Experimentation

'...'

"..."

Looking at the small figure that had no weapon the statue was confused, why were they so deep in the dungeon by themselves? Maybe they had something in the large rucksack on their back that helped against monsters. Although it did look like the salamander was about to eat something before it was thrown and executed, so the small figure clearly wasn't strong enough to survive.

'... None of my business' it thought before wrenching the great-ax from the floor and turning away.

"A-ah, umm..." A small voice called out, but it ignored it, the more people that knew about it the more dangerous the situation was.

Taking a stance and kicking off with its left foot it uses a burst of speed to flee down the hallway while taking a few detours in case of being followed and returns to its home within a few minutes of sprinting. Very few monsters remained on the way and were swiftly split in half or flattened, though the statue had to hold their crystals in its hand since the only pocket it had was full.

Its room was as it left it, not really a surprise. First, it mended the worktable it split before laying out its spoils across the table. Then it used earth magic to shave off a thin layer on the great-ax in order to get rid of the blood and only after it splattered on the floor did the dungeon recycle it.

'.. Whatever.'

It did not bother trying to figure out the oddly specific mechanisms and turned its attention back to the table. Every crystal was an imperfect rhombic dodecahedron, sporting twelve sides with minute differences depending on the size. The crystals with more flaws were dimmer while the few crystals that had an almost perfect shape were quite bright compared to the unlit room. The most notable one was the crystal it got from the first charred skeleton knight that was leading its own platoon, instead of being a dull grey like the others it had a flicker of red in the center like a frozen flame. It could feel it had a warmth that the others did not have and prodding it with earth magic gave no response, unlike the grey crystals.

It set it aside for the time being and focused on the grey crystals, they came from monsters and had magic in them, albeit faint. Its train of thought dictated that it should be able to merge them with the great-ax to make up for not have any metal. It selected a few of the larger ones and brushed the others into a pile before laying the great-ax on the table with the selected crystals spaced evenly on the blades on both sides of the head.

It began to focus and pour energy into the magic flow of the reinforcement infusion with one hand while activating earth magic with its left in order to soften both ax and crystal alike. Once softened to a sufficient degree it began manipulating the crystals to sink into the edges of the blades. The process was very slow and any lapse in focus would cause the materials to reject each other, forcing it to start over from the top, though the crystals only lost a bit of their glimmer instead of shattering, thankfully.

On the twenty-third try, it successfully fused the crystals into the blades and there was only a little bit more in order to ensure the crystals stopped rejecting the infusion, it went even slower and felt like trying to hammer a plank in place as someone pushed against it.

*Knock knock knock*

The loud sound of metal hitting stone resounded from the entrance, causing the statue to lose focus. Unfortunately for it, the crystals were quite unhappy and reacted violently by exploding, releasing the energy he was trying so hard to manipulate. And since the crystals were inside the great-ax, it also exploded, sending shards of reinforced stone scattering everywhere. By the time it realized what happened there were stone shards stuck in the wall, ceiling, furniture, and most importantly, itself. The table was once again broken and the crystals set aside had been flung across the floor. The force of the explosions had also shattered a few of the fingers on its right hand, and the left hand was missing from the wrist.

For the first time in a long time, it was peeved. It turned towards the door and marched over and swung it open.

Standing in the hallway was the same small figure it had seen before and now that it had a reason to look at it, it noticed a few things.

They seemed to be male and had a pair of horns peeking out from messy black hair with big, tired green eyes staring back, trembling slightly. He was small compared to the statue but should be around five-foot nine-inches, and the loose plain clothing hid firm muscles.

"Ah.. H-hello, umm... I wanted to give you t-this, you forgot to pick it up," he stuttered before taking out a large grey crystal from his pack.

'That's.. the salamander's crystal?'

It was surprised, why would someone give a crystal to a monster? From what it saw from the other monsters they completely ignored them even if there was nothing else in sight. It figured they either didn't have the intelligence to use them or they didn't have any worth to the monsters. But for it, they represented a plausible way to get stronger if it could figure out how to utilize the magic contained within.

It momentarily forgot about the explosion and bent down to grab the crystal, causing the kid the flinch but stay still as best he could.

"Are... are you okay?" The boy asked, pointing to the missing hand and various shards stuck all over its body.

Right, that. Remembering the cause of the explosion the statue glared at the boy. And although he trembled he eventually managed to put on a brave face in order to ask a simple question.

"Can I rest here for a bit?"