Thanks to the Stone’s nature, the soared at unprecedented speed. Every monk would pale in envy if he could see inside his mind. Calm, collected, focused solely on the task. No feelings that would distract him. Only a small number of selected few could achieve in a lifetime what Stone achieved in a few minutes.

He conjured one spell after another, creating around himself and breaking them again with missiles. His immense mana regeneration easily kept up and the refined mana was reserved only for Lucifer.

Lucifer joined him with his flux-variant spells; , , and . The elemental spells in the wizard book were completely unusable for them, which greatly irritated Lucifer. Air element was the easiest way to fly around. Luckily, they had the ...

During their intense training, Lucifer was constantly observing changes in Stone’s body. The golden veins were getting more condensed and so small that even he, a parasite that squatting within him, was not able to properly read them nor recognize the words or characters.

Still, he could distinguish the expertises that Stone learned. They were balls of blue lights, connected to his primary circuit by tentacles of refined mana with the golden celestian sentences encircling them. Between the skills were flashing pulses of mana as they communicated with each other and to Stone.

Lucifer was also able to discern Stone’s due to his own raised and intelligence. It was thin, but spread all over his body, penetrating every single molecule of the mineral. They needed to find a way how to heal the stupid pebble. The marble gate revealed Stone’s natural weakness; . He wondered how the Undead would react to him for a moment and chuckled, as he let his imagination to wander off.

The examination was incredibly bizarre. Hundreds of years of hosts; ranging from Humans, Dwarfs and Elves, through Undead to even Golems and one time the war-loving Siran … Lucifer had never experienced something so… peculiar.

Hours went by and Stone suddenly stopped. He levitated the children's storybook to himself and opened it.

“What are you doing?! Train!”

The training had proceeded very well until now and he did not like the idea of stopping.

“I want to read it again,” however, Stone was of a different opinion.

“What about Dafur? Didn’t you want to save him? Or feel good when you feel the progress?” Lucifer wanted to motivate him.

“…”

“Well?”

“I am thinking,” Stone pondered about it, but did not come to a conclusion. He would like to save the dwarf for a reason he could not explain nor fully understand, but he also would like to do something he likes.

It became so big of a conundrum for him, he became utterly still.

After five minutes of silence, Lucifer’s patience wore off, “go back practising the spells!”.

Stone pouted like a little kid but listened. The book was put away and he conjured a missile, hitting Lucifer’s purplish targets.

After several hours, he checked his annoyingly flashing journal.

The progress was excellent. Stone’s mana output was greatly expanded. Still, something bothered him; the advancement was slower and slower for the past two hours. He also noted that the maxed out did not offer the evolution as before.

“Luci? Why can't I evolve my spells? My progress is slowing down. Even with meditation.”

“You can’t? Wait… You have already maxed out?”

“Only the spell.”

Lucifer deadpanned. Envy sticked out its ugly head, but he quickly subdued it. He sighed and explained, "it’s because you have not evolved yet. That’s the normal thing for a Monster. And for slowing down… You are a spoiled brat! Do you know that it should take weeks or even months to max out the first tiers of proper spells, you monster?!”

“So, I need to level up?” Stone hoped. He had long since learned to ignore Lucifer’s rambling.

“Yes,” this single answer brought immense joy to Stone. “We also need to find out something about curses. Luckily, the goblin camp is still nearby. There has to be something.”

“Do you think there would be more storybooks?”

“Possibly… You really like them, huh?”

“Yup. I like stories. They are not loud, but funny. I liked when that loud kingdom turned silent and Tonka turning to stone!”

“... Anyway... It’s time to take out a group. I bet we could take on 2nd-tier goblins in a face to face battle,” Lucifer devilishly smiled. He loved levelling too. And murdering those trash-gobblers in droves. “Yes, I am an addict to it too…” Lucifer secretly sighed as he analyzed his own feelings.

“Group? What’s the difference?”

“Yes, group,” Lucifer nodded. “When you defeat a group, your experience gain is higher. The problem is that there is a higher chance of failure. If even one target runs away and you fail to hunt it down in a time, you will lose all of the experience. Soloists do it this way. It’s more efficient.”

“Sounds great! Why didn’t we do it like this before?”

“Because I feared you would bite off more than you could chew.”

“I can’t chew.”

“Because I feared you would fail,” Lucifer corrected himself, after he decided to not explain idioms. Too much work. “Besides, it was not needed. The experience was good enough, but now that you need more levels to evolve to the second tier…” Lucifer sighed.

“How do I do it?” Stone inquired. He was most interested in this. More experience meant faster levelling up!

“You have to mark at least three victims for Universum. It will be acknowledged as a challenge solely for you,” Lucifer explained and after a bit of contemplation added an important piece of information, “also, the victims can’t know about it… At least not until it's too late,” Lucifer sadistically grinned.

“… Oh, and leave the book behind. We will return here. Hopefully.”

Lucifer marked it with his ethereal , creating a metaphysical link so he could find this convenient cave if they would get lost. It would not stay forever, but it should be enough.

They slowly toured for a bit around the caverns, looking for a secluded group of goblins. After a bit of search, they discovered a pack of seven 1st-tier goblins patrolling in two lines led by a 2nd-tier. They were equipped with spears, but otherwise naked. The 2nd-tier was tall but lean, clearly going for the speed-type warrior Monster evolution.

“Must be scouts,” Lucifer whispered.

“Why are you whispering?” Stone whispered back.

“… I thought it was appropriate for the situation,” Lucifer replied with a normal voice. “I want you to focus on each of them and will the Universum to tag them.”

“It says that challenge was accepted.”

“Yeah… One of the high-gods, Mars, I think, and Mallum created this. At least that’s what Mars’s church preaches.”

The resting goblins stood up and were preparing to leave without a hurry.

“Go for it! I won’t help you. I don’t know what would happen. It’s another problem with the challenge, if somebody kills the tagged before you, it would count as a failure. We will experiment with this later…”

Stone sneaked behind them with Lucifer's .

It was a tactic they came together when Stone refused to train his technique while stubbornly repeating he hated flying. So Lucifer came up with a plan; he would hover them a few centimetres above ground, even though it would slow down his progress. Stone was hesitant, but in the end, he had to agree. Though, he still refused to train his own on himself.

They came to a stop ten meters behind the group of goblins.

Stone conjured a deeply blue, 25-RM . The spell itself was already staggering 15 times stronger than the . If he had heat, he could wipe them all with one or two strikes, but they were not able to find anything flammable around. A mistake that Lucifer decided to correct at the first opportunity.

The missile missed the 2nd-tier goblinette, but as the deep-blue smidge flew near her head, it frightened her as if a hellgate opened beneath her feet. Her high allowed her to detect how much loaded it was with refined mana.

Even though the missile missed its target, it hit the goblin behind her. He incredulously looked down and raised his hand to the 10-centimetres wide hole in his chest where his heart should have been. He slowly slumped down to the ground with the goblins behind him doing the same as the deep-blue pierced through them all.

The barely weakened continued its voyage until it hit a wall, creating a fairly large hole in it.

“Gulbu!” The leader screamed while carefully searching for the enemy, but not being able to find any. The rest of the goblins were frozen on their spot, scared shitless.

“Stone, what are you waiting for!”

“Loud!” Stone was quite surprised by the missile’s power as it was out of his expectation. Lucifer's shout forced him to regain his bearing and conjured another one, this time from ambient mana. He sent it on the panicking 2nd-tier goblin, blasting her leg off. She fell down, screaming, and a splash of blood sprayed on the other 1st-tier goblins before they could even realize what was happening.

After that, a barrage of translucent missiles landed on them. Holes appeared in their bodies, limbs were flying around.

“Messy… But effective! Good work!” Lucifer praised Stone’s work. “This is insane… To think, he is only a 1st-tier of… Stone... A normal person would not be able to keep up with this. We need to find more techniques for storing and regenerating mana. With his tool-side of existence… Damn! I can’t wait for it! Maybe… just maybe…” If he had eyes, there would be a glint similar to those dwarves when they first saw the mana crystal deposit.

He levelled up, the great feeling added to his addiction as he enlarged by another centimetre.

“Luci, did you get experience?” Stone wondered after he was out of the high.

“No. That is normal. You gained it through reward so it's yours.”

Stone liked that.

“Oh… and is it always this easy?”

“What?”

“Ambushing.”

Lucifer shook his head and sighed, “no. But you have a great advantage. You are so unremarkable that they have no chance to notice until it's too late. Still, remember the rat King. He was able to sense you before his untimely death. Be careful. Even though you are unique, some will act quickly, even if surprised.”

“Okay!”

“Now, the next group.”

“Wait! I want to try to mix heat with the missile.”

Stone summoned another two souls, found some dry leather and set it on fire the same way as the leaves way back with the rats.

He hurriedly cast a deep-blue missile, filled with all the heat, and dispatched it as far as possible. It went beyond their shared perception sphere but they heard a big explosion reverberating.

“Oh…” Stone was somewhat disappointed.

“What?”

“I didn’t see it… And I killed a goblin, but not gained any experience.”

“Well, we are leaving. From the sound, I would guess a few cracks should have appeared on the ground.”

“It was way too loud. I won’t use it again…”

“You will use it when I tell you! Same as with the ants’ souls.”

“Okay...” Stone reluctantly agreed.

As they left, a slowly growing crack appeared on the ground on the place where the heated landed...

They arrived in the same large cavern where the last battle between druegars and goblins had taken place. The place was already empty, except for two half-eaten druegar corpses.

“Goblins were here. I will teach you how to track them. Thanks to the perception sphere, it will be extremely easy for you,” he inwardly smiled. Sometimes, easy was good. “Look for traces where the target went. A random footprint should suffice for now.”

Stone immediately found many footprints. Lucifer taught him how to count how many targets there were and how to differentiate between them. Basic stuff that anyone could do. Still, it was enough for the soft ‘thud’ in Stone’s and Lucifer’s minds.

The moment Stone heard the message, a few most significant footprints were highlighted with red colour.

“Oh! Cool!” Lucifer exclaimed in astonishment. He honestly did not expect this.

A trail emerged itself, leading them in two directions. One track was filled with footprints made by greaves. The second trail was made by footprints created by bare feet.

They followed the goblin trail. Stone’s small trepidation soon grew into full-blown expectation.

“This is fun,” Stone cheerily proclaimed.

“Yeah, yeah. Be prepared, they are not that far away!”

Tracking them took three long hours.

They met the goblins' warband in a cave large around 30 metres in diameter, but otherwise dark and empty.

The goblins pitched a small camp and were resting and healing themselves from a battle.

Stone tagged every single goblin before Lucifer could react. The incredible and elusive perception sphere showed its prowess as he was able to ‘see’ everyone in a 29-metre radius of him. (A/N: Sphere 58 metres = Lucifer’s intelligence, Stone is the centre.)

Stone readied for the ambush but was stopped by Lucifer, “wait!”

“Loud!” Ignored. “Why?”

“Did you tag all the goblins?” Lucifer inquired with worry.

“Yes. Twenty-one of them.”

“Even those two 3rd-tier ones?”

“Yes…”

“Aaaaah. Fuck! Wait a minute… Move forward a little bit,” Lucifer detected a strange footprint in his perception sphere. “Oh… Those are druegars! And two dwarfs! What in the hell are they doing here?”

“I recognize that female dwarf! She was in the place with that beautiful marble gate alongside Dafur and the other dwarf.”

“What?!”

“You were asleep! And I told you about that…”

“Unholy shit! Do coincidences never end around you?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Nevermind…” Lucifer answered. He was beginning to get used to being endlessly frustrated by this growing pain in the ass. “Did you tag them?” Lucifer wanted them to live as a plan formed in his head.

“No. Didn’t see them.”

“Phew,” Lucifer relaxed. “Scout ahead and see if you missed any goblins.”

He did not.

“What worries me most are those two 3rd-tiers. I doubt we can take them in one shot and one of them looks proficient in mana manipulation.”

“What to do?” Stone had a strange feeling that he messed up again.

“Hmm, let me think…” Lucifer pondered on possibilities of how to deal with the ‘prey’. A few ideas came to him, but he threw them away as they had a 100% chance for death. In the end, he was able to find the answer, “the best idea would be to save the captives, equip them with weapons and let them fight. The problem is we won’t be able to get rewards thanks to your impudence! If you didn’t tag them so fast…”

“Sorry?”

“Does not matter anymore,” Lucifer groaned. “I don’t see any alarm spells. That’s good; it means the 3rd-tier are either exhausted or inexperienced. Or both,” Lucifer sighed in relief and continues, “I want you to sneak towards the prisoners and release their bounds. Slowly and carefully!”

Stone summoned three ants’ souls to move around the wall. Lucifer wanted him to go above their heads, but he refused. Flying was no-no! They arrived near the still-unconscious druegars. Stone slowly cut them free. It took a refined mana dagger to get through the tendons of 3rd-tier monsters.

“They do not move,” Stone observantly declared.

“No! Really? Oh, dear god! What are we going to do?!” Lucifer rolled his non-existent eyes.

“I don’t know,” Stone answers, ignoring Lucifer's irony.

Lucifer growled and created a purplish wall and slapped the nearest druegar.

“What?! What?!” The poor sod woke up, utterly confused. He swiftly remembered what happened and realized he was free as he shifted.

“Silence!” Stone’s high-pitched voice silently but sharply commanded. He blinked a few times, even more confused than before.

“What in Darkul…”

“I said silence! Are you the leader?” Stone slapped a mana wall at his mouth.

“Hmpf!” The druegar struggled.

“So?”

“Idiot! Remove the wall before he suffocates!” Lucifer inwardly facepalmed.

“Oh…” Stone would feel embarrassed, but he refused to.

“I am here to help you. Now, answer!”

“Nae. Lead’r’s ther’,” druegar cautiously pointed at Jarka.

“Good, I will slowly wake you all. Do not make a mess!”

First, he woke up Jarka. She was confused at first but understood the situation quickly. They came up with a plan and Stone slowly woke up the rest.

Even though Jarka and the rest of her party could not see their saviour, the matter of him sneaking past the two 3rd-tier goblins surrounded by a warband meant he had to be quite a mighty hunter with a mana-based class. They accepted it and even listened to him. Just as Lucifer planned.

They had to patiently wait for the mysterious saviour to find them their weapons. The weapons were nearby, guarded by two drunk 2nd-rank goblins. Luckily, the goblins were not the smartest and threw the prisoners near a wall guarded by four dozing off 1st-tier guards.

As Stone slowly distributed the weapons, Jarka silenced the slowly awakening druegars with a hiss and carefully observed the goblin camp. Most of the goblins were sleeping or eating, not expecting the preparing rescue.

The 3rd-tier goblins meditated in the middle, sitting back to back with closed eyes and showing complete self-confidence in their power. Even though Jarka was no runemaster or shaman by far, her experience acquired through long, harsh life in the Abyss and the evolved tracking skill was enough for her to discern their matching waves created by their mana. She hoped that their mysterious rescuer would be enough to get them out of here.

She saw Dori as he silently conjured a little bit of purple flame and sent it somewhere.

“Damn! That’s a fucking low-tier fire elemental! You said he was blighted, right? He must have a gene-locked contract!”

“Loud! So what?”

“Do you realize that it is incredibly difficult for a dwarf to acquire an elemental? It’s unprecedented in these times!”

“Again, so what?”

“Tche! Nothing… Aaaah, no point arguing with a piece of idiotic pebble…”

Meanwhile, Stone quickly positioned himself on the other side of the camp, near the middle of the cavern. The weak purplish fire was eating away at some dry moss Stone had found nearby and he was absorbing the heat.

He conjured a deep-blue 25-RM and mixed it with the heat. But as he did that, the beautiful deep-blue colour attracted him, promising him good feelings... eternal silence... a helpful partner who would be never loud. He even released a weak pulse of mana, unintentionally casting the spell.

“Damn it! STONE!” Lucifer yelled in Stone’s mind as loud as possible to wake him up from the stupor. It was convincing enough. The waves were getting rapidly more significant and more powerful.

Two goblins, who were guarding the camp, caught sight of the pulsating mana and slowly investigated with raised spears.

Lucifer thought of something in desperation; he overflowed Stone’s mind with images of his past, feelings of frustration and whatever he could think of. He wanted to overwhelm Stone consciousness with ‘loud’.

“LOUD!”

“Fuck! Send it Stone!”

Stone was confused by what just occurred but sent the heated mana missile spiralling amid the camp. It travelled as fast as a bolt released from a crossbow. It pierced and seared the nearing goblin’s head during its voyage through the air. The second goblin escaped back to the camp and raised an alarm.

For him, the suddenly appeared and decimated his mate's head.

A big, flashy explosion echoed over the cavern, the wave of superheated air exploded from the missile could be felt from the nearby shafts as it hit the alarmed 3rd-tier goblinette, blowing off her arm at the shoulder and searing more than half of her body. She shrieked while she fell on the ground, holding the seared stump.

The second 3rd-tier goblin, the one proficient in magic, was able to react in time and conjure a . Even though the explosion destroyed it, the goblin was blinded, he escaped unscathed, bar a few scratches here and there and he suffered from the debuff .

The camp became chaotic; sleeping goblins hastily awoke and ran around like headless chickens.

The druegars acted according to the simple plan. They sprang up on their feet, overpowered their wardens and proceeded to massacre the 1st-tier goblins.

Stone dispatched another deep-blue missile, weaker this time, without including any heat, on the still grovelling and screeching 3rd-tier goblin.

The second 3rd-tier goblin was not able to gather his bearings in time as he was a mere slave. However, his master was now crawling on the ground in pain. He attempted to help her with an extremely rare, at least for the Abyss, potion prepared precisely for this situation.

He neared to his master’s head with the brew, but a second deep-blue shattered the potion and hit his master in the head. The head broke sending the 3rd-tier goblinette into limbo. Her slave gazes upon her, not knowing what to do.

The 2nd-tier goblins and the rest of their 1st-tier goblins finally gained a little bit of footing and formed a line against the desperate druegars. Jarka and Scout-Durza held their own in an even battle with the four 2nd-tiers while the other druegars battled the 1st-tiers.

“Why did you stop?” Lucifer inquired.

“My challenge failed! No experience! No good feeling!” Stone angrily exclaimed.

“Well… I told you it would happen! Help them! We need them alive!”

“I don’t want to!”

“For fuck sake! Do it, or I will scream in your mind! Constantly! AAAAAAA!”

“LOUD! Don’t do it!” Stone pleaded, instead of ordered, making the talent moot.

“AAAaaa!”

“No!”

“AAAAAAAAAAA!”

“Fine! Fine! I will do it!” Stone gave up.

“Tche!”

Stone broodily created one translucent after another, shelling the 1st-tier goblins and freeing the druegars, who then ran to Jarka and Scout-Durza to help them. With this, the druegars gained enough momentum to break the line.

Lucifer observed the wailing 3rd-tier goblin, who finally regained his posture, glanced at the battling goblins and followed the line of s. He noticed a pebble looking like a low-grade mana crystal, but much bigger. It was entirely white, with a smooth crust and in the shape of a perfect ellipsoid. He was surprised for a bit, but the wrath took over and began conjuring his own spell.

“Stone! Run!”

A little black point appeared between the goblin's big palms and soil around him began gathering around it.

“What?”

“RUN!”

Stone listened when he heard the urgency and ordered the souls to run as fast as possible.

‘BANG!’

The ground where he was just a moment before exploded as a dark-brown boulder crushed the location he was laying a moment before, sending shards of the boulder flying. A few sharp rocks chipped Stone’s body, damaging him even further.

The 3rd-tier goblin lost sight of the enemy as he was interrupted by Jarka, re-equipped with her beloved axe and bloody mist around her.

The goblin did not have a chance. Even though he could somewhat defend himself with a RM and his own skills, a well-pointed bolt from a crossbow broke his rhythm. Jarka used her trump card.

All of her scarlet mist transferred to the axe’s edge. She put all of her remaining power into the strike and bisected the goblin even with his mana shield. She killed the fainted 3rd-tier goblinette by a kick into his revealed brain.

“Bleh!” She wiped her boot on the dead goblinette's body and helped to clear out the rest of the goblins.

Meanwhile, Stone’s ants’ souls disperse in a faint flash.

“Luci?” Stone faintly said. He did not feel good at all.

“Yea?” Lucifer replied, expecting the worst. It occurred to him that he and Stone forgot to put up the , but it ‘that’ concern was overshadowed by Stone’s next sentence.

“I think… I am going to die.”

“It will be fine, Stone. Don’t worry, I will be here with you.”

Time seemed to slow down. The almost-victorious druegars and screaming goblins appeared as if submerged in amber. Flying rocky shards slowed down to a barely noticeable speed. The axe held by Jarka, though slowed, still carried its path through one of the last goblin’s neck.

A being, clad in such a dark robe that it absorbed every single ray of light like a blackhole, suddenly appeared near Stone. It held a simple scythe with his extremely skinny white fingers; a person could mistake him for a skeleton.

The Scythe was so sharp it visibly cut the fabric of space every time it slightly shifted even by a thin hair, revealing what was Behind. Still, as spacetime was resilient and constantly attended to, it closed back almost instantly.

From beneath the hood, two bright eyes were shining as two supernovas stared at the little pebble.

“Stone?” A strange voice that was not a voice and more like a breeze in the graveyard, promising peace and silence reverberated in every single atom.

“Luci, who is that?” Stone inquired with pictures and emotions, the same way as months ago. He already lacked the strength to even talk.

“What the…” Lucifer gazed upon the God of Death, Mortalitas, with utter horror. Panic started to grow within him, realizing that he and Stone would undoubtedly die if he won’t do anything. He did not want to die. Not when he was finally free. Partially. Trapped in insane pebble. Dying… Constantly frustrated… Was it really that bad to die? He shook his imaginary head and suppressed the feelings of despair. It was the effect of being near the leader of death’s divine domain.

“Hello. Who are you?” Stone curiously asked when the answer from Lucifer was not coming.

“… Death...”

“Oh. Are you here for me?”

“… Yes,” the final and definitive answer resounded. Then, God of Death, Mortalitas, stretched his arm holding The Scythe. Lucifer panicked. One idea rapidly alternates another. The Scythe’s edge was nearing Stone as the seeping lifeforce was leaving his body.

Stone’s mind was rapidly fading and he was slowly turning into the ordinary pebble he once was. The golden veins in his body flickered and the balls of mana, representing his spells and skills withered like leaves without a tree.

The voice in Lucifer’s mindscape, You, echoed in his mind, sending a one-word message: “Remember!”.

His mind was flooded with his own long-forgotten memories. The pictures were hazy, without shape. He saw a dark, insane place, filled with shrieks and pain. The area was flat, without a mountain, rivers, trees or even grass. The land, full of wiggling shadows, seemed completely dead.

In the distance, he saw some kind of dark liquid, maybe a sea, but then the memory changed. He suddenly stood on a tall, pyramid-like platform, and an immense army was kneeling before him. The shadowy, hazy soldiers had shapes in all forms imaginable and unimaginable. There were hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of them.

On the top of the platform was a throne, made from writhing and silently screaming bodies. An immensely powerful, but blurry being was sitting on it, wearing a fiery crown. Lucifer stood right behind him in the shadow. He wanted to examine the person more closely, but he was forced to shift his eyes at his hands.

He held a book. It was the second object he could see that was in focus, alongside the throne. It was made from white leather, a white bone as a binding. There were no pictures nor name of the book on the cover.

He caressed it with his palm that had seven fingers and extremely dark skin. He opened it and saw a strangely familiar language, vastly different from celestian, written on smooth pages.

He loudly recited from it with a voice bearing savageness and brutality. As he was done with reciting, he closed the book and a 30 metres tall portal opened before the platform. The person on the throne gracefully stood up, towering before everyone in all his glory and a deafening, disharmonic cheering echoed. The leader stepped into the portal and close behind him, the army followed.

At this moment, Lucifer was free to do whatever he wanted like in a lucid dream. His instinct, a memory of sorts, told him to open the book again. The scarlet words from the book left the pages and entered his eyes.

Lucifer woke up to The Scythe’s edge nearly landing on Stone. Abruptly, a sanguine light enveloped Stone’s body. The Scythe touched the light and halted.

The moment Lucifer woke up from the journey into his memories, he was swarmed by many messages. But one message stands above others.

(A/N: These are Lucifer’s journal messages!)

The God of Death scrutinized Stone, seeing that his lifeforce stopped fading directly before it reached zero and disappeared without a flash or a slow fade.

The time returned back to normal. The druegars finished off the goblins without noting anything strange. They cheered and tended to their many wounds, some of them even life-threatening. Their and was wholly drained, and even Jarka slumped on her ass in a puddle of goblin’s blood and closed her eyes, heavily breathing.

The twins, Eriv and Dori, followed her example. Scout-Durza had to even help them to take care of their wounds.

And none of them had even thought of looking for their mysterious saviour.

Lucifer examined his journal. The only word he could think of was; “FUCK!”. After a bit of swearing and cursing, he turned his attention to the more pressing matters. Like what the hell just happened. He willed his tablet and with a ‘swish’ it materialized in his mind.

“Who was I?” He wordlessly questioned himself, utterly baffled. Then he finally remembered something more pressing.

“STONE!” He shouted in his protégé’s mind, but there was no answer. He examined Stone’s insides. The flickering golden celestian veins stabilized but were extremely faint. The lifeforce stopped trickling out but the number must be meagre.

“Mana! I need refined mana!” Lucifer panicked. He heaved in relief. Stone was still regenerating and refining mana as always. He willed the on Stone and after a few minutes, his was filled to the brim again.

“Stone?” He attempted to wake him up, but Stone was completely unresponsive.

“What now? Should I reveal myself to the druegars? Hm… I could tell them… Yes! That is a good idea. Without help, I will die anyway. The village… Even though dangerous, it is a must. Luckily, we have allies there,” he came up with a hasty and improvised plan. He utilized his technique and slowly levitated to the resting druegars.

Stone’s talking holes were a no-go. Lucifer could not use them at all. Something blocked him. He deduced it was due to the talent.

He arrived next to Jarka and conjured a weak purplish near her ear to gain attention.

It took a while to wake her up and as she looked around in distress that another attack came, he wrote on the ground before her with the goblin’s; “I can’t talk now. This refined mana crystal is made for communication. It’s crude and incomplete, but we can talk only this way. Well, you talk, me writing.”

Jarka blinked a few times to clear her eyes and to assure herself she was not dreaming or worse; insane.

“Scout-Durza! Com’ her’!” She commanded with a tired but firm voice.

“Ya wish mae lady?” Scout-Durza immediately skipped. He was tired too, but he was the least wounded in the whole group.

“Do ya see it too?” She pointed at the spot with the message and a piece of almost 20 centimetres long, and 6 centimetres wide perfect ellipsoidal pebble with a smooth, white crust next to it.

“Yea, see it too. Boss, I need to make some food. Otherwise, others will eat mea alive.”

“Yea, go for it.”

He nodded and left with a goblin’s corpse he picked up nearby. He went through the goblin’s stuff, found some crude goblin-forged utensils and made a fire.

“Fine. Ya’re real. Thank ya for savin’ us. I’ll report it to the chief and the shaman. They’ll reward ya.”

“Great. Now, please accept this communication stone and keep it. Or give it to someone you trust. I will contact you again soon,” Lucifer replied with another message written in bloody letters.

“How will I contact ya?”

“You will not. I will when the time comes.”

She agreed and pocketed Stone in her recently ‘found' knapsack.