9 Half and Half

"Should we send this piece of marble to the Alchemist Workshop back at the capital?" Barov suggested.

Roland shook his head and asked what the others thought. Right now, Roland and the witches, as well as a few close attendants, were circled around Rocky, scrutinizing him. Nightingale was dozed off and not interested in Rocky while Anna was enthusiastically looking through every single part of Rocky.

Anna asked, "Should we try splitting it in half to see its composition?"

Rocky suddenly jolted back into consciousness and asked the system, "Wait... what happened? Something about splitting me in half?"

The Roll-land system buzzed, "User: Rocky has completed update 2.0. Duration: 2 hours. Congratulations!"

The Roll-land system made the noise of confetti and childish cheers. It continued, "User: Rocky is now about to undergo the process of being split in half."

Rocky shouted, "What?!" The squeak loudly reverberated around the room and shocked everyone except for Anna and Roland.

Roland said, "This marble is indeed special." He glanced at everyone in the room, "So does no one know what this is?"

Roland was greeted by all of them shaking their heads. Roland sighed and said, "Send it to the Alchemist Workshop, Barov. Perhaps they could figure out what it is."

Rocky asked the Roll-land system, "Is the Alchemist Workshop far?"

The Roll-land system informed him, "Yes, User: Rocky can level up upon reaching the Alchemist Workshop. The Alchemist Workshop specializes in all things alchemy, such as turning one material into another."

Rocky smiled and thought, "Such an excellent opportunity!" He imagined Roland and the people at Border Town saying, "Bon voyage[1], Rocky!"

Rocky told Dusty and Dustine, "I'm about to leave soon, you two. Keep gathering other dust particles and keep a lookout. Let me know if anything big happens! Build up the Desperate Underworld Spy Team! (D.U.S.T.)"

Rocky was all set to go and ready to travel to the capital. However, Anna asked Roland, "Can we at least split it in half at least? We could keep half and the Alchemist workshop could keep half."

Roland nodded and a thin thread of searing hot flame emerged from Anna's index finger. Rocky was sweating inside and asked the system, "What happens if I get split in half?"

In its usual monotone voice, the system replied, "User: Rocky will die and cannot reincarnate nor transmigrate past this life."

This further increased the stress Rocky must be feeling at the moment. Rocky began to furiously yell, "Stop it! Release me, witch! Don't kill me! What have I ever done to you!"

Anna gave a smile that sent shivers up Rocky's spine, "Look! The marble agrees with my suggestion! Let's try it!"

He was pretty much all out of ideas at the moment and the thin flame touched Rocky and easily began to cut through him like butter.

The thin tendril of white flame quickly cut through a few centimeters of Rocky. As Rocky's vision dimmed, he heard a voice say, "Wait."

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[1]: Bon voyage is French for "have a nice trip" (好旅行).