In the Talc Anthill, behind the empty throne room, there lay an egg.

Translucent mana and electric arcs swirled and cracked around the shell in a chaotical, yet beautiful dance.

The evolving Should-Have-Been-Queen Ant inside was half-conscious the whole time and barely heard the notices from the Universum.

She still could not believe it… She evolved!

The egg cracked and exploded. The pieces of shell broke on the walls.

There stood a new Queen; smarter and more powerful than the one before.

Still, something was amiss; she was the Queen, but she had no swarm.

"Oh, right. Stone…" She recalled what she had done.

To save her swarm, she had to persuade the rest to promote their conqueror. It was a good idea at that time, but now she knew that younglings would not be born. At least with a piece of rock as their ruler.

She left the crevice and looked around the empty throne room. Then she remembered; Queen Stone sent her back to evolve after she slew a powerful enemy of ants, the mighty Lizard! Even though it was by accident and luck.

She attempted to conjure the same skill as before. Her mana concentrated before her into a simple stick with an arc of electricity whirling around. She felt as her mana depleted and the electric mana stick disappeared.

She became a full-blown Monster, supposedly the actual Queen of this anthill, Ant.

She set off to find the nearest ant to ask where Queen Stone was.

Royal Guards, who were in charge of the throne and moving Stone around, ran inside and stopped, looking confused. Their Queen was gone!

"Ants, where is your Queen?"

"Queen?" The ants looked at her even more bewildered; too many Queens around for their liking.

"Yes, Queen Stone," Ant danced.

"Outside. Big rat. Explosion. Orders. Run," was their answer.

Queen Ant was torn. Should she leave Stone on his own? Or help him? She was aware that he can't move without help.

"Go! Bring others!" Ant decided after a while of contemplation.

Royal guards were confused; before them was someone who smelled like the Queen, but they already had a Queen.

"GO!" Ant thundered with a mana-filled voice for the first time.

Instincts kicked in, and they proceeded to fulfil her command.

Soon, hundreds of ants form ranks before the anthill and they march for their Queen Stone under command of the Queen Ant.

☁☁☁☁☁☁

Stone commanded the ants to leave him alone so he could heal. That miserable magic rat hurt him and it took around half a day to completely regrow.

“Partner, my hardness increased again."

"That's nice," Partner was bored to hell and replied rexlexifely.

"Should we go hunting again?" Stone asked.

"We can, but those rats will move in packs now. They are not that stupid."

"Queen Stone!" Ant showed before Stone and proclaimed, "give me this Anthill!"

From Royal Guards to workers, all of the ants halted and turned towards the two Queens as the challenge was issued.

Stone was bewildered. He peered at the big ant deep-blue lightning-like stripes arched around her.

"Thought so. Stone, this is Ant. Give her the anthill. We can't stay here anyway," Partner explained.

"But I like it here."

"Just give it to her," Partner adjured. "We can't stay here anyway and they need a proper Queen; otherwise, they would go extinct. You would not want that, right?"

"That eggs and gender thingy again?"

"Yes…" he answered, yelling in his mind "Help me!"

"But it's silent here! And minions! Lots of them!”

“Just give it to her, you stubborn mineral!”

“But…“

“Oh, gods! You hear this, right? Give. It. To. Her! Or I will scream! Forever!” Partner brought up the big guns.

“Fine! Fine! Just don’t yell…” Stone gave up. It was not worth it. “Hmm. What do I say?"

"I give Ant the title of Queen," Partner was satisfied.

"I give Ant the title of Queen," Stone repeated with his high-pitched voice.

"Thank you, Stone," Queen Ant replied and immediately issued her Royal Guards to clear her throne.

Royal Guards picked up Stone at once and put him before the throne. Queen Ant laid on her throne and proclaimed before Stone could protest, "I give Stone a title Guardian of the Talc Anthill!"

"Partner, I gained a new title."

"What does it do?"

"Titles." 'Thud'

"I can still understand them, and all of the ants instinctively know that I am the guardian of their siblings."

"Aaah, damn it!"

"Why?"

"Not today…" Partner exasperatedly sighed. "We need to get out of here soon. We should hunt more rats, but before that, we need to have a few lectures."

"Guardian Stone! You can stay here for how long you wish for!" The Queen magnanimously stated.

"Loud!”

Queen Ant ignored him, instructing her subjects to gather food, repair the entrance, and tighten patrols. After all, Stone declared war on rats.

☁☁☁☁☁☁

The two rats, having finished with their former leader, evolved to the next tier. They grew half as big and their fur changed to deep red with streaks of black.

Also, their intelligence raised too and they realized that they are now on the same level as the second-in-command.

They ran back to their nest around thirty meters from the anthill. They crawled through the hole in the wall, raced through a little maze and entered a small cavern. It was full of rats mating, eating or resting. Younglings were squeaking for their parents to feed them. Stone definitely would not like it there as it was noisy.

The two rats passed through the swarm and went directly to the biggest and most badass rat in the back. He had completely crimson fur and big eyes that exuded blue light. It was the King of Marble Rats, Ratam.

"So, the pack leader is dead and you ate him. Tell me, why should I not kill you?”

The two rats peeked at their King in fear, "my King, he was killed by the ants! We did not want to waste his meat!"

"Ants? Did they break our truce? Do they have a new Queen?" King Ratam Was curious for a moment, however, not for long. "No matter! RATS! WE ARE AT WAR! TALC ANTHILL WILL BE DESTROYED!" The King roared over his swarm.

Four packs, each with six rats, rose from their assigned, small territories. They were all black and with vacant eyes, but their four leaders had fur in different shades of red and similar eyes as their King.

"You two will take over your leader’s former pack. Now go, in an hour, you will leave for the Talc Anthill!" He commanded but his eyes fell back on his females, "ants won't go anywhere. I have better things to do than annihilating some trash," he derisively thought to himself and resumed his fun.

☁☁☁☁☁☁

Meanwhile, the Partner gave another one of his high-speed lectures. Stone was no longer a little idiot and could comprehend what the Partner was saying without constantly repeating and questioning over the same thing again and again and again and again…

Partner taught him about many new things he did not know before; mostly about sapient races and Monsters. There was a slight distinction between them.

Monsters could evolve their bodies through eating powerful opponents and refine them, but it had several side effects, like being hunted down and slaughtered in thousands of ways. He also explained that everyone could turn into a Monster, but it was a path of no return.

Stone asked about gender and procreation as he was curious about this. Of course, the Partner ended the lecture there.

Stone's intelligence with so many new pieces of information rose to new heights. He felt like something changed inside of his mind. New mana flowed into him, and his technique slowly, but continuously refined it. This made him feel even more powerful than ever before, which was an exhilarating feeling.

"Partner, I have much more mana."

"Yeah. You little, insane…"

"Insane what?"

"… I don't know, a word for you probably doesn't even exist."

"Oh… Partner?"

"What?" Partner groaned.

"Can't we stay here? It's nice and quiet."

"NO!"

"Why not?"

"…"

"Queen! Rats! Many rats!" Their blossoming argument was interrupted by patrolling ant-guard. Even Stone could already see them through his sphere of sight.

Eights rats towered before the crevice, including two leaders on the front. They would fight over leadership later but now they had orders.

"Ant Queen! Our King wants your anthill gone!" One of the leading rats shouted in a squeaky voice.

"Brother, why shout? We should attack at once!"

The loud rat blinked a few times, slightly embarrassed for acting foolishly.

Two Mana bubbles filled with flames amassed near the crevice, but before they exploded, Queen Ant standing on her 'throne' on the edge of the crevice, exclaimed, "stop! I am the new Queen! The attacks were issued by the old one!"

"Hmpf! Doesn't matter. Attack!"

'Bang! Bang!' The two bubbles were countered by Stone per Partner's instructions. They disappeared into motes of translucent mana, and the heat was absorbed by Stone's body.

"Partner, I got a little bit of heat."

"You are bigger so you can absorb more, but be careful. Your resistances are not invincible," Partner said while the magic rats prepared their next attack.

"Stop! Or you will die!" Queen of Talc Anthill warned the rats.

Again, two bubbles were conjured near the Queen. They were countered by Stone's magic and again, a little bit of heat permeated from it, Stone absorbed it with ease.

"All ants! Attack!" Queen Ant commanded. The swarm of thousands of ants poured out of the crevice. Six enormous rats were covered in small, black bodies.

The rats jumped and stomped around, crushing ants with their bodies in dozens.

The two red rats made an attempt to conjure the bubbles against the Queen again, but they were countered again and again.

The evolved rats glanced at each other as they did not expect the Queen to be so strong and proficient.

One of the normal rats was eaten from inside as ants crawled through its orifices.

The leaders attacked again and again, but this time the Queen was finally done with conjuring her new spell. was the same spell she used against the lizard, but more powerful.

Suddenly, the spell materialized before the eye of the magic rat.

He tried to evade but was not wholly successful as it pierced through its ear. Electricity flowed through his cranial nerve directly to the brain, paralyzing him.

Stone didn't stand by either. He compressed another bubble on the back of the second red rat, with 2 refined mana and filled it with half of his stockpiled heat.

It exploded and the rat’s fur gained a bleeding wound with a few ribs broken as it plunged him to the ground. Still, the rat was durable enough that it did not get pulverized on a place as he was able to conjure a mana shield with all of the mana he could muster right before the explosion.

"Why didn't it die?" Stone pouted.

"Yeah, sooner or later this would happen," Partner sighed and explained, "your spell is still 2nd-tier and cannot use mana efficiently or in larger bulks. Even though it's strong for normal beings, those who can use mana efficiently can easily counter you. Well, at least you hurt it and have some mana in reserve. Continue the attack!"

Stone instead of reply focused to form a second mana point filled with the rest of his heat.

Another explosion and the injured rat was cleaved in half. The pressure wave crushed and threw away nearby ants.

The paralyzed rat was plunged directly into the nearest cluster of ants. He tried to conjure a , but ants were too fast and crawled into its body, slowly tearing it apart.

The last two rats turned and ran away with their tails between their legs. Too fast for Stone, who got distracted by another good feeling and getting bigger, or Queen Ant, who was out of mana, to do something.

"Ants! Stop! Go back to the anthill and resume your work!” She commanded her swarm and turned to Stone, “they will be back in higher numbers." She noticed the Guardian grew larger. It won't be able to enter the anthill anymore. "Guardian Stone, you have to stay outside. You won't fit into anthill without a massive rebuild."

"…" Stone did not react, still revelling in the amazing feeling.

"Yeah, definitely addiction," Partner thought to himself, frustrated. Next, he checked the Stone’s body from inside. The rough, chaotic veins pulsing with mana, written in a celestian language were rearranged more orderly. "This is incredible. I even recognize some of the words, but the rest is a complete mystery to me. If he can evolve as a Monster…" A chill ran over Partner's imaginary spine.

Meanwhile, ants tore the meat off the corpses and took it inside.

The Queen knew she had a problem; the Rat King would come for revenge…

☁☁☁☁☁☁

Emotionallly torn Queen Ant took a long glance at the strange pebble that had changed her life.

When she went back to the throne chamber, she lay down, pondering about what she should do next.

Meanwhile, the meat from the massacred rats was distributed to her swarm. Quite a lot of ants had died, but soon the new generation will hatch. Hatching eggs should not be hard, right?

She nibbled on the mana-filled meat and grew somewhat bigger. Her thorax changed colour entirely, from the mundane black to a deep blue with lightning-like scars.

When she killed the red rat, she gained quite a lot of levels. She felt as something broke inside of her again, while her mana pool rapidly expanded. She looked at her status; it shows her that she had around 40 mana points in her pool now.

However, she felt stuck now. She attempted to break through by eating more meat, but nothing happened. She met the limit; a wall she can't cross with devouring. She pondered a bit over it. She was an evolved Monster, instinct would tell her later.

☁☁☁☁☁☁

"You know, the rats will come back," Partner repeated the Ant’s sentence after a moment of deliberation. He knew that Stone did not take attention before.

"Isn't that good? More experience, more levels, more of that good feeling."

"You could take down one or two pack leaders and the Queen another one, but their King will be powerful."

"How powerful?"

"Enough to ground you to dust."

"I don't want to be grounded to dust."

"Well, in that case, we have to think of something."

"What about some trap? Like when I was hunting ants."

"Hmm, it won't stop them. As I already explained, rats' kings are relatively strong. How much mana do you have?"

"Status." 'Thud' Stone tablet materializes in his mind

"Rats' kings have around 200 mana points. Sometimes even higher, but those are mostly found in the cities."

"City?"

"Later… "

"Another lecture?" Stone asks with a stony face, that could mean something like reluctance.

"Yes. I would recommend running away."

"What about anthill?"

"They are dead anyway. Rats won't leave them alive. I wonder why they even allowed the previous Queen to live here."

"Hmm…" Stone felt new conflicting emotions and he did not like it at all.

☁☁☁☁☁☁

"Where's that damned runemae'str? We are loosin cash!" Agitated overseer Breadbeard was more and more impatient every next second, pacing from one side to another. Thanks to the guilds' policies, he had to halt the mining until a priest or runemaster examined the place.

"Breadbeard, ya wouldn't like to repeat what happened three years ago, wouldn't ya?" Eriv tried to calm him down.

A chill ran over the overseer’s body as he recalled what happened three years ago.

"How's ye brother, Eriv?"

"Still nuts. He says that there are naet more strange sounds, but heard some explosions and high-pitched voices…"

"Haaah, deep craziness…" Breadbeard sighed.

"Hope it's some evolved Monstar. If it's ghostery like the last time…" Eriv whispered.

"Overseer! Runemae'str arrived!" A dwarf in brown, simple clothes walked inside the cave.

"Finally!" Breadbeard and Eriv joyously said together.

"Ha! Ya're buying the beer!" Eriv grinned before the overseer could say it.

"Ahh, Dornus dammit!" Breadbeard lamented as part of his excitement left him.

They met the apprentice runemaster Dafur in a dilapidated dump with wooden planks for a roof and canvas for its walls that the dwarfs dared to call an inn. Inside were shouting drunk dwarfs, boozing, or playing cards.

Dafur, already with a beer-filled mug in hand, welcomed them; "Happy mining! Ya must be the overseer!"

"Runemae'str! Welcome to dur mine! I'm Breadbeard, and this is prospector Eriv! How was yar travel?"

"Safe! This time, nae monstras appeared. I'm apprentice Dafur under runemae'str Baelgin and came to investigate the mine,'' he introduced himself. Breadbeard almost grimaced as he heard Dafur was an apprentice. Still, his big, toothy smile visibly weakened.

"Apprentice?!" Breadbeard uttered in disbelief and a few dwarfs around turned to them.

"Calm down. What rank are ya?" Eriv tried to soothe him.

"First. Finished the first three runas recently. This is mae first mission, but don't ya worry, I'll do proper work."

"And runemae'str? Why isn't he here? I asked the guild for a proper runemae'str!"

"He has too much work."

Breadbeard frowned, "uhuh… more like he's too lazy! Can't wait anymore anyway. Money is slippin," he sighed.

"I have full trust of runemae'str Baelgin! I’ll start at mornin! Now, let's drink! Right, lady Eriv?" He turned at the female dwarf, flashing a large grin.

"Sure, but ya're buying the beer, mister Dafur," she said, returning him the smile back with a glint in her eyes. "Naet half-bad! Cityfolks are ever so tidy. I must say, I've quite enough of those dirty miners," she thought while her eyes were gliding over him.

"Dornus dammit! Go get a room, ya two! Barman, four mugs!"

"So little?"

"Well, this apprentice," Breadbeard emphasized the word and Dafur's eye twitched, "has work to do tomorrow. We can't let him have a hangover, can't we."

"Hmpf! Challenge accepted, ya olde fart!" Dafur gets angry and shouts, "Barman! Make it double!"

"Shove it, apprentice!"

"Ha! Will blast ya with mae runas!"

This went for a while, while Eriv was chuckling at their little argument.

"Comin up!" The barman shouted over the bustling inn. He delivered the 8 beer mugs, interrupting their high-class argument mostly about who was the bigger pussy.

"I'm joinin too, ye scabby jessies,” Eriv proclaimed and grabbed a full mug of the fresh beer, "and the last one is a pussy buying another round!"

Of course, that night, they got drunk as pirates on vacation after a year-long voyage to Abstinence Island.

"Milady Eriv, let's go on the walk," the hammered Dafur eloquently proposed.

"Did ya caught deep craziness?! It's the night! Do ya wanna be eaten?" Eriv replied with some difficulty while trying to balance herself on the chair.

"Told ya! The city folks can't handle the beer! Look at him! He won't be able to work in the mornin! Ya buying another round, apprentice!" Breadbeard’s voice sounded somewhere from under the table.

"Ha! I am more than prepared to go there! You know what? Let's go now! All of us!" He accepted the challenge, and mockingly added, "if you are not a coward, Breadbeard."

"Ha! Shove it! Let's go'! As I woulda fear mines!" He accepted while attempting to stand up for the third time already.

"Eriv! Striptease!" One of the drunk dwarfs shouted at her and soon the whole inn chanted, "Strip! Strip!"

"Brutes!" She yelled, but still grinned while trying to stand up. She staggered, but Dafur caught her with his body and both fell on the ground.

"Milady! Here and now?" He asked and attempted to kiss her.

"Ha! Keep that for now, will ya, fuckboy! I heard som' challeng' her'!"

"Oh! Yeah! Let's go! The mine awaits!" They all slowly stood up, leaning on themselves. “Beer~! Beer~! Beer~! Keep it flowing~!" They were singing the whole way to the entrance cavern.

☁☁☁☁☁☁

"So, what are we going to do?" Stone asked, expecting a great plan from his all-knowing teacher.

"We could increase your intelligence? And you could try to make that trap…" Partner replied as he was trying to find some escape or a way to fight back. "But first, talk to Queen Ant. We need to cooperate."

"Oh. Let's do that," Stone readily agreed. He would not feel right if he would abandon the ants. It was for the first time he felt something like an attachment to something else than himself or Partner. "Ant! Go for Queen!"

The Queen arrived promptly, "what do you need, Guardian Stone?"

"We prepare a trap!"

"Oh, what kind?" She curiously, but cautiously inquired.

"Partner? What kind of trap?"

"The only thing I can think of are pits filled with ants. Many of them will die, but we don't have enough mana, ability, nor the time to do anything else."

"Pits filled with ants," Stone repeated.

"It won't stop them, but at least slows them down. Fine. Prepare the pit. I will prepare the soldiers."

With this consensus, she went back. Stone, while listening to Partner's lecture about cities and rats, made a pit, around 70 centimetres deep and 50 centimetres wide around the crevice. The appointed workers put twigs, leaves, and dirt over it per Partner’s instructions.

Meanwhile, Partner taught Stone about evolution, Universum, and elements.

Queen returned with hundreds of soldiers and stationed them in the newly created hidden crevice. Stone hated when a stone was broken and even more when he was the one who was breaking it. Partner patiently and with a soothing voice explained that he only temporarily moved parts of rocks to survive and the grumpy Stone had to agree, even though with great reluctance.

The Queen also ordered ants to bring dry leaves and sticks at the Stone's request. He wanted to make supplies for heat absorption.

"Oooh, he seems to be learning. Good," Partner praised Stone in silence. Now, they have to wait.

☁☁☁☁☁☁

Heavily drunk dwarfs

“Dafur! Where are ya goin? Got scared?” Breadbeard hassled him while staggering around.

They were already before the entrance cavern.

“Got to go on the toilet! Wait a minute!” The drunk Dafur replied and skipped to the nearest bush.

“Breadbeard, did ya notice? How’s he talkin’. So funny!” Eriv giggled.

“Hahaha! Talks like some scholar!”

“Scholar?” Dafur appeared behind them.

“What?! Oh, it’s ya. Fuck, don’t scare me! Almost piss’d my pants,” Eriv giggled again.

“Yea! Didn’t ya notice? When ya’re hammered ya talk different.”

“Oh, really?” Dafur was confused. He drank beer as any other healthy dwarf, but nobody ever told him this.

“Hahaha! Say somethin else! A spikey-ear’s poem!” Breadbeard and Eriv peeked at each other with realization and laughed the whole way to the entrance cavern.

As they entered the entrance, they heard weak explosions and squeaking.

“Do ya hear it too?”

“Yes… Seems like rats?"

“Hmm, what’re ya talkin about?”

“We need to go! Maybe your brother does not have deep craziness in the end.”

“That’s great! Do ya hear it, Breadbeard?”

“Yea, yea, I heard. But what about Orifog?”

“Accidents happen! But being killed by a stone... Humiliating death for a dwarf,” Dafur shook his head.

After a moment of silence for the dwarf, Breadbeard asked, “so, what now?”

“We go down. What, are you pissing yourself, you old fart?”

“HMPF!" Breadbeard derisively snorted. "As if a dwarf would fear a mine," he tried to sound brave, but when he entered the shaft, slight shivering betrayed him.

“Breadbeard, we shoulda naet go! After all, he is just runemae’str apprentice!" Eriv got a creepy feeling. Some kind of instinct was warning her, but maybe it was still the fear from three years ago.

“Milady Eriv! Don't worry as I will protect you!" Dafur confidently proclaimed, putting an arm around her waist, ignoring her 'insult'.

Eriv pressed his arm to her chest and they caught up with Breadbeard.

"Aaaah, ye two.Find a room," Breadbeard rolled his eyes, but fear became evident in his voice.

The shaft was long around 50 meters. In the end, they turned left and could not believe their eyes.

☁☁☁☁☁☁

Encyclopaedia Stonia

Universum status screen

Every being has their own path. Universum is giving it structure and order. It shows a standardised measurement of it. Stone sees it as a simple stone tablet where everything is written with black handwriting. The others can see scrolls, leathers, 3D holographic pictures, or trained themselves to gain direct knowledge without a medium (status screen), et cetera.

Monsters

Mana aberrations of their races. If the race is not sapient, they can become sapient through Monsterfication. The line between it is slim, and many Monsters are balancing on edge between ferine and sapience.

Everyone can turn into a Monster, and some naturally born sapiens even choose this path on their own accords. Of course, they are labelled as criminals, outlaws and heretics in most societies.

Evolutions of Monsters

Now when this is laid out, let's talk about the evolution of Monsters. They have to fulfil requirements; for first evolution, it's mostly to eat another monster and refine its leftover lifeforce and mana, called flux. Most of the Monsters already know this instinctively. Some races are stronger than others naturally. Still, there is a balance; weaker Monsters can quickly gain levels and their evolution process is not so arduous. Ants can be evolved to the first tier in a matter of days, rats in two or three weeks. Of course, the Queen of ants will always be weaker than the King of rats, if both are on the same stage.

Evolution of sapiens

The interesting thing is that Elfs, Dwarfs, Humans, Undeads, Sirans, and all of these naturally evolved races have different kinds of pathways created long before the Architect's intervention. Of course, eating another race is normal for them. Still, it's forbidden to refine the flux and use it willingly to evolve their bodies and become Monsters. It is imposed by Gods themselves for reasons only they understand. Those who break this Law are easily recognized by the flux and branded. Of course, some do not care. The gods themselves are not unified in this view of the Flux either.

Elements

Mana is truly a wondrous thing as it can change the laws of reality that we are so used to…

Nature Elements: Air, Earth, Water, Fire

Energy Elements: Positive, Negative

True Universal Elements: Gravitation, ElectroMagnetism, Weak Interaction, Strong Interaction

Unison Elements: Fire/Air - Smoke, Fire/Earth - Magma, Fire/Water - Steam, Air/Water - Ice, Earth/Water - Ooze, Gravitation/Earth - Force, Air/Negative - Vacuum, Water/Negative - Salt, Earth/Negative - Dust, EM/Positive - Electricity, Air/Earth - Rust, Fire/Negative - Ash, Fire/Positive - Heat, Positive/Poisitive - Light, Negative/Negative - Darkness

Unique Elements: Gravitation/Nature/Negative - Destruction, Gravitation/Nature/Positive - Construction, Fire/Earth/Negative - Ash, Negative/Positive - Void

And many more combinations.

Procreation

...no...just no…

(God-Editor Blanc: I mean, he has been 'Stone'-Hard for the whole fiction so far…)

Mana - addendum

Almost every sapient race can use it. Yeah, you read right. Almost. It permeates everything and everywhere as its excess energy from the Creation. Energy cannot be destroyed even by the Gods, only transformed.

Rats

Omnivores and cannibals. Lives in enormous packs, led by the biggest, the most savage rat around. Some said that they are smart, some that they are stupid. Who knows where the truth was? Rats can gain sentience and grow mana pool from 50 to 200 points and can use magic proficiently. The more powerful rat is leading them, the bigger pack is. These magical ones are often newbie adventurers’ first kills and used as an entry test for the smaller guilds for commoners all around the Nameless continent. Rats can devour almost everything, but Stone was lucky as he was the only thing they would not eat.Well… maybe.