Chapter 39

Stone followed the laid plan. First, he ordered his ants' to move behind them and conjured a dagger from refined mana.

The dagger went through the first goblin's back. Stone internally frowned. No message. Stone checked the goblin and he was merely paralyzed.

The other one rapidly spun around as he heard the body falling. His eyes were flickering from side to side, searching for the ambusher.

Stone conjured another arrow and sent it towards the goblin's eye, but he effortlessly evaded.

"What now?!" Stone asked, not knowing what to do next. He was out of refined mana. Lucifer did not reply..

"Luci?" Stone asked again with a worried tone.

Lucifer wanted to give him space to learn. Now, he knew it was a mistake.

"Don't stand here and attack, or the goblin will call for help! You have plenty of normal mana, idiot!"

"Oh, okay," Stone flatly replies and Lucifer facepalmed. He even mentally created a face and a palm for it.

'Swish'

Another arrow broke through the green skin at the chest, but not enough to substantially hurt him. The panicked goblin sprang back and put his hand over the superficial wound. He blindly poked in the mushroom patches.

The spear came close. Too close for Lucifer's comfort.

Stone shot another arrow, aiming at the same place. It went a little deeper but dissipated before it could hurt the goblin more. The goblin was scared out of his mind. He wanted to run away, but Stone tripped him with mana walls.

"Timber! Hehe," Lucifer chuckled. "Quickly! Aim at his neck, slightly to the side, where the arteries are!"

'Swish! Swish!'

Two arrows pierced the veins of both goblins and both of them rapidly bled out.

[You have killed a 1st-tier goblin 2 times]

[31.19% experience is split according to talents Subordinate and Parasite]

[Lucifer gained 3.12% experience]

[Stone gained 28.07% experience]

"Nice," Lucifer happily whispered.

"What?"

"Ah, gaining experience for doing almost nothing," he replied with a satisfied voice. "Continue, these goblins aren't here alone for sure."

Stone waited for his mana to recharge. During the wait, Stone used Lucifer's perception dome and it went shockingly smoothly. Lucifer was surprised for a bit, but he realized that it was not so surprising after all. Why? Because both were anomalies.

After four hours, they tracked down four goblins in a cavern with a pond. On one side were a dozen dirty beds around a large fireplace.

One of the goblins was happily snoring while the rest argued nearby.

"Now, you will learn how to kill silently. Do not raise attention; use misdirection. It's the single piece of advice I will be giving you. And please, be nice and don't die. I would go with you," Lucifer stressed and shut up, but secretly prepared his reserves for the moment the plan would inevitably blow up.

Stone examined the surroundings to decide how to start. First, he was brought next to the sleeping goblin. He conjured a blue-coloured dagger and drove it straight through his spine. The goblin twitched and died without a sound.

[You have killed a 1st-tier goblin]

[15.36% experience is split according to talents Subordinate and Parasite]

[Lucifer gained 1.54% experience]

[Stone gained 13.82% experience]

Stone paused to examine the rest of them. Thanks to the perception sphere, he always knew what was happening around him. He learned to filter it as there were too many things happening at once.

He slowly shifted towards the fireplace. The goblins did not even notice the moving white pebble. Stone was close to the level-up and understood that dust and gravel would gather around him.

So, he decided to take all of them at once. He walked over the fireplace and enabled the messages once again:

[Your heat is at 100% of maximum capacity. Release or explode]

He conjured a 20-RM [Mana Point] and added all of the heat, directly in the middle of the struggling goblins.

'BANG!'

The detonation reverberated even in the surrounding shafts. The three goblins, stunned by the sudden blast, screeched in pain and panic.

Two of them lost their eyes and the third one, who caught the full brunt of the explosion, lost consciousness.

Stone would frown if he could because this did not go as planned. He thought the explosion would kill them.

"Don't stand there! Attack! I will explain later!" Lucifer shouted.

"Loud!" Stone complained but did as said. An arrow from 5 RM launched towards the first goblin, piercing his chin right to the brain. He hastily conjured another weaker arrow and fired it at the second goblin, striking his heart. He cast the last, weakest arrow and sent it against the unconscious goblin, penetrating his neck and spine with some difficulty.

[You have killed a 1st-tier goblin 3 times]

[41.28% experience is split according to talents Subordinate and Parasite]

[Lucifer gained 4.13% experience]

[Stone gained 37.15% experience]

[You have levelled up!]

[Your limits are broken through]

[New limits imposed]

[Attributes limits raised to 16.]

The good feeling washed over Stone. He grew to 144 millimetres. "I love this feeling," he stated as he revelled in it. Soon, it disappeared, making him a little bit sad. His journal flashed with new message;

[Your skill Mana Carving gained a level]

"Huh… It worked… It actually worked… That idiot made it…" Lucifer was stumped.

☁☁☁☁☁☁

Encyclopaedia Stonia

<Mana Shield> rune engraving

It activates by the set amount of mana you want it to use. As it's not expertise (does not have levels), it is limited by the material it's engraved upon. Use too much mana, and the rune explodes.

As dwarfs, and subsequent sub-races, cannot use [Spells], it's their only option. Strangely, directly cast runes cannot supplement certain spells, like [Mana Bubble], [Mana Point], including [Mana Shield]. Thanks to dwarven researchers' tenaciousness and sheer stubbornness, they found a rune that could be engraved into the armour or clothing, or even tattooed on a body, successfully supplementing the spell. It became one of the most basic engravings, with each runemaster rank 3 knowing it.