Chapter 48

After several hours, he checked his annoyingly flashing journal.

[Your technique Meditation gained a level 4 times]

[Your technique Weak Manakinesis gained a level 3 times]

[Your spell Ants' Souls gained a level]

[Your spell Mana Shield gained a level 10 times]

[Your spell Mana Missile gained a level 20 times, reaching T1 limit]

[Your spell Mana Expulsion gained a level 10 times]

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 [Mana missile] did not offer the evolution as [Mana Bubble] 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 [Mana Missile] spell."

"Odd. You could evolve the basic expertises. I would say it's because you have not evolved yet. That's the normal thing for a Monster or the Class. And for slowing down… You are a spoiled brat! Do you know that normally it takes weeks or even months to max out the first tiers of 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."

"... 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 up also. 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 decided not to 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 [SuperFlux], 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."

[You have tagged 7 beings. Challenge accepted!]

"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 [Weak Fluxkinesis].

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 [Weak Manakinesis] on himself.

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

Stone conjured a deeply blue, 25-RM [Mana Missile]. The spell itself was already staggering 15 times stronger than the [Mana Bubble]. 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 [Dexterity] 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 [Mana Missile] pierced through them all.

The barely weakened [Mana Missile] 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 normal 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.

[Challenge cleared!]

[Due to forcefully raised limits, the reward is lowered by 20%]

[You have gained 75.75%]

[You have levelled up!]

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.

[Your heat is at maximum capacity. Release or explode!]

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.