Chapter 3: Is There Anything Wrong with Older People Enjoying Some Antiques?

Kraft's grandfather, the first noble of this family, was named Mark Wood, or one could simply call him Old Wood.

Of course, when Old Wood was as young as the current Kraft, he did not yet have this surname. Back then, he was just a sturdy lad from the countryside whose main job was cracking skulls on the battlefield.

Due to his extraordinary talent, although Old Wood had received no training, he still demonstrated excellent professional capability. While others struggled to crack one skull, he would crack four or five without blinking an eye.

Relying on such outstanding performance, he progressed from cracking skulls while wearing only a pair of trousers, to cracking skulls in leather armor, and finally had the honor of cracking skulls while wearing full plate armor and wielding a two-handed sword. Recalling these glorious years, Old Wood would excitedly pat his knees every time.

Much like the development in most stories, after a half-life of military service, Old Wood gained the appreciation of a great figure, obtaining his current baronial title and a small-to-medium-sized fiefdom in his hometown.

Having achieved fame and fortune, combined with the recurrence of his old knee injury, he chose to return to his hometown of Wood Town, adopted the town's name as his family surname, and began planning the construction of his own castle on the small hill behind the town.

As if Old Wood's first half of life had exhausted all the luck of this family, during the thirty years while the castle was gradually being built, first Old Wood's wife died of a plague, and the priest's prayers could not save her life; then Old Wood's son, Little Wood, unfortunately died on the battlefield, and Kraft's mother died in childbirth.

The entire direct family line was left with only Old Wood himself and his grandson, Kraft Wood. The newly built castle was shrouded in invisible dark clouds, and a cursed, chilling atmosphere permeated every corner inside and outside the stone walls.

Perhaps even the so-called gods of the Church felt that such a fate was too cruel to Old Wood, for Kraft did not suffer the same misfortune.

Instead, he grew up healthily within the stone walls of the castle until he was ten years old, with not a single opportunity to encounter danger; even the swords used for physical education were unsharpened (this was already the maximum level of safety measure in Old Wood's view).

Old Wood, now with a head full of white hair, let out a long sigh of relief while resolving to teach his grandson some skills other than twirling two-handed swords, so that at least he wouldn't have nothing to do but crack skulls in the future.

Thus, Scholar Anderson was personally invited by Old Wood from Wendeng Port Academy to begin teaching Kraft reading and writing in the local language, as well as calligraphy, poetry, and other content that Old Wood considered somewhat "elegant."

Facts proved that the old man's choice was correct; Kraft transformed from a child whose mind was full of recreating his grandfather's glorious years into a child who could sit quietly in the study—at least after Old Wood had offered some traditional and effective guidance.

After finding a new direction for Kraft's development, Old Wood could finally devote himself peacefully to some of his own hobbies and enjoy his old age.

Speaking of which, this hobby was quite special; it mainly rose after the war ended, developing from an extremely niche interest to what can now only be considered a small-group hobby, popular mainly among young, educated nobles and a portion of scholars.

Formerly known as Occultism, it is now also called Anomalous Phenomena; the Church denounces it as heretical nonsense, while simple materialist scholars generally believe it to be undiscovered principles of nature's operation.

To put it simply, it includes a messy assortment of uncommon, unexplainable things, including but not limited to fire appearing in one's hands or emitting light.

By all rights, the audience for this hobby should not overlap at all with someone like Old Wood, a semi-literate old skull-cracking expert.

But while others were merely chasing rumors, Old Wood had encountered them himself in his youth. Late at night, a group of mysterious figures in black robes with fire and light in their hands and painted faces suddenly jumped out; they could even rub fire and light onto their swords. Old Wood's skull-cracking team suffered heavy casualties before cracking all their skulls, and he himself was injured in the knee.

According to his own description, while kicking one of them over, he was grazed by that light; his entire knee guard was completely twisted and shattered, as if a boot had kicked an unspeakable part, and a small piece of metal was embedded in his knee.

As a pragmatist, Old Wood did not quite agree with the chaplain's explanation that these things were the tricks of pagans. Although, following the priest's words, he burned the bodies and personal belongings of these people, the curiosity and longing in his heart could not be burned away.

From collecting various amulets in his youth to filling the entire castle with strange objects now, Old Wood's interest in unknown powers has never waned. After losing so many family members, he threw himself wholeheartedly into the hobby of collecting these things; it is hard to say whether there was an element of escaping reality.

And speaking of Teacher Anderson, this one was even more of an old Anomalous Phenomena enthusiast. Back then at Wendeng Port Academy, he was a famous enthusiast of Anomalous Phenomena research, but he suffered from the circle being too niche, with no one to talk to.

He and Old Wood, who came to Wendeng Port to find a teacher for Kraft, hit it off immediately—using the terminology from the otherworldly soul's side, this could be described as Boya meeting Zhong Ziqi, where Gaoshan and the flowing water met a kindred spirit, establishing a friendship that transcended age, differences in education level, and social status.

With Anderson, Old Wood's collection scope suddenly expanded from objects to various forbidden and ancient books; the inventory in the castle's secret library likely far exceeded the level of ordinary heretics, reaching a degree where even the Church's Inquisition would have to look at it with respect.

However, not to mention Wood Town, even Wendeng Port was considered a rural area; the Church's control over this entire region was limited to the Wendeng Port Church and the square in front of the door filled with seagulls. Being able to clean the bird droppings was already considered diligence by the local person in charge.

As long as a cultist with a flying octopus face didn't show up locally to jump out and scare people, no one would care if heretics fed seagulls in the square. The previous Mr. Fire Hand probably came here for this reason as well.

Considering there was no church in the town, Old Wood could carry two stone-carved rune eyeballs as hand-grips while taking a walk, and someone would still have to praise the bold design style, saying it was indeed an object worthy of Lord Wood.

Upon learning that a legendary "Spellcaster" had arrived in Wendeng Port, Kraft, who just happened to want to take a stroll in Wendeng Port, was grabbed and given a bunch of confusing instructions, then set off on the fastest horse in town, completely bewildered.

Such things had not happened for the first time since childhood; with the mindset that as long as his grandfather was happy, Kraft strolled along the way. Upon hearing the news that Mr. Fire Hand's performance had flopped, he felt an unexpected surge of joy; this would save trouble.

However, as the saying goes, since we are already here, it would be unreasonable not to bring something back for the grandfather. After visiting a former colleague of Teacher Anderson along the way, they learned that a village nearby had dug up "heretical items." The two, who were just looking to find something random to fulfill their duty, rushed over through the heavy snow—arriving late might have meant the villagers would hand the item over to the Church for "purification."

Unfortunately, upon arriving at the location, the two discovered that things were not at all as they had imagined. That thing was now right there in the vacant wheat field outside the village; the excavated portion was already as tall as a person, roughly a black stone prism with patterns.

It was strange enough, but obviously it could not be handled in one's hand, nor could it be managed by just two people and two horses. Helpless, Kraft decided to let his cousin take the letter back first, hoping that on the way back he could also hire a cargo cart from Wendeng Port for him.