Chapter 23

"Oh. What a pretty stone tablet," Stone appreciated his partner's screen, "even though I like mine more. It's more full. Has better colours. "

"You can see it," Luci plainly stated.

"Why must everyone say the obvious facts?"

Luci took an imaginary deep breath. He peeped again at his translucent tablet and dismissed it. "Now, something more you want to say to me?" Luci asked with a calm voice; that kind of voice where you feel a storm approaching.

"Hmm… There was a word blightification, but it seems that we are immune," Stone's raised intelligence proved itself as his comprehension of situations was raised to another level. Not only did he grasp that Luci was the fourth specimen, but now he understood more from Luci's lectures.

"You know, when I was still a young Partner, maybe not a good one, but an honest one, I didn't go through so much shit," Luci took an imaginary deep breath, "you wretched piece of shitty STONE! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU! I WANT TO GO HOME!", he screamed half-sobbing, half-crazy-laughing. After a good ten minutes of profused cursing, swearing and crying, Lucifer calmed down, "that felt good."

"Loud!" Stone reflexively said while ignoring the meaning and added, "anyway, the dwarf is up."

Dafur's eyes twitched and he rapidly sat up. Which, he realized, was a grave mistake as his head throbbed like if he drank the whole stockpile of Royal Brandy. He slumped down again in regret. Dafur distantly noted that he was entirely naked and recalled what happened; a talking stone, the mechanical voice, many messages in his journal and some golden light enveloping him. However, what horrified him the most was that his trimmed beard was entirely gone!

"MAE BEEEAAAAARD!" He cried out and tears freely flowed from his red eyes. The blight was always painful and detrimental. In one way or another.

[Spell transfer completed]

[You have gained a spell Ants' Souls]

"Luci, why must everyone be so loud?" Stone would frown if he could.

"…" Lucifer, still processing the situation, ignored him.

"Hey! Loud!" Stone called out the sobbing dwarf.

"Mae beard! Mae beard!" The said dwarf repeated again and again while sitting there naked and hairless with his head between knees and slightly swinging from back to front.

"Luci!" Stone attempted to talk to him again, but the stumped former partner was entirely occupied by repeating, "insane, this piece of rock, this universe and even me... We're all insane. Insane!", while eyeing his translucent tablet.

Not only did Stone have to listen to the loud sobbing of an adult dwarf, but he also had to listen to Par… Lucifer, who had probably gone crazy too.

"Oh! So this is a deep craziness!" Stone asserted. He paid no attention to them and checked his stone tablet. Even with his stony patience, he was irritated, which made him angry, which was a loud emotion. And loud… "Status," Stone issued and a soft 'thud' echoed in his mind.

Name: Stone

Title: Guardian of Talc Anthill

Race: Mana Crystal

Sub-Race: Talc

Level: 7 [15]

Exp: 15.73%

Hardness: 2.999

Lifeforce: 299.9 / 299.9

Mana: 100 / 100 MReg: 32 / sec

Refined mana: 25 / 25 MRef: 7 / min

Strength: 0

Dexterity: 0

Intelligence: 10

Talents: Ageless, Heat Accumulator, Lucifer {wielder}

Resistances: Heat T1L4, Electrical T1L3

Expertise: Mana Point T2L3, Ambient Mana Refinement T2L7, Mana Carving T2L6, Healing Bath for stones T1L6, Ants' Souls

He went over the changes, satisfied. Then probed those two noisy crazies. As they were still out of their mind, Stone decided to review the differences more in-depth. More stone tablets would always make him happy. 'Thud, Thud'

[Race - Mana Crystal

You have… evolved to this… this… deviation through outside force. Don't think I did not notice! There will be detriments, but to be fair even some perks… However, you will have to discover them by yourself as you are, THE FREAKING FIRST SENTIENT MANA CRYSTAL EVER! Ehm… Much better…

You are naturally attuned to mana.

25% faster learning of pure mana-based expertises

10% faster MReg (MRef is not MReg!)

Sub-Race - Talc

No changes here. You still evolve as a 'normal' Monster. You will instinctively know how to do this when the time comes. Weirdo!

Artificially raised limit [15]

Not unique, nor rare! Yaaay… Many know how to do this, but they decide not to go this way as it's a method for useless and untalented wastrels… Hehe!

The detriment is that you will have a much harder time to level up and you won't gain any bonus experience above the limit. That means if you kill someone on level 8, no bonus exp for you!

Talent: Lucifer {wielder}

@#$#%! I said to Archi there would be repercussions. Did he listen? Nooo… It is a strange talent even I don't fully understand. I was able to decipher this:

It is superimposed with Lucifer's talent Stone {wielder}.

He wields you as you wield him. Both of you are connected on a level that makes you soul-bonded— meaning you have immunity to forceful soul-bonding.

There might be more perks or detriments, but you will have to find them by yourself. I cannot use more processing power on you two. I have a whole universe to run!

And please… pretty please… No new odd talents, skills or races. Really... Pretty please?

Spell: Ants' Souls

School of Conjuration, School of Necromancy, School of Soul

Due to your rare title, external means and your one-of-a-kind race, you have gained this weird-ass spell. It allows you to conjure the souls of ants. That's all. Ants! They are part ethereal, part corporeal due to RM.

Activation: 10 RM, Sustain: 2 RM / min / soul

Number of souls: 1 (+1 per level)

Storage: 10 (level of spell x 10)

Available souls: 37 Overburdened—once summoned soul will dissipate]

"Luci? Are you done?" Stone asked after another ten minutes of deciphering the meaning of those explanations. It was not like he could not understand those words, but he lacked the context.

"Ehm. Yes, I am," Lucifer awkwardly replied, being glad he did not have a face to be red. He finally processed the situation and that this stone was truly the one-of-the-kind package of insanity. Also, he accepted that he would not know peace for a long time.

"I have many questions. Like what now? And you have Stone {wielder} talent too, right? And why can I see your tablets? Or hear your messages?"

"You can see it all, can you?"

"Yes," Stone obediently responded.

"Good. So read yourself!" Luci barked, while his status tablet materialized in both of their minds.

[Race: Ethereal

Race of ghosts, apparitions, phantasms and other non-corporeal beings. Strange you have no sub-race. However, I have enough, so I will stop marvelling and only give you a simple explanation!

You can gain INT by levelling up— +5 INT per level.

You can exclusively live as part of your host mind. No proper soul, no body… just a mind. This is because you are a former Partner, one of many creations of #@Hidden@#. Oops… Sorry. Good luck with that stupid mineral! HAHAHA!

Talent: Parasite

Quite an ordinary talent. Hurray! And even a self-explanatory one!

You constantly drain RM from your host by ½ LVL.

Due to talent [Subordinate], you drain 10% EXP gained by your host and give 35% EXP acquired by yourself bar the host's [Challenge]. You still give from your [Challenge].

SuperFlux

Mana and lifeforce mixed in fashion even I don't understand. Who knows what insane… OUCH!... nice… god or God created this. But make no mistake, it's a natural occurrence for any Ethereal-based beings.

Thanks to your strange birth and even stranger host, you require RM and lifeforce you generate to live. Perk is that your 'superflux' is 4 times higher quality than the peasants' one.]

☁☁☁☁☁☁

Encyclopaedia Stonia

Eternal Party

After Woo left for his lovely holidays, The Core is taken care of, and everything runs almost on autopilot, Gods and gods decided to throw a party. A colossal one. As they are all-powerful and immortal, with full control over time and space, you could imagine the sheer magnitude.

Dwarven beard

It's their pride. There were long wars about how to trim them, if at all, and in which shape and how big ponytails should be… There are three loves of dwarfs for females and males alike—beer, freedom, and beard.

the Dwarves' most loved ones are allowed to touch it (their beer, their beard nor their freedom).

So, never touch it if you don't want to be pulverized to dust and used as a coating on a craphouse. You have been warned!

Runemaster

Dwarven class and their biggest secret. We will talk about history later as it's quite long and arduous. The single thing I will say for now; Dwarfs can use mana, but a long time ago, a first dwarf angered @#Hidden#@, and the whole race was forever forbidden to use spells.

Due to their tenacious nature, they created this class to spit on the Universum and… Anyway, runes are considered a skill by Universum. Luckily they can live as long as wizards through the ability to refine mana.

1-3 rank are apprentices tiers. To reach each stage, they must construct a certain amount of mind runes and be able to conjure them with mana, respectively 3, 9, and 27. Each rune represents some kind of element or their simplest combinations. These 27 runes also make up their alphabet.

4-6 rank are inaugurated runemasters. To reach that rank, they need to create words from those runes. Respectively 1, 3, and 5 words. Each word combines previous elements and can be very taxing for mana, mind, soul, and resources to create. It needs many years of experimenting. There are many hidden traps in these attempts, as every apprentice and runemaster needs to find their own style and combinations. Asking for a master's words is considered taboo. A very few of them passed their legacies, mostly to direct disciples who have their complete trust. From 4th rank are also able to refine a miniscule amount of mana and store it. Of course, it's incredibly difficult, and any tool that can help them do it is considered a priceless treasure. Many guilds were annihilated in battles over these artefacts.

There is one rank 7 runemaster living on the whole Nameless continent and is considered a once-time genius. He goes by the title 'Illustrious Runemaster'. Very little is known about him, but every dwarf considers him as protector of their race and reveres him. The only thing he told about reaching this rank is that runemasters need to combine words into sentences. Many tried and failed miserably, often creating terrifying consequences for surroundings.

Rank 8 and 9 are mysteries. Only one dwarf is known to ever reach these heights but about him another time.