Chapter 11

Stone created a mana wall, and the lizard rammed into it headfirst. The sheer force of the impact stunned it for a while, but swiftly regained its bearing and repeatedly rammed into the wall with the body.

"Partner! I can't hold it much longer!"

[Your technique Ambient Mana Refinement gained a level]

As Ant freaked out more and more, she gathered mana around herself. It shaped into a simple, straight stick with electric arcs discharging all around it.

The stick soared directly towards the lizard who broke through the mana wall and pierced its left eye right to the brain. The lizard convulsed for a few moments, then dropped dead.

"What was that?" Stone inquired, full of curiosity towards this new phenomenon.

"Mana shaped through the Mana Shaping skill and electric attunement. She combined it the same way as you when you combine mana point and heat. We got lucky. Well, ants got lucky. Lizard would ignore you as you are not a meal."

"Electricity? Oh, I have resistance towards it. But I can't absorb it as heat."

"Another lecture will be after we return," Partner sighed. He had enough of schooling this little moron.

"Another lecture…" For the first time, Stone was torn. He liked to learn and understand new things as it felt good. However, long, boring lectures from Partner always made him sleepy. Not like he did not like to be sleepy, but Partner always got whiff of him slacking and mercilessly woke him up with loud noises.

"I didn't get any experience," Stone's sadness was apparent after he noted that there was no message for him.

"You didn't kill it. To gain experience, you need to be the one who deals a death blow to the target. That ant had to level up quite a lot."

While Partner explained, Ant motionlessly stood in a place.

"Ant! Hey!" Stone shouted.

"King! I have gained a lot of levels! And the strange voice says I can evolve!" Ant broke from her stupor as something changed inside of her; she had become fully sapient.

"Good job for killing that lizard," Stone praised Ant. Actually, it was the first time he praised anyone. He didn't feel much. Being praised was better. Also, he would have prefered the experience for himself.

"Partner, what should we do now?"

"She should go back to the anthill and evolve," Partner answered, hope brimming within his voice. He would hate to be forever stuck in that anthill; with the new, true queen, Stone would lose his position.

"Ant! Go back to the anthill and evolve!"

"King, I understand!"

"Partner? How does she control Universum without explaining?"

"Monsters can do it by themselves from the moment they were born. Maybe it was Mallum or Perditio who gave them this instinct."

"Mallum? Perditio?" Stone became curious again.

"Gods. I will explain later," Partner did not say much after, thinking to himself, "way later… Those miserable gods are a pain in the ass. It's way too soon to teach him about this. Fickle bastards..."

After five minutes of waiting, they restarted their hunt. Soon, they found another rat. This time it had fully black fur and red eyes, full of alert, sweeping from side to side.

"Ants! Stop!"

The rat tensed as its instincts flared in alarm.

'Swish!' The spear, conjured out of 3 refined mana points, missed. The rat madly searched from where the attack came but could not see anyone.

However, a new idea occurred to Stone. He was so proud of himself that he forgot he was in a fight and instead revelled in his smartness.

"Hey! Do something already! The rat will leave!" Partner had to whisk him out of his revel.

Stone focused with his traditional stony face, that could be apologetic or not and created a wall of mana, this time with spikes. He did not have enough mana to put it around the rat, so he put it next to himself and then casted a bubble out of 12 MP directly under its head. A small pressure wave emerged from the bursted bubble and broke the rat's jaw.

The pain dazed the rat. It stumbled backwards and impaled itself on the spiky wall. Stone conjured one full powered bubble after another until the rat became a mush of meat and blood mixed with bones.

[Your skill Mana Carving gained a level]

[Your technique Ambient Mana Refinement gained a level]

[You killed a rat. You have gained 30.7% experience]

The third rat was not hard to find and met the same fate as the first rat. This one had brown fur and again, eating some fruit. Stone just did not impale its head this time.

[You killed a rat! You have gained 30% experience]

"Grose!" Partner grimaced.

"Loud! And those rats too… Why do they have to squeak so much?" Stone complained and wished to know his experience. 'Thud.'

[Experience: 95.53%]

"I will level up after one more kill," Stone stated while enjoying the sight of his lovely tablet.

"Good, let's find something to murder. There should be plenty of rats and lizards. Where are dwarfs, there are rats, remember that."

An hour went by.

"Partner? Where are those rodents you promised?"

"I don't know. Let's search further."

Another hour later.

"Partner, why can't we find more of them?"

"How should I know? Let's keep searching," Partner answered and added to himself "Is he learning to be impatient?"

Yet another hour.

"Partner, you said there would be more rats!"

"There are. And I think we should RUN!"

"You mean those three rats that are closing on us?"

"YES!"

"Loud! Ants! BACK TO THE ANTHILL!" Stone sounded to retreat. Even he had some kind of warped survival instinct. He did not know what he was feeling right now, but knew he did not like it at all.

"That's fear! NOW RUN ALREADY!"

The ground before them was shot open by the enemy rat's bubble bursting. The throne with Stone got knocked off the ants' back. The ants, as they were loyal but stupid, continues without Stone as they have to carry out his orders. The orders from the Queen were always absolute.

"So… You are the ones who murdered my kin!" The giant rat, with red fur and blue eyes thundered as it was closing on the little pebble. The rat was towering above, looking at him with its large and brutal eyes.

"Partner? Can rats be sentient and use mana?"

"Apparently," Partner was strangely calm.

"Isn't that bad?"

"Very bad."

"What should I do?"

"Well..."

"Well… You could…" Partner formulated the hastily put plan full of dangers, relying on sheer luck and Stone's abilities. However, he got interrupted right at the beginning of explanation; "Hmm? Where did she run?" the giant red rat murmured while cautiously searching for the ant Queen.