Chapter 8

"Partner, there are no messages this time," Stone briefed his teacher while he was once again admiring the stone tablet. He could not imagine what he would do without them.

"Moron! Go and fight!" Partner snapped, irked by that miserable stone's complete ignorance of its surroundings. "Will have to do something about this," he muttered more to himself.

"But they are not attacking me anymore. Look, they are just running around," Stone proved otherwise. He was giving attention. He couldn't care less.

"Yeah, fine, that's because you disintegrated their Queen. They don't know what to do," Partner responded with a calm voice. So what, he made a mistake? Who would call him on that?

"Oh. Partner?" Stone called for his friend.

"Yeah?" He carefully responded as the Stone's tone was strange.

"I feel strange," he dropped.

"What do you mean?" Partner needed clarification. For the stupid pebble, everything was odd.

"Well, I think it has something to do with that lifeforce thingy," Stone made a connection, following his instinct.

"How much do you have?" Partner sighed and asked.

"14.8," the number takes the Partner's voice away for a moment. He had to recollect himself first.

"Shit! Wait! You should regen…era…t…e," Partner slowly stopped, a sudden realization hitting him like… well a stone, "how do living stones heal?".

"How should I know? Maybe ants will know?" Stone was curious too. Even he acknowledged this was something he needed to know.

"They are just stupid bugs! Barely alive. Less than you and that is already saying something! Only their Queens are sapient enough, but I doubt she will be any more knowledgeable than you!" Partner got agitated yet again. He thought he could not catch a break.

"But she is dead," Stone stated as if he was saying that it was sunny today.

"Yeah! Because you killed her!" Partner fiercely responded. The pebble must learn! A weird atmosphere fell between the two of them.

"What now?" Stone broke the uncomfortable silence.

"Silence," Partner ordered, "let me think!" He closed his imaginary eyes and murmured to himself, "no… No… NO! That won't work either…"

As Partner was trying to find some solutions, Stone noticed a small, black ant crawling towards him. The ant was strangely moving in circles. Stone watched it with his classical stony face that could mean interest.

"Partner?" Stone interrupts him.

"What?!"

"What is it doing?"

"Who?"

"The ant before us," Stone pinpoints the little ant.

"Walking? Oh, wait. It is trying to communicate."

"And do you understand?"

"No…" Partner confessed.

"Should I kill it?"

"You can, but you won't gain anything from this," Partner mentally shrugged.

After a while, the ant stopped dancing and pressed its head to the ground. The rest of the ants saw their companion and decided to comply one after another.

"What are they doing?"

"Hmm… From the look of it, you became their new King, but that's odd. From what I know they need a queen. Female," Partner stopped talking, then asked something he should have known long ago, "Wait… what gender are you?".

"Gender? What is that?" Stone curiously asked. The Partner's reaction

"Never mind… Let's roll with it," Partner sighed in exasperation. "Ahh, someone. Anyone, please SAVE ME!" He pleaded internally to any god who could listen.

☁☁☁☁☁☁

"So, how do I communicate with them?" Stone let the gender question go as even he felt it was a minefield.

"I don't know, Stone. You could try talking, that's… how…" Partner realized another problem. Stone didn't have a mouth or any other organs when it came to it. The pebble could talk only to him and generating complex sound directly with magic was out of the question. He would probably explode himself, him and the mountain.

"How?" Stone asked. This time, Partner acknowledged it was a good question.

"Oh right, you have never talked before. Hmm… I never had to teach someone to speak. Give me a minute," Partner focused on finding the solution to this problem.

While Partner was thinking about how to teach Stone to speak, the rest of the ants joined the first one and knelt before him. Then they surrounded them and around a dozen ants tried to pick him up.

"Partner? What are they doing?"

"What again? Can't you give me a moment to think?" The frustration about this was that he knew he couldn't run away.

"They are trying to do something. It feels strange. I want to scratch, but I can't," Stone felt itchy as the ants poked him around trying to lift him up.

"Use mana… Wait, what are they doing?" Partner finally perceived the surroundings. They lifted Stone and carried him towards the crevice.

"Yeah. You became their King. They want to bring you to their nest," Partner confirms.

"Oh." Stone thought nothing of it. He is a stone. Sometimes he suddenly showed up at different places and he didn't think much of it. Except for that one time when he moved by himself. That was fun.

In a few moments, ants brought him to their throne room. They had to widen the tunnels as they passed through. Stone didn't like the stone breaking, but as it was only a little he reluctantly allowed it. They put him on the pedestal and stood before him, waiting for orders.

[You were acknowledged as Talc Anthill King! Title gained!]

"Partner?"

"Hit me," Partner knew the moment he said he should not. Figure of speech was something out of Stone's comprehension.

"How?" Stone showed interest, but rectified himself almost instantly before Partner could react, "Errr… Why? And I got a title.". Partner decided to leave it alone, especially that eager tone.

"Again... What did you do this time?" Partner asked, full of suspicion. He knew he would one day stop wondering what was happening and accept it as a new normal, but today was not the day.

"It said that I am the Talc Anthill King."

"What does it do?"

"I don't know."

"So ask Universum! How many times do I have to remind you of this?"

"Titles," Stone says. 'Thud' Stone sometimes hated that he couldn't smile. Of course, after Partner explained to him what smiling was.

[Titles

The Universum, gods or mortals can bestow you with a title. To be awarded by such a thing, you have to do something important, unique or interesting enough to be largely acknowledged. The titles can be either empty or they can provide you with some interesting knowledge, abilities or even expertises. Including detrimental ones.

Talc Anthill King

Local ants accepted you as their King. Why? I don't know. Really, why?

The talent grants the ability to easily communicate with ants by talking or dancing. Hehe. Godspeed, you mute and non-moving pebble!]

Stone read it aloud to Partner.

"Yeah, I have something. It's not a skill per se, but… It could hurt, and you have to heal completely before that."

"What is that?" Stone suspiciously asked, not liking the pain thing.

"Well, carve fissures into yourself. You can use mana to talk through them," Partner says in one 'breath'.

"…" Stone thought he heard bad.

"Well?"

"…"

"Do you have a better idea?"

"Carve. Into. Myself?" Stone emphasized every word.

"Again, do you have a better idea?" Partner triumphantly repeated.

"No," Stone pouted.

A few ants danced before Stone and the title worked as declared.

"Queen, please give us an order."

"Queen, what should we do?"

"Queen, please help us."

But he could not reply.

"How do I heal myself?" He tried to ask them but to no avail.

"They won't hear you. You are talking in your mind," Partner replied to him instead and finally got an idea of how Stone could heal himself. "Hmm… We are in the middle of a talc deposit. You could try to use mana to gather it around yourself, crush it into powder and mix it with refined mana to create a bubble around yourself with the dust. The combination of talc dust and refined mana should allow you to regrow fast."

Stone promptly did as told and gathered the talc around. Meanwhile, poor ants were scared because they still didn't get orders. Thankfully workers like caretakers and food gatherers have long standing obligations, so they do their work as usual.

Stone is getting bathed in the dust and refined mana. 'Thud'

[You have discovered a spell Healing Bath for minerals]

"Partner, I created a spell," Stone boasted.

"Oh, that is nice. Did you get a title?"

"No."

"Too bad. Researchers discovered or created most of these spells long ago anyway."

Stone's new underlings watched as the bubble that was exuding blue rays slowly filled with talc dust and enveloped their King.

They panicked and tried to free him, but ants who touched the layer got painfully zapped. So the Royal Guards dutifully stood there protecting their ruler as they should and the rest of anthill lived by its own life.