Chapter 45

The pair was drunkenly swaying, supporting each other, as they struggled to even stand. They unsheathe their daggers after several attempts while giggling. Lucifer found it distasteful, while Stone impassively waited for Luci's approval to murder them.

"G…g…gara!" One of them incomprehensibly stammered, but from the situation, Lucifer guessed it meant something like 'get out!'. The goblin bent and puked all over the floor.

"Well, I guess I was wrong… Even their language sounds like puking… Fucking trash-gobblers!" Lucifer cursed as Stone got covered in the vomits. He shaped a superflux needle through [Flux Shaping] and sent it against the vomiting goblin's eye. The skill hit with questionable accuracy into the goblinette's ass. "Fuck!" Lucifer swore.

Stone chuckled as he found it extremely funny. Not the jumping around goblin or the vomiting one, but rather Lucifer's failure.

"What are you chuckling about! Tche! Cheeky mineral! I didn't have time to train properly!" Lucifer defended himself with fervour as he cast a [Flux Missile], hitting the goblin in the head and even slightly scratching him. As they were 2nd-tier Monsters, Luci's missiles lacked the penetrating power to pierce their hide fully..

"Stone, help me here!"

"Sure!"

The duo's [Mana Missiles] bombarded the two goblins. Many bleeding wounds appeared on their bodies, especially weak spots. Their eyes were punctured, spine cracked and the blood from neck arteries was splattering everywhere.

It took many minutes, but Stone's mana regeneration and Lucifer's leadership proved to be an effective combo. Their joint Power far exceeded the two drunk goblins, who were not even able to defend themselves. They were utterly stumped by the sudden assault and frankly too drunk to realize from where the blitz originated.

[You have killed a 2nd-tier goblin 2 times]

[62.11% experience is split according to talents Subordinate and Parasite]

[Lucifer gained 6.21% experience]

[Stone gained 55.9% experience]

[You have levelled up!]

"Good work!"

"I levelled up… I am now level eleven."

"Yea… You are… haaah, I wonder when you will be able to evolve. And why…" Lucifer decided to leave it as he was in a great mood. The answers would not come anyway. "Fuck it… No need to be constantly surprised. I will take it as it is!" He promised. "Stone is not a Monster, tool, nor a 'civilized'. One thing's for sure; he is going to rattle a lot of old bones."

"Now what?"

"We can either leave or look for more books. There must be something to help you regenerate lifeforce from the forceful draining."

"There was a story in the storybook."

"Oh? What was it about?"

"Hmm… It was about a golem. A child, Tonka, was cursed by an old, evil sorcerer into a starmetal golem because he took a bet and broke inside the sorcerer's tower to steal some tinsel. Some things happened, I think a big oven played a part in it, and the evil sorcerer died.

Tonka, who still could use Universum, learned all of the spells in the tower. Then he travelled for a bit and became a new 6th-rank wizard and protector of the rising human Kingdom of Raul-Kin in the north.

However, he was getting older and older and went through many battles that damaged him, he still could not die. Every time he tried to kill himself or an adventurer attacked him, seeking his secrets, some force drained energy from the very earth and used it to rejuvenate him.

He watched as his beloved Kingdom slowly turned into ruins. His friends died one after another by old age or other causes. As he observed the lifeless ruins, he decided to leave for the holiest place of all, The Great Table. There he pleaded with the gods to undo this curse, so he could finally rest in peace.

What happened next is not known; some say that the gods pitied him and let him die, some say that they allowed him to ascend to the higher planes. And some say he is there to this day; he became a statue, still waiting for the gods to answer his plea."

"Dear gods… What a depressing story… Yeah, kid stories are always like that," Lucifer shook his non-existent head. "And what did you learn from it?"

"Never fuck with an old, evil sorcerer?"

"That too. The most important thing is; never curse someone! Curses are powerful, and even the weakest being can curse someone. I will explain it in more detail later. The old sorcerer wanted to probably make a simple slave, but he fucked up. When he died, the long-time spell turned into a curse. I guess Tonka was automatically regenerating from mana leylines. I reckon it was another weird existence… Like you."

"What are those leylines?"

"A concentrated 'veins' of mana weaved all around the world. The sorcerer must have been of high rank and extremely talented to boot."

"Oh! Did the story help?"

"Hmm… A curse, you say…" Lucifer thought about it. In a specific situation, curses could be useful if you were able to cope with severe drawbacks.

Meanwhile, Stone commanded the souls to open his favourite book and he began to read another story.

"Stone! We are leaving. I remember almost everything that could help us. There is nothing important anymore."

"But I am reading!"

"Haaah… Take it with you…"

"Okay!" Stone ordered three newly summoned souls to pick the book. He used refined mana and tore the leathery wall with one stroke. Then he used his new technique, Weak Manakinesis and slowly levitated down, even though with a certain level of aversion. They very carefully sneaked back at the entrance of the goblin camp and left the place.

Lucifer uses every moment he has to train his expertises. Stone checked his stone tablet. 'Thud'

Name: Stone

Title: Guardian of Talc Anthill

Race: Talc

Level: 11 [19]

Exp: 49.58%

Hardness: 2.999

Lifeforce: 11.9 / 299.9

Mana: 170 / 170 MReg: 55 / sec

Refined mana: 42.50 / 42.50 MRef: 21 / min

Strength: 0

Dexterity: 0

Intelligence: 17

Talents: Ageless, Heat Accumulator, Partner

Resistances: Heat T1L4, Electrical T1L3

Expertise: Mana Point T2L10, Ambient Mana Refinement T2L25, Mana Carving T2L10, Healing Bath for stones T1L6, Ants' Souls T1L14, Mana Shield T1L21, Mana Missile T1L5, Mana Expulsion T1L4, Meditation T1L9, Weak Manakinesis T1L2

They found a small, empty cavern nearby and began training with Lucifer's lecturing in the meantime.