Quarrel

Silence reigned in the streets once again after Victor's words got registered in everyone's brains.

"No!" Luka was the first person to speak. He pointed a finger at Granberia and told Victor. "There is no way I'll let someone as dangerous as her in my party!"

Victor glanced at him and replied. "The only reason I let you decide whether Eva will join the party or not is because you wouldn't fuck it up such a simple thing. After that, your opinion doesn't really matter anymore."

"But I am-"

"The leader of the party, right? Of course you are, you are the same leader who thought it was a good idea to pull up a giant suspicious plant out of the ground and doesn't have balls to throw a tiny bit of salt on Slugs. Luka, even I could fight better than you, and I am a cripple. Now shut up and let me work this out before you make it worse." Victor told him back, making Luka close his mouth in shame.

Victor turned at Alice and explained. "I don't want to risk anything that might compromise the unity of this party by letting out someone as knowledgeable as Eva. God knows how many people will find out about you before the end of this week."

"I already told you that I won't do something this childish…" Eva repeated, but Victor once again rebuked her.

"You are telling me, at most an acquaintance, to trust your words. I barely know your preferred weapon and name; no matter how many times you save my life in 15 minutes, my trust for you is worth crap. Would you trust me with your spear for a week?"

"..." Eva soon started nodding as she thought of putting herself on Victor's shoes. "A fair point."

Then Victor turned his eyes towards Granberia and continued. "As for you, it's clear enough that you won't budge from your spot. You want to make sure that Eva doesn't go on a rampage, yada yada. So, if you both join the party, everyone is going to be happy and I can keep peace with myself knowing that neither of you will destroy half of this continent for some reason."

"What about me?!" Alice asked Victor with an angry voice. "I never asked for a babysitter, what rights do you have to decide in my stead?!"

Victor glared back at her and told her back. "No, what rights do YOU have to speak against my opinion?"

"Excuse me?!"

"I never asked to go on this journey with you people. My plan was to stay in Iliasville for some time, gather enough money, and then go to the treasure cave of my ass at north from here so I can pull my luck on any possible treasure that could be there. Maybe the money I can find there will be enough to repair my left leg, I don't know.

Instead I've got two dumbasses in the middle: Dumbass #1 makes things worse than they should be, and Dumbass #2 leeches off us for the entire day and night! The greatest contribution you did in 2 entire days was trying to pull Luka on the right road on swordsmanship, something that any veteran soldier with more than 5 brain cells can do, and they are more useful than you if they are pulled inside the party!

YOU pulled me off from my original safe plan to fix my leg, YOU made me spend 500 Gold just to feed your bottomless stomach for lunch, and YOU aren't doing almost anything for the entire time! At the end of this, you better compensate me for every single coin I had to put on you."

"Otherwise?" Alice spoke with a challenging tone as she coldly glared at Victor, but hesitation appeared on her eyes when Victor stared back at her eyes with venomous eyes that were on the verge of bleeding from the blood vessels.

"I will make. You. Regret. Being. Born."

"..." The disguised Monster Lord clenched her fists in silence and then crossed her arms. "Whatever, do what you want."

"..." Luka frowned a bit at the situation and glanced at Victor, who was still glaring at Alice. "...Anyway, I understand that you want to keep this under your control… But why the 30'000 Gold?"

"That's how much I had spent to help Eva defeat her, now she is going to pay me back for all of it, lest she wants to find a missing kidney." Victor replied to Luka as he tried to calm down.

However, even after he released all of the stress accumulated on his mind, he couldn't find peace with that. He knew that it wouldn't change much, and he probably fucked it up even further. Anyway, what is done is done…

As for the repayment that Granberia owed him, that was a lie. He actually only bought 3 things: the Uzi for 2'001 Coins, the Flashbang for 10'349, and Ecstasy, the drug, for a cheap 65 Coins. He was currently lacking money, really lacking. And since no one else knows about this except for him, he can snag more money than he spent from Granberia if everything goes well. She lost, and the reward for their victory can't be as simple as letting her leave the city, right?

"...That's what I get for losing." Granberia said as she let out an exasperated sigh. "Very well, I will return tomorrow near the city gate with the money you have asked me."

She turned towards Eva and threatened out. "If I come to know that you have harmed her while I was away, there's no one in this world that will stop me from breaking your spine!" After saying that, a magic circle appeared below her feet and slowly passed through her body, turning her into particles of dark energy that vanished from the place.

Granberia left, leaving Victor, Luka, Penny, Alice, and Eva alone in the streets. An exasperated sigh came from Luka as he started to speak. "Well, I guess the matter is solved…?"

"Yay!" Penny was the only one excited about this, while everyone else remained in an awkward silence. Victor simply turned his wheelchair around and headed towards the central plaza.

"Where are you going?" Luka asked with curiosity, and Victor shrugged at him.

"Just checking around. I'll meet you guys at the Sutherland Inn or whatever."

Penny simply walked after Victor, leaving Luka to deal with the rest. Even though Granberia is now gone, the streets were still silent. Of course, everyone was still too scared to poke their heads out of the windows, so no one in this city knew that the problem was fixed.

This can actually work to his advantage if he can do this thing properly…

"...By the way, how did you create that explosion?" Victor asked Penny who was walking at his side. There were a few questions that were left aside during the fight with Granberia, and now that his mind was a bit clearer, they turned back in his brain.

Penny tilted her head in curiosity and replied. "I just threw the brown rock at the bad monster, and then it went 'Kaboom'!" She ended her answer by gesturing around with her arms in a wide arc.

Victor sighed. Even when he is in the middle of the messy agalmation that is his group, Penny is the only thing that can manage to let him forget about the problems in his life. He really did a good job letting Luka carry her away.

"...Victor, why were you angry at Alice?" Penny asked Victor, making him raise an eyebrow at the strange question.

"Well, of course that's because she is the reason why I am here. You see, if Alice didn't force me to come here, I would be staying in a nice house relaxing my body on a bed. Instead, I was being chased by the 'Big Bad Dragon' that just left. She's just so arrogant that it makes me angry… I know why she would do or say that, but I feel different about it."

"So you simply don't like when she does everything you know she will do?" Summarizing everything, Penny asked Victor.

"Yeah. It's the difference between logic and morality, I doubt you understand me now, though… Anyway, if she didn't do what she did, I would stay alone by myself somewhere and have fun, or simply sleep for the entire day."

"...Isn't that boring?"

"??" Victor tilted his head at Penny's words.

"Staying inside a closed space doing nothing but sleeping… That's boring."

Victor caressed Penny's head and rebuked. "That's what I've been doing for my entire life, sweetheart."

"But why? Why are you doing something that you don't like?"

"What?"

Penny continued and elaborated. "During the walk here, you looked very uncomfortable. You wanted to have fun, right? For me, it's boring not doing anything but moving…"

"Yeah, but this can't be solved with a squishy toy." Victor rebuked. Indeed, while they were traveling towards Iliasburg, Penny began to complain about getting bored. They were traveling for the entire time, so it was understandable. For that reason, he had bought a cheap rubber chicken that she played with the entire day, along with a small bag where she can keep the stuff that belongs to her.

She probably lived with very little, and always played with her mother. A rubber toy was the best thing she could ever have.

Unfortunately, for Victor, who had always played on his cellphone, that was far from enough. Yes, he could buy another phone, but it will be completely new. What was in his phone will never return back to him.

"Why not? The chicken makes funny noises when squeezed!" Penny accentualized it by taking her rubber chicken and squeeze it, honking it.

"Well, it's different for other people…" Victor tried to explain, but Penny rebuked back at him.

"It's too hard! Why can't everyone be the same?!"

An exasperated sigh escaped from Victor. She was still too young, how is she supposed to understand what he was feeling? "Anyway, I preferred it when I was by myself."

"You're lying."

"...?" Victor raised an eyebrow and looked at Penny. "What?"

Penny pointed at him and repeated. "You're a liar! You were happy when we had lunch together! When we were also talking, you were happy!"

"..." Victor narrowed his eyes and Penny, and just after that, he clasped his forehead in a stressful manner. "*Sigh* I'm getting angry at a child…"

"Let's just go." Victor said as he quickly pushed aside their conversation. "I'll have to make more money now."

"..." Penny silently stared at Victor before she followed behind him, an annoyed pout formed on her face as Victor ignored her. Soon, they had reached the central plaza, with a broken fountain standing in the middle.

There were also various people lying on the ground, unconscious. They were either Heroes or Guards, as one could recognize them by the way they were dressed.

"Alright, Penny, now help me gather their armors and weapons. Bring them to me, okay?"

"But isn't that stealing…?" Penny asked with a worried expression, and Victor simply caressed her head in a comfortable manner.

"No, sweetie, no. You see, I have a very dangerous sickness inside me, and it is called Greed. I can feel better only when I have a lot of expensive things around me, like medicine. Otherwise I will be ill and hurt. You understand?"

Penny quickly nodded. "I don't want you to get sick!"

And after tricking Penny, Victor started to focus on his own part of the loot while Penny went on her part. Fortunately, before the soldiers recovered, Victor and Penny already claimed their own loot and the former already sold everything, gaining a total of 46'130 Gold Coins.

He had bought the Sapphire Mine and Cobalt Mine, with 10'000 Gold and 20'000 Gold respectively, once again upgrading his hourly production. Along with the Sapphire Mine, he also obtained an achievement named: Jewels are Precious, which is something that can be obtained by starting the production of jewel mines.

This is now his hourly production:

[Current Production: 11'053 Gold/Hour]

[Basic Production: 7'623 Gold/Hour]

[Current Multiplier: 1.45x]

[Automatic Wood Cutter: (1 Gold/Hour)]

[Automatic Stone Retriever: (2 Gold/Hour)]

[Coal Mine: (5 Gold/Hour)]

[Copper Mine: (10 Gold/Hour)]

[Iron Mine: (15 Gold/Hour)]

[Steel Mine: (30 Gold/Hour)]

[Silver Mine: (1 Gold/Minute)]

[Gold Mine: (5 Gold/Minute)]

[Platinum Mine: (10 Gold/Minute)]

[Sapphire Mine: (50 Gold/Minute)]

[Cobalt Mine: (1 Gold/Second)]

[Ruby Mine: 30'000 Gold]

[Emerald Mine: 50'000 Gold]

[Pure Crystal Mine: 100'000 Gold]

[Diamond Mine: 500'000 Gold]

[Cleaner: (+0,05x multiplier)]

[Purifier: (+0,05x multiplier)]

[Polisher: (+0,05x multiplier)]

[Refiner: (+0,1x multiplier)]

[Super Purifier: (+0,2x multiplier)]

[Super Refiner: 30'000 Gold]

Now, for comparison, he could make a bit less than 1'500 Gold an hour before. So, seeing that number standing on the tag of Current Production took him in a great surprise. Victor began to take heavy breaths at the sight of his current income.

Now it made him feel that his request for 30'000 Gold Coins from Granberia was really pathetic… He should have directly asked for her armor; someone like her should have more armors in her room, right?

"Ugh…"

"W… What…?"

The pained groans of the people surrounding him brought Victor back to reality. He looked around and saw everyone slowly getting up. One of them quickly bolted up on his feet, surprisingly recovering quicker than the others, and looked around.

"Where's the monster?! ...Where's my sword?! Where's… Where's my equipment?!" All of a sudden, he noticed that he didn't have anything on his waist, not a sword, not a sheath… He didn't even have the pieces of armors attached to his body for a light but durable protection!

Upon hearing him, everyone else also checked their bodies just to notice that they only had their clothes on them. The soldiers and heroes started to panic, and to make sure that Penny wouldn't spill anything at them, Victor placed her on his lap and lightly hugged her with one arm while the other was on the armrest of his wheelchair.

"Hey, you!" One of the soldiers who woke up from their unconscious state called out Victor. Victor used his arm to roll a single wheel and turn around his chair, facing the one who talked.

"You need to hide now! There is a dangerous monster going through these streets!" The soldier, although he didn't have his armor anymore, he still warned Victor about the 'danger' that might be outside on the streets.

Although Victor appreciated his mindset, he shook his head. "Granberia is gone, the matter is already fixed."

"...Huh?" The soldier stared at Victor in surprise. "...W… What do you mean that she's gone?"

"Well, I and my friends already kicked her out of Iliasburg, that's what I mean." Victor replied with a blank expression. "Anyway, can you give me some directions? I have to get in a place pretty quickly."

"W-Wait!" A Hero quickly shouted, butting in the conversation. "YOU were the one who defeated the Heavenly Knight?!"

Victor raised an eyebrow and asked back. "Are you blind? Do I look like I can physically restrain that monster? I only helped a bit with long-range attacks. Anyway, can someone tell me the way to Sutherland Inn? My friends are waiting for me over there."

"..." Silence reigned in the central plaza for a dozen of seconds before someone lifted an arm and pointed at south. "You have to go down from here, and then turn east when you reach the wall. The place is pretty unusual, you can find it immediately."

"Thanks." Victor turned his wheelchair around and began to wheel south from his position.

"Hold up!"

All of a sudden, someone quickly moved at his side. If Victor remembered it right, he was another Hero.

"Hmm?" Victor stopped the wheelchair and looked at him. "Do you need something?"

"Well… Have you seen our equipment? You know… Weapons, armors, shields…"

Victor simply shook his head. "No idea. Maybe some thief took advantage of the situation and stole them away, you can try to check other shops, black market, whatever you guys have here and see if they received any large supplies these days. I don't know much about that stuff."

"*Sigh* Thank you anyway." With a sad expression, the Hero started to leave Victor alone.

"Hey-" Just at this moment, Penny tried to call out the Hero, but Victor immediately went in a panic and clasped one hand over Penny's mouth, closing it up.

The Hero turned to Victor and asked. "Did you call me?"

Victor shook his head. "Don't worry… My little sister is really curious because she had never seen Heroes in her entire life, please ignore her."

The Hero chuckled and replied. "I'm sorry for disappointing her, then. Anyway, teach her to be careful with Heroes; there are many among them who really don't care about their reputation and sociality. Bye guys."

With a salute, the Hero left. Meanwhile, Victor gave out a light glare to Penny and told her. "Don't say anything, okay? I'll give you another toy later."

"Hmm!" Penny excitedly nodded, ignoring the hand covering her mouth. And after that, the two of them started to follow the other person's directions.

They went left and right, noticing that there were few people knocking on everyone's doors to announce the news of Granberia's defeat. Since they were so busy leaving a relieved sigh, there wasn't anything that Victor could do, even if he wanted.

Well, whatever; that didn't have anything to do with him anymore…

After a dozen of minutes, Victor and Penny reached a large building made up of bricks and painted in white with blue roof tiles. It was much bigger than any other building on the surroundings: It was as thick as a large building from Victor's hometown and 3 stories tall; 4 if you counted the room of the main building, 5 with the two side-buildings shaped like towers. It looked more like a miniature palace rather than a hotel.

In front of the building there is a long staircase, and Victor stood in front of it with a dumb expression.

...How is he supposed to get to the top?

There was no ramp on the sides, only stairs and rails made of marble, along with a signboard with words that Victor had no way to read. Beside that, there was no one here to help him. Everyone in his surroundings still thought that there was Granberia outside, judging by how the buildings were locked down.

And where is everyone else? Are they already inside the building? He had taken only like 30 minutes to snatch away the soldiers' stuff.

"...I swear if Alice brought everyone else inside..."

How much do undeads cost in his system? Skeletons are a no-go, they are too fragile… Yes, let's strike directly on her heart using a Poltergeist… No, how about a Banshee? No, no, he can do better… A Boogeyman! Yeah, that would be great!

"Where is everyone?" Penny asked as she looked on her surroundings with a curious expression.

"Maybe they are already inside." Victor commented with an exasperated voice. He looked at Penny and asked. "Sweetie, can you please go warn them that I am waiting here for some help to get on the stairs?"

"Yes!" Penny jumped off Victor's lap and started to take sniffs on the air. Victor raised an eyebrow at her gesture, since he simply told her to get inside and look out for the rest of the group. Well, as long as she warns them…

After sniffing on the air for a dozen of seconds, she stepped through the mahogany doors and entered the Sutherland Inn. The little Penny was welcomed by a massive hall extending far and wide, with a red carpet paving her path to the wide counter at the other side of the hall.

Many waiters wearing a black butler uniform for men and black and white maid uniform for women were walking from the room behind the counter with many dishes on their hands and buckets containing ice and wine bottles on their elbows.

This was certainly one of the few places that became active soon after Granberia left Iliasburg. What was amazing was that even if the price largely exceeded what any normal person could accumulate in their lifetimes, there were still people this hotel was serving, if these portions of food and drinks were going somewhere.

However, Penny was still too small to comprehend this; her only target was finding Luka and the others and tell them that Victor was waiting in front of the entrance's stairs.

Upon seeing a little well-dressed girl walking across the main hall, one maid stopped on the way while she was carrying a large silver tray in her hands.

"Oh? What are you doing here, child?" The maid softly crouched down while making sure that the tray wouldn't fall from her hands.

Penny looked up to her and replied. "Victor told me to find Luka, Alice, and Eva here!"

"Umm… Can you please describe them to me?" The maid asked and Penny nodded.

"Luka is a short human with strange purple hair…" Apparently, that was more than enough to start a reaction within the maid's mind as she nodded in understanding.

"Oh! You mean the trio of Heroes who recently came here! Follow me, I was just going to serve them their food." The maid replied before Penny walked after her as they went through another staircase before reaching the second floor.

On the second floor, another large hall was opened up in front of them, with pillars in the middle supporting the ceiling. They walked on the other red carpet extended in front of them as classic music played by a piano in the hall reached every corner of this hall.

"That thing makes good noise!" Penny pointed at the black piano in the middle of the hall which was being played by a butler. The maid giggled at Penny's childishness before she replied.

"That is a piano, is it the first time you have seen it?"

Penny nodded. "Yes! There wasn't anything like that when I was still with my Mama! There were only trees and the ground… This place is great!"

The maid blinked in surprise. "Trees and ground? Where did you live?"

"With my Mama." Penny replied as if that would explain everything that the maid didn't know.

"No, I mean where did you and your Mother live?"

"Oh. Outside!"

"So you had a house outside?"

"What is a house?" Penny curiously tilted her head, making the maid pause on her steps. She looked back at Penny and asked.

"You didn't have anything to cover from the rain and under the night?"

"We had trees!"

"Oh dear…" The maid muttered with a pitiful expression, although she was still walking towards the room where she had to carry the food. While talking, they went in the middle of the hall before they took a turn to another set of stairs.

"Where is your Mama, then?" The maid curiously asked.

"I don't know… She told me to go with my new friends. I miss her a lot, but it's fun being with everyone else! Victor even gave me these clothes and these toys!"

Penny started to dig through her small satchel and brought out a rubber chicken, which she honked after a small press. The maid was taken aback by the sound it made, but she quickly recovered from her surprise and stared at the rubber chicken.

"That is an interesting toy. Did this 'Victor' give you all of this?"

With a quick enthusiastic nod, Penny answered back to the maid's curious question. Then her face started to get a bit gloomy. "Now Victor is angry at Alice, he isn't playing with me like before…"

"Why is that?" The maid asked as they climbed through the stairs to reach the third floor, where the guests they had to reach for were. In the third floor there was the VIP room, and because of the help they gave to the city by pushing away Granberia, the party was given a special permission to stay there.

"I don't know. They were talking about letting Eva join us, and suddenly Victor got angry at Alice… He says that he never wanted to be in the group, but he had so much fun with us on the way! I don't know why he is lying!"

"Hmm, I see… Why is he with you, then?"

"Victor says that Alice brought him with her by force, and he knows why she did that. It was something about morality and logic..."

"You mean that this 'Alice' did something that Victor thought was right to do, but he can't accept it?" The maid suggested and Penny quickly nodded.

The maid started to think once they stopped in front of the door of the guests. "Well, I think that this 'Victor' doesn't know about this yet. He still thinks that he would be safer and more comfortable by himself, but he still can't realize that he is happy with you people. As for Alice, she needs to understand and accept what other people feel about her decisions. No matter how smart something is, it is never the right decision. That's what I think, anyway."

"Ooooh… Then I can just tell Victor and Alice that! If they know each other, they will make peace!"

The maid shook her head. "No, it would make it worse if you tell them these words. Maybe they could even get mad or ignore you. I already saw my fair share of nobles and heroes, and many of them are fixed on a single thought for the entire time or simply too self-centered. You first need to let Victor and Alice talk about the problem without you doing anything, and let them solve it by themselves."

Penny pouted at her and asked. "But Victor is still very angry at her, how do I do that?"

"They are still in the same group, they will solve it later. You just need to wait and see."

"Okay." Penny nodded before the maid knocked at the door.

"It's the Inn Service!"

"The door is open!" A familiar muffled voice came from the other side as the maid opened the door with one hand while carrying the large tray with an entire arm. Inside the luxurious-looking room there are Alice and Eva sitting in front of each other around a table while Luka was still gazing on his surroundings in a stupor at the unfamiliar atmosphere.

Luka casually glanced at the door and noticed Penny standing behind the maid, while the maid carried the large tray on the table before removing the lid, revealing a pile of honey-tinged dangos making up a pyramid.

"Oh, Penny." He called out as Penny approached him with a smile.

"Victor said that he needs help with the stairs!"

"..." Luka started to feel nervous once Victor was brought up. Actually, he had the intention of waiting outside so that he could help Victor with the stairs, but Alice insisted to simply go inside and dragged him away. Unfortunately, Eva didn't have any intention of helping, she merely followed after the two so that she could keep an eye on Alice.

Victor will be so pissed off if he knew about Alice's action…

…

Victor Luis' (future) Trivia Book: Magic Stones

Magic Stones are crystals naturally formed within nature, usually in the wild. They are impossible to recognize for normal humans and weak monsters because they cannot sense energy, but angels and strong monsters won't have any problem like that.

There are 11 types of stones, although only 8 of them are officially acknowledged. The first 8 are split into two groups: Monster Stones and Sacred Stones.

Sacred Stones are formed when certain areas are overwhelmed by Holy Energy in the atmosphere: The so-called Blessing that Ilias passed on the Ilias Continent is a good example of such a thing.

Monster Stones are formed when the opposite happens, with Dark Energy being more sparse than Holy Energy. A place like this is Hellgondo.

However, except for these two differences, there is no real diversity between the first 8 Magic Stones, if you don't take in account the type of energy they contain.

Fire Stones are Monster Stones that appear in areas with a dense presence of the fire element along with Dark Energy in the atmosphere. Depending on the presence of fire, its grade also changes from Fire Stones to Red Fire Stones and up to Blazing Red Fire Stones.

Ice Stones are Monster Stones that appear in areas with a dense presence of the cold element along with Dark Energy in the atmosphere. Depending on the presence of coldness, its grade also changes from Ice Stones to Blue Fire Stones and up to Frigid Red Fire Stones.

Thunder Stones are Monster Stones that appear in areas with a dense presence of the electric element along with Dark Energy in the atmosphere. Depending on the presence of electricity, its grade also changes from Thunder Stones to Yellow Thunder Stones and up to Sparkling Yellow Thunder Stones.

Dark Stones are Monster Stones that appear in areas with a very dense presence of Dark Energy in the atmosphere. Depending on the presence of darkness, its grade also changes from Dark Stones to Black Dark Stones and up to Pitch-Black Dark Stones.

Wind Stones are Sacred Stones that appear in areas with a dense presence of the wind element along with Holy Energy in the atmosphere. Depending on the presence of air, its grade also changes from Wind Stones to Green Wind Stones and up to Blustering Green Stones.

Earth Stones are Sacred Stones that appear in areas with a dense presence of the earth element along with Holy Energy in the atmosphere. Depending on the presence of earth, its grade also changes from Earth Stones to Orange Earth Stones and up to Rumbling Orange Earth Stones.

Water Stones are Sacred Stones that appear in areas with a dense presence of the water element along with Holy Energy in the atmosphere. Depending on the presence of water, its grade also changes from Water Stones to Blue Water Stones and up to Torrential Blue Water Stones.

Holy Stones are Sacred Stones that appear in areas with a very dense presence of Holy Energy in the atmosphere. Depending on the presence of light, its grade also changes from Holy Stones to White Holy Stones and up to Bright White Holy Stones.

These eight Magic Stones can be used for various activities depending on their elemental charge, but there are 3 common uses for all of them: They can be utilized to unleash magical effects against your opponent by throwing them; they can be merged with armors and weapons to give them elemental properties; and they can be used to raise the efficiency of a every-day activity, such as lightening up a place, washing clothes, and stuff like that.

Then there are the last three Magic Stones. They are not known that much because they only have a single function that only few can utilize, and that's creating Gem Stones carrying mysterious and special abilities that only very knowledgeable blacksmiths are able to utilize during their item-forging. Also, although they can be found in nature if one looks hard enough, there is no sequence that they follow. If you are lucky enough, they can even appear under your carpet.

They are:

The Heaven Stone, a special Magic Stone that contains a seemingly-infinite source of energy within. Utilizing it to create magic staffs can grant to the wielder the ability to be able to cast any kind of magic. Even humans would be able to summon meteors, granted that they know how to manipulate magic in the first place, not to talk about the magic formula to create the spell.

The Sky Stone is a special Magic Stone that looks normal at the first glance, but once forged in a Gem Stone, it contains a special effect that grants the wielder a seemingly-random ability that transcends normal understanding. A human could freely fly through the skies, a normal Mermaid would suddenly find herself being able to swim through lava, and a simple Slime Girl would be able to multiply herself for an infinite number of times.

The Void Stone is the third and last Magic Stone. Unlike the first two, one could easily guess where it can be located once they find a wasteland surrounding a pitch-black stone that doesn't emit any energy signature. Once equipped on an armor, it grants an invincible anti-magic effect, which absorbs every kind of spell casted against the wearer.

All these three stones are very hard to study, because they break the fundamental laws of the universe:

The Heaven Stone should have some kind of core that creates energy, but there wasn't any of that. It was like the Heaven Stone contains a boundless universe filled with magical energy.

The Sky Stone develops a random ability once it is refined in a Gem Stone, without any calculated process behind that. Two Sky Stones that are completely equal to each other, with absolutely no differences, could create two different skills.

The Void Stone can even absorb physical manifestations of spells. Even summoning undeads would get nullified by absorbing the undeads within the Void Stone, but if the undeads were artificially created, the same won't happen. It seems like as long as it is a spell, then it won't have any effect on the Void Stone, no matter what.

They are secretly known as Cheat Stones, but I prefer to call them Errors. Mistakes that shouldn't exist, and they defy the rules that govern the universe, as if everything was a game turned into real life…

(Censored by the author of the book)

...Although that's rich coming from me.