Houses made of wood, thin wood that did not withstand the rain. Blighted settlements and shantytowns were all the side of the hills was house to, deep into the forest where the horned monsters lived. Pigpens and small terraces with nothing but herbs, and dirt spreading from the top to the bottom of every thinly sliced wall.

Moss was the cushion under the roofs, worms and cockroaches were the usual companions of the languid monsters who rarely exited their shelter, if not to hunt for another day, or reproduce. Many had to go over a day without a crumble of bone falling to their feet. If they had the opportunity, they would feed upon any herb they found growing on the edges of the trees, feast on it like a delicacy from heaven.

An exponentially expansive population could not support itself if the substance and shelter did not grow in that same accord. Both Suu and Thom wrote that thought in their heads, feeling immense pity in their hearts for the goblins that writhed in the dirt like insects. The eyes that begged at them without words guided them towards the place where Clung had prepared logging, a house up in the trees made of robust wood and tangled up with leaves and vines.

They made their way to the canopy through wooden stairs of crude craft, which rumbled below their feet with each step. Upon entering, their eyes fell on the sleeping bags laid on the wooden floor, a floor made with halved logs, the branches of the tree being the only thing that supported its weight.

Clung signaled towards a spot of the small house, where a single bone and bark chest was placed, above a circular carpet made out of fur. Thom's party sat on the carpet and let go of a heavy sigh, relaxing slightly after walking for a good portion of the day.

Clung placed his staff beside the chest and opened it, beginning to pull a few stones from inside. He placed them in front of Thom, ten in total, and smiled.

"These are all the magic stones the master left for my section of the horde. They're only ten, but he said they have a great value. Since I am the only mage in this division, I found it a waste to conserve. Please take these as one of our peace offerings, to show you that we're committed to our alliance." Clung bowed slightly, showcasing his gifts.

Although the other-worldlers didn't pay them much attention, simply nodding with a smile to show their gratitude, Erina seemed especially excited. She grabbed one of them and put it close to her face, carefully inspecting its contents. A blue essence fluttered inside the rocky shell, showing a faint glitter every now and then.

"Is it something good?" Thom asked.

"Good, really good. I mean, not for you and me, since we are not magic casters. But these stones... as far as I know, they store some amount of magic essence. I don't know how, but I know they're incredibly hard to make. Mages use them when they're running out of magic energy in a fight, they break them and inhale its contents to charge up." She excitedly pointed at the stone, careful not to break it by any means.

Suu grabbed one of them and weighed it on her hand, also feeling the amount of raw magic it contained inside.

"It should weigh about one kilogram, no? And the contents inside, I can't really measure raw magic... But it should be close to an Estone, shouldn't it?"

Taking into account that each fourth-tier spell cost her eight or more Estones, it didn't seem wise to rely on these artificial sources for combat. However, she could understand why other magic casters would use them.

"That should be about right." Erina nodded. "See how these all look the same? It must mean that whoever gave them to the goblins is actually human, or elven. There is a something or whatever that determines the standard weight of these in the continent. I'm not sure how much it is, but it should be close to what you said."

"Then, what if I inhale it?" Thom grabbed one of them with his hand, blinking as he stared at the beautiful cloud of dark blue inside of the dark shell.

"Why don't you try?" Suu suggested with a smile.

"Right!" Thom replied, ready to crush the stone with his fingers. Before he could do anything, Erina grabbed his hand and stopped him.

"Wait! Are you crazy, or do you just don't know? Araba said you were born without a magic system! That means you can't process magic, dude! Have you seen what happens when you try to eat something that has big amounts of raw magic? Since it goes directly to the stomach, it goes wild, and— boom! You explode! Don't go around doing such a dangerous thing, you!"

She lightly punched his arm, but Thom felt as if his shoulder had been dislocated. As he held it with a trembling hand and a blue face, he spoke

"Urgh... That just seems like a tale to scare children into not eating weird things from the forest."

"It's true tho." Erina puffed up her cheeks. "Don't try it."

"What miss Erina is saying is not wrong." Clung interrupted, calling the party's attention. "Our master explained to us the same. Goblins have high absorption rates when it comes to raw magic energy, and our bloodline allows us to fully digest it while it's plant-based. But he made it very clear not to absorb any raw magic from other elements, and recommended the goblins with lower magic pools not to break any stones."

"So it's like that even for goblins..." Thom squinted his eyes, rather disappointed. He had the faint hope that he would be able to use magic somehow if he managed to absorb it from that miraculous stone, after all.

"Well, it's nothing to be disheartened for." Suu ruffled Thom's hair. "You've done great without magic up until now. What good could it make for a swordsman like you anyway? It only makes combat complicated, ya know?"

"Right." Thom chuckled.

"Hmm, magic isn't only for combat, tho." Erina pressed her finger against her lip. "Every living being is nurtured by magic in a way, and they grow attached to it. Even I have a portion of magic in me, and a small magic system."

"Erina, darling, you're not helping." Suu whispered with a bitter smile.

"A-Ah, I just mean it as in... Ehm, my name, you know?"

"Hm?" Thom and Suu tilted their head slightly to the left. "What does your name have to do with anything?"

"Do you guys really not know anything about the world or...?" Erina muttered as she looked at the pair of black-haired outsiders. They shook their head in unison, and the girl sighed.

"Please explain it, master Erina!" Thom bowed his head slightly, making the girl jump back.

"Master... Well, ehem. You see, about the names, it's a simple concept to grasp, really..." She looked around the room and closed her eyes. "It is said somewhere in the scriptures that the gods branded their champions with their magic energy back in the beginning of the world. The gods would permanently lose a portion of their power, giving it to their vassals in the form of magic energy. However, by doing this, they linked the soul of their servants with their own, and allowed the servants to grow even more powerful. The branded ones did the same with their sons, and the sons with their own. It soon became a holy tradition to pass on a portion of your power to your children, so they would cultivate it and give it to their children."

"So that's why people with children had less magic energy..." Suu muttered under her breath.

"In Kulkus, it's obligatory that you name your children and infuse them with your magic energy. If you're unfortunate to not have enough, they're taken away by the church, or you're sentenced to pay a drastically high fee for a priest to name your offspring." The girl smiled as she explained, feeling extremely wise and intelligent, although she was explaining something that was common knowledge for anyone in the kingdom.

"I see." Thom nodded. "So I can name something and make it more powerful if I have enough magic energy in my body?"

"Correct!" Erina exclaimed.

Crack!

"Thom?!"

The black-haired youth turned around and broke one of the stones with his hand, immediately snorting its contents. Erina grabbed him by the neck and pressed it tightly as if wanting to break his spine with sheer pressure. Thom started tapping her hand as if to signal that he gave up, but the girl didn't loosen her grip.

"What are you doing?! He's turning blue!"

"Guha! I'm trying to make him exhale the magic out!"

"You're gonna make him exhale his life out! Hey! Thom, stay with me! Erina, let go!"

Erina let go of the poor man, and he fell to the ground. Thom took in a deep breath as he incorporated himself again and sat cross-legged on the wooden floor, touching the red marks around his neck, which slowly started to dissipate.

"..."

The room stayed silent as they observed the young man pant and wheeze, searching for a bit of air. They were expectant of something, although they didn't know what, and nervous all the same. Sweat began to pour down Suu's neck and back, Clung drilled his eyes into Thom's accelerated breath, and Erina was feeling guilty in a corner of the room.

A quiet half minute passed. Then, Thom's skin turned a bright color of red.

"Ugh...! Acgh...! Fuck! Fuck!"

He held his chest with both hands and started to yell at the top of his lungs, setting Suu and the rest into a state of alarm. The girl hurriedly grabbed Thom and placed him on the carpet, yelling at Clung to conjure a frost spell. Thom started to swell up and his skin began to erupt into little bubbles, exploding veins from left to right. His gut-wrenching screams indicated how badly he was being torn apart from the inside, splats of blood splurting from his mouth every now and then.

His skin had turned searing hot, and every little bubble of skin that exploded sent blood flying to the walls. His fast recovery rate just meant that the wounds closed as fast as they appeared, but he wouldn't be able to compensate for the blood loss if it kept going this way.

"Clung, how long are you gonna take?!"

"Right up!"

A mantle of frost suddenly beamed from his staff, and the room was covered in a thin layer of ice. The temperature began to rapidly decrease, but it wasn't enough. Suu told Clung to break a stone and throw the spell again, and the hobgoblin did as instructed. Three times in total. The temperature of the room had begun to rapidly decrease.

The bubbles in Thom's skin decreased by the minute, but the amount of blood pooling around him and filtering through the wooden planks was already frightening. Suu kept holding Thom's hand and waited for the pain to subside in his body, until finally, five minutes later, everything seemed to come to a halt.

「Learning successful. The passive skill [Superior Circulation] has been acquired. Spells, poison, and toxins that affect the circulatory system will be 50% less effective from now on. Oxygen transportation and temperature regulation have been upgraded. Blood production efficiency and blood replacement efficiency have been upgraded.

Learning successful. The passive skill [Majirical Bloodtype] has been acquired. Extra magic not capable of being stored in the majirical system will be transported towards blood vessels and organs, but it does not allow use unless it is first transformed into magic energy.

•The skill priorly obtained possesses a high probability of damaging the user and is highly volatile. The chances of dying from mishandling are close to 90%.

Applying Unique Skill bonus...

•The skill priorly obtained possesses a high probability of damaging the user and is highly volatile. The chances of dying from mishandling are close to 0.003% after applying [Luckiest] bonus.

The user may turn off any skill that is not convenient to them or use a lower state of the same skill at any moment if so they desire.」

Thom sat up on the floor, and looked at Suu's teary face. She looked at him as well, waiting for a word from him, but the man simply nervously smiled.

"Ahaha, that was kind of a bad idea."

"Are you brain dead?! If you want to die so much, I'll fucking kill you myself, Thom!"

The girl grabbed him by the head and started to shake him pro and fro, his neck cracking with every single movement of his skull.

"Halt! Wait! Gyah! I wasn't trynna kill myself, I don't want to die, stop! You're gonna break me!"

"What were you thinking about?!"

"I was trying to see if Skill Master would do something about it!" Thom yelled, trying to take Suu's hands away from him.

"And?" She pouted and placed her face close to Thom. "Did it?!"

"Y... Yes."

Thom nodded. The girl sat back and sighed. She seemed to have given up, as she simply walked towards one of the bedrolls on the floor, tucked herself in, and went to sleep.

"That was a very risky thing to do..." Erina estated with a trembling voice. "I really thought you were gonna die right there..."

"S-Same here, King Thom. Please... Act more responsibly from now on, we can't afford to lose you now that we have just managed to form an alliance." Clung said, covered in relief. "And now we've got three fewer stones, too..."

"And it's freezing here!" Erina complained.

Thom looked at the stones laid out in front of him once again. They seemed oddly tempting now that he could actually store the contents inside his body. Clung and Erina stood up to clean the floors and the walls, and they left Thom alone with the stones. Temptation was never easier to fall for. He extended his hand, grabbed the remaining seven, and placed them all in front of him while the others were distracted.

"Hehe..." He nervously chuckled.

Crack!

"Again?!"

This time, Thom simply inhaled the contents of the stones, all seven of them. The blue gas entered his nostrils like a water current and filtered into his lungs to be injected directly into his bloodstream. The blood started to rail up as another fluid took space inside of his body, heating his body before it began cooling down slowly.

Clung and Erina looked at him from afar, shaken by the realization that he was entirely okay. The youth smiled and stood up, looking at Clung.

"Huff..." He smiled. "It was a good gift, I shall accept it." Thom stood up, and headed towards the black hobgoblin with a burlesque smile on his face.

"Right..." The young mage replied.

"Then... Clung, this might sound hurried, but there are a few things I'd like us to talk about. I saw things that are really missing a change here, and... It's not about me or the alliance anymore, it's about your settlement."

Clung looked up with nervous eyes. Thom returned an eerie smile.