Chapter 80

"Isn't it too silent here?" Stone suddenly said, breaking the silence.

Even Jarka stopped and everyone looked at the small boulder held by Lucifer's blackened hand.

"You, Stone, the Silence Loving Freak, are telling me that it's too silent here?" Lucifer thought he would not be surprised ever again after what he went through. He was wrong.

"But it is, isn't it? It's a loud silence." He liked silence as any other respectable mineral should. Despite that, this silence was all wrong.

They all listened to the stillness. He was right. There was no other sound except for them.

"Jarka? Are you sure you don't remember anything at all?" Lucifer whispered. He had a very bad feeling. Only, he didn't know if it was for this suspense or his apparent problem with the Universum.

"Naet," she shook her head, "everything is hazy. I have some flashes, but I donna know what they mean," she sighed.

They resumed their slow search for anyone to question.

Still, they were tense.

Hours went by… and nothing happened. At all.

They were walking and walking, one step after another. The only thing they could hear was themselves.

Their minds became empty. Their eyes were blank.

They walked and walked. Hour after hour.

Occasionally, they stumbled into a rocky formation, ignoring it.

Except for Stone.

Everything he liked was happening; steady movement, no loud sounds, tablets floating in his mind…

Still, he could not help but be anxious. Something was wrong. Even he could tell it.

He wanted to ask Lucifer, but the Devilish Sorcerer completely ignored him. So were the others.

Instead, Lucifer dropped him on the ground, alongside with his whole hand as it rotted away.

Stone conjured ants' souls and proceeded to move on his own.

Until, a new tablet opened in Stone's mind. 'Thud' He literally quivered in happiness.

<New resistance discovered: Poison T2L10 due to your nature>

<You know, Lucifer was given an important technique as a reward for you not to use tablets…>

"And?" Stone flatly asked, bloodlust seeping from his tone. Nobody could take away his tablets. Nobody!

<Nothing, nothing… Just saying.> Even for Universum it was not worth it. It could not take away the <Multitask> technique anyway. Stupid Prime gods…

Stone was getting worried now. The meatbags and Lucifer behaved too abnormal. Plus, he wanted to brag to Lucifer about his new resistance.

"Luci! Jarka! Dafur! Heeeey!" Stone shouted.

They did not respond which worried Stone a bit. They were always loud and bothersome… Now they just dragged themselves around.

He still could not understand why they were walking in a circle inside a cavern full of those odd stones, shaped as Dwarfs and Goblins…

When he focused on them some more, he had to admit that whoever did this was amazing… Sculptor! He found the proper name in his memory.

They could not hold a candle to the marble gate, still, he could appreciate their craftsmanship.

He especially liked their expressions. It was like they were extremely scared. It made him even sadistically chuckle a bit.

"Heeeey!" He even enhanced his voice with mana, but the group ignored him.

Now, he noticed a certain lack… of something that was there from the very second he awoke. It was slightly disconcerting, but not as much as this situation.

After no one replied again, he decided he needed help. The lazy elemental could be of some help. It was not like he just remembered him now...

"Firey?"

The stupid spark did not reply. Stone had gotten annoyed and sent the loudest thoughts he could think off through their link.

"Yes, master?" The spark growled, brutally awakened by Stone's mental assault.

"Talk! What happened to them?" Stone barked.

Gorash quickly scanned them with a small pulse of a fiery wave. "They are poisoned. Now, can I go back to sleep?" He did not wait for permission and entered Stone.

"Hey! Can you help them?!" Stone shouted at the lazy elemental.

"No. And I want to sleep!" After this brief exchange, Gorash did not reply anymore.

Stone thought about it hard.

Poison. What was poison? A harmful substance. Well, for meatbags.

How were they poisoned? They did not eat or drink as other meatbags needed for hours… That left only one option: Air!

He made a deduction by himself! He was proud of himself. He was smart and amazing!

Now… How to stop them from breathing. Luckily, he trained that with the goblins.

He carved a mask from refined mana and put it over Lucifer's face.

At first, the Devilish Sorcerer did not notice, but when the air quickly depleted, he made several interesting choking noises and collapsed, while frantically trying to get rid of the mask.

Lucifer had enough and broke the mask apart with his own <SuperFlux>.

"What are you doing, you idiot!?" His voice echoed all over the cavern.

"Because you are poisoned. And because I am amazing I deduced it's in the air!" Stone proudly bragged.

That halted Lucifer. Now that he knew about it, he noticed a certain haziness in his brain. He quickly conjured and adjusted his own mask to let only needed gases inside, silently cursing. He felt pretty embarrassed to be caught up in such a trap.

"... thanks…" he whispered, gritting his teeth.

"Say that I am amazing!"

"You are amazing…" Lucifer spat out, out of reflex. However, he noticed the natural <Subordinate> urge somewhat weakened. It was feeble, more like a suggestion than a compulsion.

"I am! What now?"

"First, where is my hand?"

"There!" Stone pointed with a shaped stick at the rotted hand in the middle of the cavern.

Lucifer hastily collected it and tried to rejoin it to his failing body.

Lucifer angrily threw it away after several failed attempts to return it back to its rightful place, but the body he now owned was too far rotten. His <SuperFlux> and the Stone's <Refined Mana> seemed to degrade it on a cellular level… He would need to be a <Necromancer> to save it.

The body was in such bad shape that he was beginning to leak <SuperFlux> with increasing pace.

The hand landed on a rock formation, slapping something very similar to a face.

It began to shake and move. Gravel fell off as it unfolded into a human-sized gargoyle. Its ugly face with a devil-like, teethy, stony smile turned to Lucifer, Jarka and Dafur.

Stone watched the moving stone. A moving stone… If he would have eyes, they would pop out.

"Luciiiii! Loook! Moving rock! It's… it's…" Stone ecstatically shouted, but could not find proper words. It was beautiful; The watery droplets that were slowly dripping on the ground from its coarse, grey hide. The jerky movement of its limbs with long, spiky fingers. It wore a smile that would scare a troll so hard, it would scream for it's daddy. The blue rays coming from the <Mana Bubble> slowly materialized near Lucifer's head.

Lucifer's fright did not slow him down and he blocked the Myceliar spell with his own. That forced him to drop the <SuperFlux> shaped mask that protected him from the poisoned air, but he just held his breath.

"Luci! Don't hurt it!" Stone screamed as he saw Lucifer attempting to retaliate with <Flux Missile> aimed at its torso.

"Idiot! It's trying to kill me!"

He yelled back as he was forced to jump back to evade a sweep of the Myceliar.

"It's stone! Don't! Hurt! It!" Stone commanded and began to conjure his own <Mana Missile> to aid the Monster.

"You cretin! It's not a true rock! It's just a mimicry! Look!"

Lucifer fired the <Flux Missile> and the stationary Myceliar's chest exploded in gore. Violet blood sprayed all over and the Myceliar screamed in immense pain.

"See!"

Stone was stumped. It deceived him! Deceived! How dare it!

"Liar! Fake stone! Even worse than Stone-Breakers!" He yelled, wrath filling him up, and flung one <Mana Missile> after another at the dazed Myceliar, mixing ambient mana and refined mana together.

Lucifer used the distraction and pulled the duo of an e-amnesiac druegar and a brainwashed augmented dwarf away from the battle.

Stone's 55 mana per second and large reservoir made him a true spell slinger. As the Myceliar still did not notice its ambusher, Stone was not considered in battle. So the <Meditation>'s insane 450% casting speed reduction took effect.

However, the wounds closed almost as fast as they appeared on the Myceliar's body. It even conjured an azure <Mana Shield> that surrounded it.

Lucifer just sat back on the other side of the cavern with a clear view on the unfolding battle, putting his legs on some poor, petrified dwarf who was stupid enough to be caught here. And no, the irony of this thought wasn't unnoticed, however, Lucifer just decided to ignore it while he snorted.

Stone mentally frowned as his spells did not work. That was something he was not used to.

"Firey!"

"Yea, master?" The elemental chuckled. He knew he would be called now. In the end, the Myceliars were weak against fire. He emerged from Stone and began to cast a spell <Fireball of Purple-Fiery Hell>. He loved his names…

The Myceliar noticed the sudden source of light and recognized the aura of a fire Elemental. Its devilish grin deepened. It had a perfect counter for these pesky elementals.

Then, the Myceliar activated its talent <Gaze of Fossilization> on Gorash who screeched in pain, part of his fire turning grey and retreated to his momentary home. The fireball spell collapsed and fizzled into nothingness.

The myceliar's gaze easily followed the path of the violet spark to Stone.

"That tickles!" Stone giggled, his anger fading away. "En… hehe… Enough! I SAID ENOUGH!" Stone screamed.

The Myceliar did not know what to do. It was confused by Stone's existence. He had never met something like this ever before. His most powerful weapon did not work. The poison apparently didn't work either.

The Myceliar spat an <Acid Blast>, but it was its weakest attack. It only used it on critters with meat and blood.

<New resistance discovered: Acid T2L10 due to your nature>

<You know, your math is so fucked up… I even prompted Archi, but he was too drunk… Hopefully, you will get patched soon, you… you… BUG!>

Stone was confused for a brief moment, but he had to focus on the opponent before him.

Lucifer facepalmed on his little podium and bitterly laughed. He even felt sorry for the Myceliar now.

"Still, you are going to die! Pretending to be stone! Disgusting! Firey, fire it up! Burn the pretender!" Stone ordered, vivid from anger. Even though Firey was a Stone-Breaker, he was useful.

"Sure, master!" The purple spark flew out of Stone's body before him and asked for mana. A lot of it. Also, he pleaded with Stone not to send him refined mana.

Stone agreed. He took all of his whopping 670 points of ambient mana and gave it to him.

Gorash swelled up with the sudden surge of ambient mana.

A large, smoking hot fireball slowly formed.

<Heat capacity: 1%... 2%... 5%... 25%... 75%... 99%>

<Your heat is at maximum capacity. Release or explode!>

Stone took all of that and put it into Gorash too, who swiftly transferred it to the fireball, increasing the already high temperature to a point when it began to melt the rock around. Gorash thanked his ancestors that the idiot was too livid to notice it and fired it towards the panicking Myceliar.

The Myceliar could not move, silently cursing his own stupidity. Its roots were too deep after such a long slumber.

The fireball slowly moved forward, melting rock around as Gorash and Stone gleefully cackled like mad.