Half an hour passed like water under the bridge and Lucifer forced Stone to shut the children's book and forced him to learn the spells from the looted wizard’s spellbook.

“What do you mean that it doesn’t work?”

“I can’t use elements! That’s what the Universum said!”

“How in the hell… Everyone can use elements!”

“Not me!”

“Haaah,” Lucifer exasperatedly sighed, “does it never end with you? Everyone can use elements!”

“Wait… the Universum says something…” Stone stopped arguing with his teacher and read the messages aloud, “it’s because I am an unattuned Mana Crystal.”

“When I think about it, that actually makes sense. You can use heat and mana, but still did not create a spell out of it...” Lucifer's mind spun. “This is bad. Most basic spells are using elements to increase efficiency and output. Wait…” A certain thought occurred to him. He tried to cast a small fireball, but it fizzled. A realization struck him like a mace into Dafur’s face; he should have learned spells by instinct as a Monster. His non-existent head began to badly hurt. This did not make sense at all. What was going on?

Meanwhile, as Lucifer was gathering his shivering mind, Stone read the rest of the spellbook. He found two unattuned spells he could learn.

The blue missile floating around him looked like a but without swirling mana. Also, no matter how Stone tried he could not compress it. It was small, mere 5 centimetres in diameter. When Stone focused, he could sense the lines of celestian language holding the mana together.

“Luci?”

“You are going to tell me something insane,” Lucifer flatly foresaw, inwardly praying that it was something good or at least something that would not immediately kill them.

“I can cast the spell Mana Missile! Look!” Stone proudly levitated the missile around.

“Nothing insane?” Lucifer was hopeful, yet careful. The boot still did not drop.

“Hmm… Is it normal that I can sense the lines holding the spell together?”

“Ah… Here we go! No. It is not, Stone. It’s the most unusual thing. Can you read them?” Lucifer deadpanned.

“Hmm… I will show you! Look!” Stone sent him an image through their mental connection.

A quiet rustle echoed as the missile hit the crate and the mutating goblin twitched.

Lucifer’s mind hurt. It was too much.

Lucifer never thought he would see something like that. This trumped everything that had happened to this day. Including his mindscape and joining the Universum. Including the sole existence of that miserable pebble. He ad to focus and tried to decipher the celestian language holding the spell together.

Meanwhile, Stone focused on the other spell and conjured an extremely slowly expanding sphere of mana. He wanted to return to his child stories as soon as possible.

As the sphere expanded, the spellbook before him was forced away from him by around 10 centimetres. Stone reflected for a bit and asked, “is every spell this weak?”

“These spells are weak only for now, but still can make a difference in battle. Remember this and remember it well: there is no weak spell. It just matters how you use it. Also, don’t forget that you have refined mana already… If you train it properly, this expulsion can diverge even a maxed first-tier spell or skill. Now, start training them. I will do the same."

“But, I want to read those stories!”

“Do you want to feel good?” Lucifer used his ultimate weapon and the Stone’s biggest weakness; level ups!

Stone said nothing and immediately conjured many s one after another.

Lucifer, satisfied, nodded and joined the pebble in training.

Stone was tired of constantly learning and so he turned his bored mind on a technique . Suprisingly, it went extremely easily for him.

The whole session took around half a day, although Stone nor Lucifer cared much for passage of time, and both were considerably rewarded for their efforts.

The little baby pebble wished for the explanation tablet when Lucifer wasn't paying attention. 'Thud'

“Luci?”

“What?”

“Mmm… I have learned a technique called Weak Manakinesis.”

“… Weirdo,” Lucifer absentmindedly replied. He was fully immersed in his own exercise and it took a moment for the information to battle into the forefront of his mind. “What did you say?”

"I said I learned Weak Manakinesis." Stone patiently repeated.

“… You know what? I am no longer surprised… This technique? Even though it’s a ‘weak’ version, it is part of the 3rd-tier Monsters’ or 4th-rank mana manipulation set,” he flatly explained, but internally he grew hairs and then ripped them out.

“Is that good?”

“Yes, so train it properly!” This technique was an integral part of the wizards’ expertise set. It was a prerequisite to flying!

“How?”

“Hover yourself!”

“How?”

“Push against the ground with your mana.”

The spell was easy and Stone did a few rounds around the room, fluctuating around half a meter above the ground.

“Luci, I don’t like this.”

“You don’t like flying?”

“No.”

“Deal with it.”

“Fine,” Stone dropped, not making a sound as he was only ten centimetres high and conjured two souls.

“I didn’t mean to drop!”

“I don’t like flying!” Stone stubbornly repeated.

“It would be easier and faster to move around! Why must everything be so difficult with you?!”

Their argument ended and they returned back to training. However, Stone was interrupted by the goblin who finished twitching on his bed and the glow slowly fading. There were no changes on the goblin's body, but Stone could see that he had substantially more mana than before.

“Luci?”

“WHAT NOW!?” Lucifer barked as he was once again

“The goblin…”

“What’s with the goblin?” Lucifer groaned.

“He is waking up!”

Stone hastily hid behind the crates. The goblin was silently laying while smirking as he checked his status. “Success! I am in the 4th-rank Class! It feels good!” The goblin cheerily stretched himself and called for guards. They promptly rushed inside and he instructed them to go and prepare a feast for the whole camp. Their empty gazes flickered with joy.

“Turn off the regeneration!” Lucifer urged.

“Already done it… I am not that stupid, you know?”

“Ha! That’s quite debatable! Now, pray that he won’t find us…”

They observed as the 4th-rank goblin cast the same scanning spell as before.

Fortunately, a pair of a goblin and a goblinette rambunctiously staggered into the room, clearly drunk, and slumped on the ground, making out. How they were able to scale the stairs in this state was above Lucifer's understanding.

Their leader first kicked them, but the drunk pair was not even aware of him. So, he conjured a ball of water above them, then he clenched his hand into a fist and the ball burst. That woke them and they slowly looked up with a dread creeping into their eyes.

“Search the place, some weak trash is hiding here! I will go down to celebrate!”

“Gaka…” The goblins replied while attempting to push themselves up.

“Stone, prepare yourselves. We are going to kill them the moment the fourth-ranker leaves.”

The 4th-rank goblin conjured a thick mana wall over the entrance as he left, whistling.

The pair was drunkenly swaying, supporting each other, as they struggled to even stand. They unsheathe their daggers after several attempts while giggling. Lucifer found it distasteful, while Stone impassively waited for Luci’s approval to murder them.

“G…g…gara!” One of them incomprehensibly stammered, but from the situation, Lucifer guessed it meant something like ‘get out!’. The goblin bent and puked all over the floor.

“Well, I guess I was wrong… Even their language sounds like puking… Fucking trash-gobblers!” Lucifer cursed as Stone got covered in the vomits. He shaped a superflux needle through and sent it against the vomiting goblin’s eye. The skill hit with questionable accuracy into the goblinette’s ass. “Fuck!” Lucifer swore.

Stone chuckled as he found it extremely funny. Not the jumping around goblin or the vomiting one, but rather Lucifer's failure.

“What are you chuckling about! Tche! Cheeky mineral! I didn’t have time to train properly!” Lucifer defended himself with fervour as he cast a , hitting the goblin in the head and even slightly scratching him. As they were 2nd-tier Monsters, Luci’s missiles lacked the penetrating power to pierce their hide fully..

“Stone, help me here!”

“Sure!”

The duo’s bombarded the two goblins. Many bleeding wounds appeared on their bodies, especially weak spots. Their eyes were punctured, spine cracked and the blood from neck arteries was splattering everywhere.

It took many minutes, but Stone’s mana regeneration and Lucifer’s leadership proved to be an effective combo. Their joint Power far exceeded the two drunk goblins, who were not even able to defend themselves. They were utterly stumped by the sudden assault and frankly too drunk to realize from where the blitz originated.

“Good work!”

“I levelled up… I am now level eleven.”

“Yea… You are… haaah, I wonder when you will be able to evolve. And why…” Lucifer decided to leave it as he was in a great mood. The answers would not come anyway. “Fuck it… No need to be constantly surprised. I will take it as it is!” He promised. “Stone is not a Monster, tool, nor a ‘civilized’. One thing's for sure; he is going to rattle a lot of old bones.”

“Now what?”

“We can either leave or look for more books. There must be something to help you regenerate lifeforce from the forceful draining.”

“There was a story in the storybook.”

“Oh? What was it about?”

“Hmm… It was about a golem. A child, Tonka, was cursed by an old, evil sorcerer into a starmetal golem because he took a bet and broke inside the sorcerer’s tower to steal some tinsel. Some things happened, I think a big oven played a part in it, and the evil sorcerer died.

Tonka, who still could use Universum, learned all of the spells in the tower. Then he travelled for a bit and became a new 6th-rank wizard and protector of the rising human Kingdom of Raul-Kin in the north.

However, he was getting older and older and went through many battles that damaged him, he still could not die. Every time he tried to kill himself or an adventurer attacked him, seeking his secrets, some force drained energy from the very earth and used it to rejuvenate him.

He watched as his beloved Kingdom slowly turned into ruins. His friends died one after another by old age or other causes. As he observed the lifeless ruins, he decided to leave for the holiest place of all, The Great Table. There he pleaded with the gods to undo this curse, so he could finally rest in peace.

What happened next is not known; some say that the gods pitied him and let him die, some say that they allowed him to ascend to the higher planes. And some say he is there to this day; he became a statue, still waiting for the gods to answer his plea.”

“Dear gods… What a depressing story… Yeah, kid stories are always like that,” Lucifer shook his non-existent head. “And what did you learn from it?”

“Never fuck with an old, evil sorcerer?”

“That too. The most important thing is; never curse someone! Curses are powerful, and even the weakest being can curse someone. I will explain it in more detail later. The old sorcerer wanted to probably make a simple slave, but he fucked up. When he died, the long-time spell turned into a curse. I guess Tonka was automatically regenerating from mana leylines. I reckon it was another weird existence… Like you.”

“What are those leylines?”

“A concentrated ‘veins’ of mana weaved all around the world. The sorcerer must have been of high rank and extremely talented to boot.”

“Oh! Did the story help?”

“Hmm… A curse, you say…” Lucifer thought about it. In a specific situation, curses could be useful if you were able to cope with severe drawbacks.

Meanwhile, Stone commanded the souls to open his favourite book and he began to read another story.

“Stone! We are leaving. I remember almost everything that could help us. There is nothing important anymore.”

“But I am reading!”

“Haaah… Take it with you…”

“Okay!” Stone ordered three newly summoned souls to pick the book. He used refined mana and tore the leathery wall with one stroke. Then he used his new technique, Weak Manakinesis and slowly levitated down, even though with a certain level of aversion. They very carefully sneaked back at the entrance of the goblin camp and left the place.

Lucifer uses every moment he has to train his expertises. Stone checked his stone tablet. ‘Thud’

They found a small, empty cavern nearby and began training with Lucifer’s lecturing in the meantime.

☁☁☁☁☁☁

Tired Eriv and Dori

“Rest. In ten minutes we’re goin’ for another goblin pack,” Guard-Jarka ordered her party as she was sitting on the still-smoking corpse of a goblin.

They were in a medium-large cavern, around 15 meters in diameter, with mushroom patches growing everywhere from a red-glowing moss. Around them lay scattered limbs of goblins... and the fallen corpses of two druegars who didn’t make it.

“Tche… These goblins’re more and more daring… These are dur caves!” One of the warriors exclaimed as he angrily kicked the goblin’s corpse.

“Yea, I wonder why…” Another agreed with the mouth full with the roasted goblin’s meat.

Soon relaxed steps echoed through the cave as Scout-Durza returned with a report, “Guard-Jarka, another band is three cav’rns away.”

She silently nodded and waited for the rest to refresh themselves.

“Sis, how’re ya?” Dori glanced at his sister, who had been crying and bersekering around a few minutes ago.

“Naet good… Bro, I think I know why the others don’t wanna be blighted…”

“Yea, I feel it too. We’ll have to go deeper and find more powerful beings.”

“But we’ll die there. We coulda hardly kill pathetic goblins,” she replied, filled with tiredness and half-fell, half-sats on her ass.

“Ya’re probably right… But the blight’ll eat us alive…”

“Maaaasssteeeer, I woooon’t eeeeaaat yooouuu. I promiseeee,” a strange voice, sounding like a flame resonated in his head.

“Quiet, you! I know what’re ya doin’!” He shouted at the cave. The druegars did not even looked at him as they were already used to the pair of odd siblings.

“Get up, ya lazy pigs! Another goblins wanna be fed to the ston’!” Guard-Jarka shouted like a drill sergeant.

“Hurry up, ya two sun-crazed dwarfs!” Scout-Durza urged them before Guard-Jarka could.

Their company of eight hastily ran through the empty caverns to meet their adversaries. Guard-Jarka was in front with scouts on her sides and the dwarven siblings held the rear. All of them, except two or three experienced ones, were gasping for air, already exhausted from previous battles.

Still, the siblings were the lowest-levelled warriors here and had to put up with jokes and bullying in the group. But in the battle, they had their backs covered. Druegars were solid when it came to goblins.

Soon, they made it towards the hunting pack of thirty goblins, from which three of them were 2nd-tier and one 3rd-tier.

“GULBA! KARK!” The leader commanded the goblins to create a line before the shaft with 1st-tiers as cannon fodder.

“Chaaaarge!” Guard-Jarka cried out and activated her warrior skill. A scarlet mist surrounded her as part of her lifeforce left her body. Her speed rapidly increased. Her sheer strength meant that the 1st-tier goblin was nothing more than a slight hindrance. The poor sod exploded into bloody mist and part of his was drained by Jarka. She raised her double-edged axe and engaged with the back-line of four powerful goblins.

The bolts pierced the air as the druegar warriors fired a volley of bolts from their crossbows.

Chaos ensued. The defenceless goblins were in disarray as the bolts pierced their bodies. The druegars prepared another volley. However...

Eriv leapt above the druegars’ heads, landing directly in the middle of the goblin pack. A few spears penetrated her body, but she did not even notice.

She cracked skulls and ribs all around, while madly laughing. The goblins were scared out of their mind, adding to their chaotical screeching.

She broke through the line but was ambushed by a 2nd-tier goblin who was hiding nearby. In the chaos, the druegars had not seen him, so he launched his attack on Eriv, repeatedly hitting Eriv with his rusty mace. Her lifeforce began to rapidly drop, even her enhanced regeneration was not enough to keep up.

She desperately activated the talent. Her muscles bulged and her skin reddened. A few veins ruptured, making her profusely bleed. However, her strength increased immensely and she was able to defend herself, even push the 2nd-tier goblin away.

Meanwhile, the rest of the swearing druegars met the goblins in savage, close-range combat. They were angry at Eriv because they could not fire the second volley, not while she could be caught in the crossfire and the goblins still had the number advantage.

Dori, stood back, waiting for an opportunity. He conjured his new companion; the purple flames. It was an odd talent and he itched to ask his father about this. Luckily for him, the druegars’ shaman had not met him yet and the rest thought it was a skill passed through his family.

The purple flame converged into a ball and he threw it into the nearest cluster of three goblins. They shrieked in pain as they were eaten by the flames alive. They staggered around the battlefield, setting aflame another goblin who did not notice as he was in the middle of evading a raging druegar.

Guard-Jarka successfully eliminated the three 2nd-tier goblins by cleaving them in half, at the waist with her skill .

The 3rd-tier skill allowed her to break the speed of sound with her axe, but for the price of 50% of her maximum and . Thankfully, the village shaman engraved her axe with unique engravings that deprived her adversary of some upon deathblow and transferred it to her and gave it some basic hardening.

The 3rd-tier goblin leader, who was towering over the battlefield at an impressive 1.8 metres, raged. He activated his own skills and savagely pounced on Jarka. She parried with all of her might, but exhaustion became apparent in her moves. The fights from before took their toll.

With the support of Dori, Eriv took down the 2nd-tier goblin and Scout-Durza ordered them to go and help others to clean up the rest of the goblins.

The whole druegars party then supported Jarka with bolts. They were not able to pierce through the goblin protection but hindered him greatly.

With this, Jarka activated her trump skill. Most of her bloody mist converged at the edge of her axe. She jumped up and bisected the goblin leader. Even with his weapon raised in a desperate attempt to defend himself, the cut was clean. The two bloody halves slowly tore apart and collapsed.

The last goblin was taken care of, but another two druegars died—one by the goblin and one by Dori’s flames.

“Dori! Learn to control yar flames, ya idiot! That was mae brotha!” One of the warriors stepped to him and punched him in the face.

“Yea, yea...” he punched him back. Everyone froze.

“Heh…” one of them grinned. “Hehe,” another joined. Soon, everyone was laughing. Even Jarka held a slight smile.

“Maggots! Ya two,” she pointed at the druegars who started to laugh first, ”Clear the corpses! Dori! Calm yar ragin’ sis down! The rest of ya, twenty minut’s rest! Eat, drink, fuck, whatever!”

“Yaaaaaargh!” They victoriously screamed.

“I’m sowwyyy!” The bersekering Eriv still jumped up and down on one of the goblin corpses.

“Eriv! Calm down!” Dori carefully walked to her vicinity, but after a painful lesson, he did not touch her.

“I’m sowwyyy!” She sobbed, utterly ignoring her brother.

“Fuck! Flame!”

“Yeeesss, maaasteeer?”

“You know the drill.”

“Yeeesss, maaasteeer.”

A small purple flame covered Eriv’s mouth and nose, depriving her of air. After a few minutes, she swayed and fell, unconscious.

“Dori! Ya two doin’ a good work. But Maris was right, learn how to control yar flames,” Scout-Durza came from behind with three bowls filled with bread, mushrooms and goblins’ meat. “Although, it’s nice naet to have to cook…”

“Thanks, Durza,” Dori said and hungrily devoured one of the bowls.

“Anyway, we’ll go on the last ambush. We lost another two warriors and many are wounded. Ev’n Jarka is gettin’ tir’d. If ya dinna notice, this pack leader was nearin’ the fourth tier. He would become an Orc.. Ya dinna wanna meet orcs… Nasty, smart bastards.”

“Good,” Dori answered with a full mouth.

Eriv twitched a few times and jumped back to her feet, “again?”

“Again…”

“Fuck! Dornus ass!”

“Stop sayin’ that name here! I warned ya before!” Scout-Durze smacked her head’s backside.

“Scouts!” Jarka’s voice resounded, carrying the order to assemble.

“Yea, yea… Shit… Shouldn’t have become a scout… The pay’s terrible and ya have almost no pauses,” Durza complained and left for Jarka.

“Sis, eat.”

“Yea. Thanks, bro.” She hungrily ate her meal almost with a bowl.

After another ten minutes, they departed for the last warband that was four caverns away.

The cavern was large, approximately 50 meters in diameter, with a stream of water and plenty of moss and mushrooms to feed a small camp. There were some half-built tents and four dozens of 1st-tier goblins, six 2nd-tier goblins and two 3rd-tier ones. Jarka’s face darkened and promptly ordered a retreat.

The higher-ranked druegars sensed a thin mana wave going through them.

“Gulbu!” A shout echoed as one of the 3rd-tiers found them with a spell.

“Darkul ass! Attack!” Jarka commanded her men and activated her bloody mist while charging up front.

She rolled over the 1st-tier goblins before anyone could even react, including her own party. She reached the higher-tiered goblins, each equipped with steel swords. The two 3rd-tier goblins derisively laughed and retreated behind the wall of 2nd-tier bodyguards.

The bodyguards trembled as they gazed on the crazed, yelling druegar mowing down their goblin slaves with her mighty axe, unstoppably stomping towards them.

Jarka reached them in a few seconds and with a lucky hit, she decapitated the first bodyguard. Then she had to defend against the onslaught of five 2nd-tier goblins while paying attention to their two leaders.

Meanwhile, the rest of Jarka’s party, including Eriv and Dori, engage with the first-tier goblins. They created two lines this time, with Eriv and Dori and two warriors in front as they were great meatshields.

Eriv had to activate again.

Her muscles swelled more every time as her level rapidly climbed during this hunt. Her mace became a blur for the weak goblins' eyes. With each swing, she killed or crippled her victim.

Soon, there were five goblins around her, two of them dead and three screeching in pain as their bones protrude from their olive-green skin.

Dori evoked his purple flame and roasted a few goblin steaks with a wall of fire. His eyes gained a strange glint as he stared at the dancing purplish flames eating away the flesh of the screaming goblins.

His mana was exhausted soon and he retreated behind the fighting druegars. He pulled out his crossbow and a pouch with dozens of shots left and proceeded to assist his sister.

Meantime, Jarka slew another 2nd-tier goblin. A few wounds appeared on her, but nothing life threatening. In the brief moments between attack and defence, she wondered why the two 3rd-tier goblins did not attack them yet.

The answer came soon.

The pair of 3rd-tier goblins raised their hands and refined mana converged before them. It shaped itself into a bluish, large net.

She recognized that spell. These were the two goblins that hunted with the chief. Even though chief was a fuckin beast in battle, being electrocuted still hurt.

She wanted to warn her party, but the onslaught from the 2nd-tier goblins intensified, making her fully focus on them. All four of them activate their own skills and techniques and even her powerful scarlet mist was barely able to keep up.

The net slowly expanded until it was around ten metres large. They sent it above her group clustered with the goblins. Immediately after that, one of the 3rd-tier goblins strolled towards Jarka and, with his guards' help, overpowered her with relative ease.

Still, she was not going down without a fight and hacked off the right arm of another 2nd-tier goblin. He snarled at her, gripping his wound, but was ordered to stand down by his superior’s raised fist.

The battle halted as abruptly as it had erupted. The 1st-tier goblins still struggling with the druegars, including the bersekering Eriv and exhausted Dori, were all caught up in the net.

As it touched them, the electric discharge effectively stunned them as the druegars were only 2nd ranked, except the dwarven siblings, who were on the cusp of reaching the 2nd rank.

The buffed 3rd-tier goblin ensued some commands. The 2nd-tier goblins strode towards the net and tightly bound the druegars with ropes made from some higher-tier Monster tendons.

One of the 3rd-tier goblins told something while laughing and the rest joined him. Then they put them all near the stream and pitched a camp with a big fire in the middle. They took the fallen and wounded goblins for ‘reuse’ and prepared a feast.

“Sis! Are ya fine?” Dori worryingly whispered as his paralysis from the electricity faded.

“Yea, I think so. What about ya?”

“I’ll live… Only a few scratches here and there,” he replied with a nervous smile while hiding a wound that had festered on his hip. Luckily, he was able to cauterize it with his last bit of mana.

“How’s the rest?” Eriv asked the others.

“We’re still livin’,” Scour-Durza answered while carefully trying to break out.

“What about the boss?”

“Don’t know. She’s unconscious, but donna seems harmed too badly.”

“Why dinna they kill us yet?”

“Hard to…”

“Tuak!” Two 2nd-tier guards interrupted them and forced every single one of them to drink grog. Some of the druegars struggled, but a croaked dagger up their necks made them very compliant.

“What in th…” Eriv said as darkness descends upon her. The rest fell asleep as well… Except for one.

“Gakahaha!” A gruff laugh was the last thing they heard.

☁☁☁☁☁☁

After a nasty quarrel between the village chief and the shaman, it was decided that the dismayed Dafur would be ‘free’, but only after giving a promise, ensued by a poisonous concoction, that he would help the village. He understood his position and knew he did not have another choice. And he wished very much to live.

The chief told him that it was him who pulled him out of the frying pan as he could not watch to see another poor soul fall into the shaman’s filthy hands.

The shaman ‘graciously’ offered Dafur that he could become his assistant. When the chief sought to stop it, he was reminded that in certain things he had no rights; if the shaman wanted an ‘assistant’, he could conscript anyone he wanted every three months. And his quota for the year was not filled yet. The chief angrily walked away, leaving Dafur on his own accords.

The shaman looked at the dwarf with a devilish smile and ordered him to go to the temple. They had some things to ‘discuss’.

Ten hours later, after brutal torture, where the shaman asked him many things without much success, Dafur woke up exhausted and in pain on a straw mattress in the house belonging to Eriv and Dori. They already left for the hunt, leaving a simple note.

“Fuck! What now? Shoulda I find Stone?” Dafur asked himself while trying to stretch, but deep wounds did not let him as they began bleeding again. He found a gauze and some kind of ointment. He treated himself, while silently cursing, “Fucker! One day… I’ll hang him by his balls and use him as a bait to hunt Shul-Gahat!”

Then, fully bandaged, walked into a mess hall. Several empty gazes followed him. He took a gruel from a shelf and sat down at the nearest empty table.

When he had finished about half of his meal, several buffed druegars walked to him and surrounded him. “So, a dwarf wishes to eat our food,” one of them smirked. Another one knocked Dafur’s bowl out of his hand.

“Dornus ass! Mae food! Hey! Fuckers! What do ye think what ye doin’?” He fearlessly screamed at them while jumping up on his feet.

“What does it look like?!” Another one answered and hit him squarely in the liver.

Dafur’s eyes bulged, but he didn't make a sound.

“Oooh, tough one, boys! Get him!”

A barrage of fists and kicks landed on Dafur’s body and his wounds started bleeding again. He fell down, attempted to cast a rune, but the pain and the kicks made it almost impossible.

“What’re ya doin’!?” A guard cane inside to check the ruckus. As a mess hall was one of the ‘safe’ zones, where everybody should be free to come and eat in peace by their chief's decision, he grabbed his hatchet and effortlessly pacified the four druegars.

They did not have a chance against the trained and levelled guard and soon lay next to a grinning Dafur. The guard bound all five of them and brought them to the chief, explaining what he saw.

The chief said nothing. He glanced at the five and sent the four ‘crime’ aggregators to home. They did their job right.

“Now, treat Dafur, while I’ll talk,” he commanded another guard, who immediately pulled out gauzes and ointments. “I wanna ya to report me anythin’ shaman does,” he stated, not leaving Dafur any space to protest. “Don’t ya worry, next time I’ll send someone to ya to either pick ya up or to tell ya, where we’ll meet. Nod if ya understand.”

Dafur nodded, unable to say anything as his jaw was broken by the ‘invite’.

“Now, this guard’ll accompany ya home. Shaman won’t torture ya anymore. I’ll have a talk with him. Go sleep, tomorrow ya have work awaiting ya,” with this, he turned to his private room.

“Get up. Ya heard the man,” the guard pulled him up.

Back home, Dafur slumped back onto the straw mattress, while pondering on who and exactly what had brought him into such deep shit…