for some young lover? You must realize, in half a year it will be..." In a hurry, the Viscount left with the corpulent noble, not sparing a glance at Grim and Old Ham. As for the old butler, he too hurriedly followed them out, taking the two guards with him, disappearing into the snowy landscape. Suddenly, the courtyard was silent and deserted. Seeing no one around, Grim instinctively moved to pick up the book on the ground, but Old Ham stepped forward, tapped Grim's hand with his tobacco pipe, and whispered, "Are you asking for trouble?" Grim winced in pain, whispering back, "Should be fine, right? If someone asks, we'll just say we threw it out while cleaning. It was that noble lady who threw it on the ground after all." After thinking it over and looking around to confirm they were alone, Old Ham nodded in agreement. Grim concealed the book in his clothes and then nonchalantly started cleaning the hall with Old Ham. They swept all the trash left from the noble's overnight revelry into the cart. Until they left, no one asked about the book's whereabouts, and Grim didn't give it another thought. Creaking, the cart filled with trash slowly left Biser City. Sitting atop a cart filled with trash, Grim lost any inclination to sleep, he pulled out the book he had found. Frowning, Grim, a servant working hard for the nobility, typically wouldn't know how to read. However, thanks to Old Ham, who had once been an apprentice accountant for a shop in his younger years, Grim had learned to read before the shop closed down. Grim's frown deepened because the script on the book's cover used words not commonly seen in everyday life, filled with unfamiliar characters. After a long while, Grim managed to decipher the words. "‘Hunting Nose Transformation and Scent Atlas’? What is this?" Grim gaped, initially thinking it was a minstrel's biographical novel, a favorite among noble ladies and gentlemen, only to find the noble lady had discarded a book with such an odd title. Wait! A realization struck Grim, widening his eyes in disbelief. Could this be a book of secret magic and witchcraft recorded by a wizard? Wizards, a subject only the nobility dared to discuss, were so elusive that common folk might go their entire lives without ever encountering one. To the common people, wizards wielded mysterious and dark magics. Yet, these wizards, capable of easily killing commoners and even knights, wielding extraordinary powers, were greatly revered. Grim had often fantasized about the mysterious and mighty wizards: What powers did they rely on? Why couldn't ordinary people wield such powers? If he became a wizard, wielding those mysterious and great powers, he wouldn't have to kowtow to the nobility any longer. With a sense of disbelief, Grim eagerly flipped through the "Hunting Nose Transformation and Scent Atlas" meticulously reading each word, sometimes pondering over unfamiliar ones or even skipping them momentarily. Slowly, amazement began to dawn on Grim's face as if a whole new world had opened up to him! The so-called scents, differentiated by the olfactory system's ability to distinguish volatile molecules in the air, with the most pungent odors comprising half of what organisms can discern. According to the "Scent Atlas" normal humans could distinguish between 30 to 400 different scents, with some peculiar individuals discerning up to 600. However, this paled in comparison to other creatures. For example, the crying chick, capable of emitting cries like a human infant, could distinguish over 6,500 scents according to experiments. Or the shadow butterfly, a magical creature that survives on collecting foul scents, distinguishing over 8,200 scents... The book mentioned the creature known to capture the most scents in the air, the three-headed dog, a formidable being even wizards feared to provoke, capable of distinguishing all known scents a wizard could separate, totaling 17,852. The olfactory ability of the three-headed dog was unbelievably advanced! "Hunting Nose Transformation" described how wizards could modify their own bodies to mimic the sensitive olfactory capabilities of certain creatures, achieving perfect olfactory evolution. The magical experiments involved numerous strange materials and a term that Grim hadn't yet understood, "cells." "Grim, Grim!" Old Ham called out twice before Grim snapped back from the fascinating world of the magic book, hastily helping to dispose of the cart's trash. After clearing all the trash, Grim and Old Ham, as per their routine, began purchasing goods from the viscount's lands for the nobility's evening consumption. Busy until dusk, they delivered all the goods to the city's viscount mansion and, with a few copper coins in hand, headed back to the countryside. Grim remained engrossed in the "Hunting Nose Transformation and Scent Atlas." Old Ham glanced back at Grim and sighed, "You're really enchanted by that book, aren't you? Is it that interesting?" Grim chuckled, not saying much, but his heart was filled with longing and astonishment for the mysterious world of wizards. Are there truly moving mountains alive? Rivers flowing from the sky? And what about those otherworldly realms? What principles do wizards use to wield their powerful magic? A slew of questions flooded Grim's mind, with no one to answer them. "Ah, turning seventeen already, huh? Next year, let's fix up the house, see if we can find a suitable girl nearby to be your wife. I hope I can see my grandchildren before I lay my old bones to rest," Old Ham mused. Grim, without looking up, casually replied, "What are you on about? You'll live a hundred years, ruling the world is nothing." "Ha ha..." Amused by Grim's jest, Old Ham continued driving the cart along the familiar road.