The dwarven town Arn-Dul. In the language of their predecessors, it meant White Town, or White Beard... Don't ask how a word 'Dul' changed its meaning from Beard to Town. Maybe, because in the time before-hygieny dwarven beards were towns of their own; full of life and movement and it became a memorial to the days before-hygieny.

The town sat below the mountain range Dars-Suful on the western side of the Nameless continent. The range had exquisitely sculpted peaks as if the god of mountains created them by himself. Also, it was known for its many deposits of different ores and high-quality stone. Sometimes even mana crystal deposits were found which often caused wars and conflict to erupt between the nearby Kingdoms.

The town itself was beautiful, like any town built by dwarfs, and made mostly from marble. Even roof tiles were carved from marble by world-class craftsmen.

As dwarfs hated heights, they built at most two-story large buildings that had humongous cellars underneath.

After hundreds of years of underground construction, underneath the town existed a complex labyrinth of tunnels, cellars and sewers populated with countless monsters, animals and even one or two sapient races. From time to time the dwarven council had to send a punitive force to control the situation down there.

The town was buzzing with activity; from sellers at the market squares calling out at passer-bys with their, most-certainly, inflated prices, through smoking smelteries, smithies and masonries, to runemasters and alchemy districts, always echoing with an explosion and screaming for help. Thankfully, the marble bricks were sturdy, especially when inscribed with magical runes.

The city was brimming with activity; the couriers ran from side to side, delivering goods and messages, citizens strolled around the city, priests of a whole pantheon of Paragons were preaching on their stands before the temples full of statues and extravagance.

In one of the many runemasters' workshops, a black raven landed on a window.

A robust dwarf came to her and took the message from her leg. As he turned around, the raven loudly squawked and poked the dwarf’s shoulder.

"Ah, sorry. Here ya go," he handed her a few crumbs from his pocket. Raven gulped them with gusto and flew back outside.

"Runemae'str Baelgin! A message came!" The dwarf shouted, not noticing his master's hard concentration.

"Can't right now!" But the runemaster's concentration was already broken and the rune he was inscribing into his new robe hissed and disappeared.

"Dornus dammit!" Runemaster Baelgin swore and threw a glare promising violence at the poor worker.

The worker put his head down, "I'm real sorry, runemae'str.".

"Well… No matter, hand me the message," runemaster Baelgin shook his head to calm himself.

The worker passed him the letter and Baelgin read it with an occasional ‘Hmpf!’ and sighed.

"Hmm, some apprentice of mine can do it. Seems like a minor problem or classical dwarven superstition. The guild truly is annoying sometimes… Those miserable quotas," he again sighed to himself, muttering.

"Attention, apprentices! I have a mission for you!" He shouted over the workshop. When all of his apprentices looked up from their work, he continued, "you will be going to the new marble mine three days away to investigate. One miner died and the second caught deep craziness in a span of a few months. They halted their mining operation for the time being. Find out what is happening there, and upon return, you will be given three questions scot-free! At least a first rank apprentice is needed!"

"Runemae'str, runemae'str! I can go to the mine!" A thin, young dwarf immediately raised a hand to gain the attention of his master in the craft. He had dark brown hairs, bound in a ponytail, trimmed dark brown beard, clear brown eyes exuding intelligence and clothed in a brown robe, which had black runes inscribed all around.

"Oh? Are you sure you are ready, Dafur? It will be your first mission," the runemaster Baelgin said with a soft smile.

"Yea, runemae'str Baelgin! I have finished the first three runas!"

Dafur is excited. For the first time, he will leave the town and safety of the massive walls.

"Oooh, congratulation on ranking up! Be sure that after you return, come to talk to me! I have several books to give you! Of course, for the right price," Baelgin’s smile broadened. "Fine, I agree, the mission is officially yours. Go pack up. In an hour, you are to set forth!"

☁☁☁☁☁☁

Stone was completely silent during the last two days, however, towards the end, he had a simple request, "Partner, teach me that technique for recording those pesky messages.".

"Aaah, sure," Partner agreed.

"Instruct the Universum that you want to have a journal, how it should look and exactly what you want to be recorded. If you do it right, you should see a little screen in your mind later that will always record voice messages. Be precise; otherwise, Universum won't react. I will lead you. Done this plenty of times."

"So, no longer loud voices?" Stone questioned with hope in his tone.

"Only when you directly communicate with Universum."

"Oh... So still loud voices," if Stone could, he would show the face of someone with crushed dreams.

"Yeah, better get used to it. The world is full of loud voices."

"Can we stay here?"

"NO!" Partner gets scared by this insane proposition.

"Loud!" Stone complains in return. After a while, announcements from the Universum again disturbed the ‘peaceful’ pebble.

<Your spell Stone Healing Bath gained a level 2 times>
<Your technique Ambient Mana Refinement gained a level 2 times>
<Your hardness increased by 0.05>

"Partner, my hardness increased," Stone stated.

"That's good, that's go… what?"

After two days of complete silence, except for the sessions where Partner taught him how to change the Universum settings, when Stone was regrowing, Partner got used to silence and thought of many things. Like why he ended up in this particular stupid pebble, why Universum hates him, why he is cut off from his source… Not like he was able to find any answers. And this time he was surprised. Again.

"What do you mean your hardness increased?"

"It said it right now, when I healed up completely."

"That means your lifeforce increased, right?"

"Lifeforce." 'Thud'

"Yes," Stone replied.

"Good. Now, carve into yourself. I will tell you exactly how and where."

"I wonder... This could be interesting. Maybe he can evolve like a monster. However, he just healed himself… Maybe a cultivation technique? Odd things around him are amassing more and more... What the hell is he?" Partner pondered for a while but was quickly distracted by his own thoughts as he precisely instructed the stupid Stone, otherwise, the stupid pebble would kill himself... It occurred to him that maybe it would be for the best... But who knew what would happen to him after that. Partner must always help his host. That was the first and foremost Rule!

For two hours, Stone was using his Mana Carving skill to carve several connected holes according to Partner's lead. He activated his new spell Healing Bath for stones with it. Due to him doing it to himself, the holes weren't healed and after he was done he could produce a sound.

<Your skill Mana Carving gained a level 2 times>

"Done," Stone stated after an hour and grumbled, "this didn't feel good at all."

"It was necessary. Now try to use mana to talk with ants."

Stone tried, but only a high-pitched sound was released.

"It doesn't work," Stone was disappointed.

"Use more mana and vibrate it. Use the celestial language you know and talk."

"STONE!" His still high-pitched voice reverberated over the whole anthill and his first minions stopped and turned to him.

"Good!" Partner praises him and thanked the gods that they didn't abandon him.

"Now we can finally move around!"

"Oh, right. I can order ants to move me around," Stone understood.

"It's time to move. We should kill some rodents to level you up again!" Partner’s soul was swimming in a sea of joy and happiness.

"Ants! I am your King Stone!" his new voice echoes in the throne room. Ants look up to him and the brave ant steps towards him.

"Yes, Queen King Stone!"
"King Stone!"
"Yes, Queen!"
"King Stone!"
"Understood, Queen Stone!"

This went for another half an hour and Partner’s happiness dried out after the first 5 minutes. The whole sea of it. Instead, the bed of despair hit him hard. Partner tried to stop the downward-spiraling Stone. Unsuccessfully. "Oh, for the love of gods! HELP ME!" Partner yelled in his mind, thinking he would go insane. Who knows, maybe he had gone insane.

"Ants! I want the strongest to lift me and bring me outside! We will hunt rodents!" Stone ordered after he gave up. The ants were too stupid for it and he lost interest. So, be it... Queen it is. It was not like he cared too much.

The ants did not wait and fourteen royal guards picked up the throne with him sitting on it.

"This small ant is interesting. He is almost sapient. Maybe we could train him."

"You! Small ant! Yes, the one who was the first on the battlefield to talk to me. Come with us," Stone commanded on Partner's advice.

"Onwards!" Stone declared, enjoying newfound good feelings. Ordering around was quite enjoyable.

Fourteen ants, carrying the talc throne fitted with leaves, gaiting towards where their new King sits, left the Talc Anthill quickly. The brave, but still small ant crawled behind the throne and let the guards carry him too.

Meanwhile, Stone enhanced his sphere of sight to 2 metres. The nothingness behind the clear line did not bother him even a bit.

"We are moving! We are finally moving around freely…" Partner cried in happiness.

"You said that word before. Rodents. What are rodents?"

"Mice, rats, squirrels… You will see!"

Ants were tenacious trackers and hunters and soon they found their first target: a rat, eating a half-rotten fruit, very similar to a pear but slimmer and orange. The rat had brown fur with an occasional darker streak and red, ravenous eyes.

"Stop!" They were one and a half metres away. The rat completely ignored them. Why shouldn't it? A few ants and a pebble in the dark shaft. Nothing to see.

"What now?" Stone questioned.

"Now, create a spear from the refined mana as I taught you and send it directly into its eye."

The translucent spear out of 3 RM materialized before the rat's eye—the rat tensed as it felt the danger but was not fast enough to evade. The spear penetrated through the eye, then the brain, the tip broke through the skull. The rat slumped to the ground with the blood and brain tissue pouring out of the wound as the mana spear dissipated into motes of translucent mana and ethereal experience got absorbed by Stone.

<You have killed a rat. You have gained 31.4% experience>
<Your skill Mana Carving gained a level>

"Partner, I gained a lot of experience!" Stone excitedly bragged. The growing number made him happy.

"That's good! Now, off to the next target," the same could be told about Partner too.

"Ants! Find the next rodent!" Stone high-pitched voice sounded in the shaft.

The small ant glanced at the new Queen, thinking, "he is much stronger than our previous queen.".

Stone noticed that the small ant, he completely forgot about and who was with them the whole time, was watching him. It felt strange to him and did not hold it for himself.

"Partner, the small ant is gazing at me. It makes me... unease."

"Hmm, maybe we should name him?"

"Why?"

"Are you going to call him a small ant forever?"

"Ah," Stone realized the inconvenience, "small ant! Your name is Ant from this moment!" Stone proclaimed.

"Thought so…" Partner just shook his imaginary head.

"Queen! Something is happening! There was a voice telling me I joined Universum!" Ant danced around.

"Partner? Ant said that he joined the Universum too."

"Yeah, I see," he answered, impassively, and thought "as expected. This one would become the new Queen instead of the idiot...".

"Stone, he is she…"

"That gender thing again?"

"Yes."

"Does it matter?"

"Sometimes."

"Ant is Ant. What matters if he is she?"

"She can make eggs."

"Eggs?"

"Babies," Partner explained with a plain tone. "Why me? Why should I explain this to him?! Gods! Do you hate me that much?!"

"Oh. Can I make babies?"

"You are stone. Well… I think you can't," Partner was uncertain about this and for his sanity, he refused to contemplate anymore. Some things were better left unanswered.

"Partner! Another rodent!" Stone examined the large lizard with his sphere in and out, "but it looks strange."

"It's not a rodent! Still, it's worth almost the same as rodents! Kill it," Partner observed the poor lizard too through the Stone’s sphere. It had yellow skin, with black spots and round black eyes.

"Queen! That's the enemy!" Ant panicked. The previous Queen had to scare a lot of these powerful adversaries away quite often as they loved to eat ants in great numbers and did not even shirk away from attacking the anthill.

"Do not worry, Ant!" Stone graciously proclaimed.

The lizard detected the ants and rushed towards them. Stone cast a new spear and sent it against the eye of the incoming foe, but the lizard dodged with ease.

"Partner! The lizard evaded!"

"So? Make another spear!"

"I don't have refined mana anymore!"

"So, use a normal one!"

"Queen! Quick! It's almost there!" Ant slowly stepped backwards, trying to find an opportunity to… tactically retreat.

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.'

"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.

"Partner, what is it doing?"

"Phew…" Partner figuratively exhaled in relief, feeling that maybe gods were not such big bastards as he thought. "Well, it seems like it did not expect you even to exist and to be the ant King to boot."

"Isn't that good?"

"Yes, it is."

"So, we won't die."

"You won't die. I would be transferred somewhere else."

"Oh… Should I try to kill it?"

"You two! Go and get those ants! They must know where their Queen is!" The red rat commanded his entourage and the two normal-sized underlings hurriedly left.

"Ant Queen! Why have you attacked my pack! We had the truce!" The red rat shouted as it still searched for the nonexistent ant queen.

"Hmm… Maybe if you use your Mana Point filled to the brim with refined mana like with ants."

"But I would need heat to make it explosive."

"Really?" Partner chuckled as the idea hit him, "do you see those leaves from your throne? Light it up."

"How?"

"First, use a small amount of mana and push it right near you. Then create a small mana bubble and mana sticks. Put the leaves between it and vibrate it very fast. Hopefully, your mastery will allow this. Normally, you would not be able to do this with this amount of mana. But with that insane regeneration of yours…” Partner explained and thought to himself, “this will be amusing to see what he becomes at higher levels."

'Shustle, shustle,' the few leaves near Stone were pushed directly to him, creating a nice pile of flammable material.

The dried leaves caught on fire easily, producing the much-needed heat.

"Ant Queen! Show yourself!" The red rat was already impatient and becoming more and more agitated, but the smell of a smoke rising from the leaves near the pebble made it halt.

"Ha! Here you are!" The rat came directly above the pebble with a triumphal expression. It swiped with the right paw to extinguish the fire. It collaterally grazed Stone, violently pushing him back and damaging him as it chipped quite a bit from him.

<Heat at 82% of maximum capacity>

"That must be enough. Now or never," Stone silently muttered as he conjured the mana bubble directly above the spine of the rat and compressed it with all of the heat he had.

The rat felt something wrong and rapidly spinned around, searching for the incoming strike.

"It's you! The pebble!" The rat finally understood who attacked its pack, but it was too late to evade.

'BANG!'

The heated mana point exploded, creating a brief, intense light and a strong pressure wave, tearing the red rat in half.

One of the halves landed on the Stone, painting him red. Partner snickered.

"Haaah, 'good' old times," Partner recalled of what happened more than three months ago.

<You killed the rats’ pack leader 14 levels above yourself>
<You have gained a bonus experience. You have gained 343% experience>
<New limits imposed. You can increase Intelligence to a maximum of 6>
<Refined mana is being fully merged with your body. The mana pool is calculated as Intelligence x 2.5>
<You have killed an enemy more than 10 levels above yours. Universum notices!>
<Your spell Mana Point gained a level>

"How many times did you level up?" Partner asked after he knew that Stone was able to sense again.

"Four times."

"…"

"Oh, it says that Universum noticed because I killed someone more than ten levels above myself," Stone stated.

Then something strong came over him.

"Partner, I feel weird! Good!" Stone was excited as never before. This feeling was something he could not even describe. Rays of white light attracted a pile of talc dust and gravel around him like a magnet and merged it with his body.

Stone grew 4 centimetres all around and the glow ceased as fast as it came. If Stone could have weak knees and shake, he certainly would.

"I want more! Partner, I WANT MORE OF THIS!" For the first time, Stone got loud by himself and he was not even aware of it.

"U-huh. Good, calm yourself down and tell me. What did you say about Universum?" Partner pondered if this was some kind of universal joke he could not get, "I am telling a moronic stone to calm down after levelling up 4 times in a row…"

"More! More! More!"

"SILENCE!" Partner roared and the poor Stone was torn between two emotions. One was telling him to get more of that good feeling and the other told him that there was something loud. Too loud.

"Sorry, Partner. It felt too good." Stone says after he finally calms himself down and asks, "What happened to me?"

"I would guess you got high. Or some equivalent of it. I didn't even know that it's possible for stone. You are way too strange, you know?" The Partner shook his non-existent head still thinking if the gods were playing a joke on him.

"Now… What did you say about Universum?"

Stone read the message in his new journal, looking like a lovely stone tablet, and then asked, "what does it mean?"

"Uhuh. That… Could be bad or good…," Partner mulled over how to answer, "it means you could get into trouble or get better rewards… Universum is impassive and fair to all mortals. Well, that's what priests will tell you. The truth is that it doesn't give a shit about you and if does, you better be strong enough to survive it."

"Oh, okay. That's a mutual feeling," Stone answered with a certain satisfaction.

"Thought so…" Partner sometimes felt like between two stones.

Their conversation ended with pensive silence permeating the atmosphere between them. Then Stone remembered something important, "Partner?"

"Yeah?"

"Weren't there two more rats?"

"I think so."

"Good, that means those two rats who are coming over are not new rats."

"Oh, goo… WHAT!?"

"Leader?" "Pack leader?" Both rats squeaked, seeking their leader.

Soon, they saw their leader's remains. They glanced at each other with understanding; each of them took one half to eat. Why to waste perfect, mana-soaked meat, right?

"Don't even think about it!" Partner warned, detecting that Stone was preparing another spell. "Be glad we survived. This was way too close. Luck was on our side as it didn't expect a freaking sentient pebble… "

"Now when you say it… How strong is a normal being?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, I killed their leader in one shot. Is that normal?"

"No… but that is because you have refined mana."

"Oh, that's another thing. It said it's completely fused with my body now and it will increase with my Intelligence."

"…" Partner was silenced yet again pondering what insane god created this… stone.

"What do you think about this?"

"That you are insane, this world is insane, and the Universum is insane. And most likely; I am insane too."

"But it's good, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is," Partner sighs again and agrees, then silently added to himself, "maybe this time…"

"We should leave, pack leaders of rats are never far away from their own. There would be at least dozens of rats hidden somewhere."

"How do we get back there? I don't even know where we are."

"You can talk, don't you?"

"Oh, okay!" Stone readied himself. "Ants!"

Rats, still devouring their former leader, peered around to search around for what made that sound. They saw nothing out of the ordinary and returned to their devouring. Their fur gained streaks of red colour and their bodies got a bit larger.

"What happened to them?" Stone asked as he observed the growing rats.

"That’s a normal Monster thing. They level up too and can evolve their bodies by devouring others. That's why they are called monsters."

<Your intelligence had risen by 0.1>

"Partner, my intelligence got higher."

"Oh, yeah. I forgot. You broke through limits. Four times in a row. Heh…"

"Queen!" Hundreds of ants arrived inside of the Stone's sight sphere and were happily dancing.

"Queen! Queen! Queen!" Silent cheering could be seen and Stone decided it felt good to be cheered on.

"Ants! Bring me back!"

"Yes, Queen!"

This time twenty-four largest and strongest ants raised him.

"Status," Stone ordered and wished to be able to smile. 'Thud'