<Spell transfer completed>

“Luci, why must everyone be so loud?” Stone would frown if he could.

“…” Lucifer, still processing the situation, ignored him.

“Hey! Loud!” Stone called out the sobbing dwarf.

“Mae beard! Mae beard!” The said dwarf repeated again and again while sitting there naked and hairless with his head between knees and slightly swinging from back to front.

“Luci!” Stone attempted to talk to him again, but the stumped former partner was entirely occupied by repeating, “insane, this piece of rock, this universe and even me... We’re all insane. Insane!”, while eyeing his translucent tablet.

Not only did Stone have to listen to the loud sobbing of an adult dwarf, but he also had to listen to Par… Lucifer, who had probably gone crazy too.

“Oh! So this is a deep craziness!” Stone asserted. He paid no attention to them and checked his stone tablet. Even with his stony patience, he was irritated, which made him angry, which was a loud emotion. And loud… “Status,” Stone issued and a soft ‘thud’ echoed in his mind.

He went over the changes, satisfied. Then probed those two noisy crazies. As they were still out of their mind, Stone decided to review the differences more in-depth. More stone tablets would always make him happy. ‘Thud, Thud’

“Luci? Are you done?” Stone asked after another ten minutes of deciphering the meaning of those explanations. It was not like he could not understand those words, but he lacked the context.

“Ehm. Yes, I am,” Lucifer awkwardly replied, being glad he did not have a face to be red. He finally processed the situation and that this stone was truly the one-of-the-kind package of insanity. Also, he accepted that he would not know peace for a long time.

“I have many questions. Like what now? And you have Stone {wielder} talent too, right? And why can I see your tablets? Or hear your messages?”

“You can see it all, can you?”

“Yes,” Stone obediently responded.

“Good. So read yourself!” Luci barked, while his status tablet materialized in both of their minds.

“What is with the dwarf?” Lucifer finally noted the still-sobbing dwarf.

“I don’t know. Something about the beard.”

“Oh, damn. Poor guy,” Lucifer replied with a voice full of sympathy as he understood immediately. “Wait! I can use mana. No, not mana! The SuperFlux! Damn… That's reserved only for Tier 3 and above Ethereals… Even though it is stronger, I have way less of it. Will have to be careful not to die from overdrain. Hmm, it will be the first time, but I have taught it many times.”

Lucifer concentrated a little bit and conjured a single <Mana Bubble> nearby. He held it and read his journal. “Nice!,” he merrily exclaimed and connected to mana flowing around. “Hmm… I really can use only refined mana,” he imaginary frowned and connected to Stone’s veins pulsing with refined mana. A single red vein emerged from Lucifer’s ethereal body and connected with Stone’s golden ones. The refined mana slowly flowed into him. Soon, his <SuperFlux> was again at the maximum.

“What was that?” Stone detected the fluctuation as a little bit of refined mana left his RM pool.

“Interesting, technique is still the same, but I can only use it on Stone. This will require more experimentation. I wonder if I can later connect to artefacts that use refined mana…” Luci muttered to himself, disregarding Stone’s question. Next, he attempts to make a circular mana wall. The wall with feeble purple rays materialized ten centimetres away from Stone. “And skills are learned too… Now I have a full set to unlock a class. This is incredible. Wait… Will I have a class?”

‘Sob, sob, sob’ Dafur’s crying slowly ceased. He looked at Stone with still teary, red eyes. “Ya’re really livin’?”

“…” Stone was still reading and talking to Luci, so he did not answer.

“Thought so… but wher’ did ta’t refin’d mana cam’ from? I guess I truly caug’t deep craziness, haaah,” he sighed in sadness.

“Stone, the dwarf is asking something,” Luci said.

“Yes. I am alive. At least. That was something the voice said,” Stone finally answers to Dafur with an annoyed voice.

“Uaaargh!” Dafur screamed as he genuinely didn’t expect an answer and jumped out of the broken black casket.

“Loud!”

“Dornus dammit!” Dafur calmed down and looked at the white talc stone again. He saw mana bubbles and basic two-dimensional shapes from the violet flux appearing and disappearing around Stone.

“Luci? What are you doing?”

“Training.”

“Oh… What is training?”

“… don’t bother me now, I am concentrating,” Luci left him on his own and trained his expertise. It was incredible fun for him.

“What in Dornus ass… Am I crazy or naet?”

“You seem to be crazy enough to me,” the high-pitched voice echoed in the Dafur’s ears.

“… What was your name?” Dafur accepted it; even if he was crazy, at least he had a companion to talk to.

“Stone. And yours?”

“Dafur.”

“I'm introducin maeself to a talkin piece of rock… piece of rooock…” Dafur mockingly muttered. “Ehm,” Dafur clears his throat and asked, “what happened?”

“I don’t know. Check your status,”

“Status…” Dafur wished and could not believe what he saw, “no, please. Not this!” He started to sob again to Stone’s dismay.

‘Plesk’

A weak mana wall from 1 point of refined mana conjured by Stone landed on Dafur’s cheek, effectively silencing him. He blinked a few times with the realization that he was slapped.

“Did you just slap me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because you were too loud.”

“…”

“Now, what happened?” Stone inquired.

Dafur, still in a daze from the slap, answered, “I becam blighted druegar… and lost all my levels. At least I’m still runemae’str. Abilities and most of my expertises stayed too,” he explained while examining his grey skin.

“Druegar? Oh, those hairless, crazy dwarfs from the Abyss. Partn… Luci told me about them.”

“Yes. And lost mae beard too,” his tears again started flowing as he touched his clean face. “Luci?” Dafur asked between the sobs.

“Lucifer.”

“Oh… And who is that?”

“He was my talent Partner.”

“… What?” Dafur thought he heard something wrong.

“Don’t!” Luci finally registered what Stone wanted to say and interrupted him, “really. Don’t say this to anyone. Never! I already told you that!”

“Oh… Okay!” Stone answered Lucifer in mind and loudly said, “Luci said not to tell you.”

“For fuck sake…” Luci capitulated and concentrated again on his training.

“Wait… I remember now somethin’. Ya said ya have a Partner befor!”

A small flux wall fizzled and disappeared into purple motes as Luci’s concentration was broken again.

“You told him even before?! You idiot! Dummy! Miserable stone! I even warned you not to tell anyone about me!”

“Loud! Both of you!”

Dafur gaped at that talking piece of stone with reverence.

“Naet only does he have a Partner… he’s a living stone! That’s crazy!”

“Luci? What now?”

“We should leave, you said there were more dwarfs. Soon, this place will be swarmed by them. We wouldn’t want them to step on you. Oh, and ask where we are. Where exactly,” Lucifer specified and returned to his training, “this training will take at least a week, then I should be able to evolve. Hopefully.”

“Dafur?”

“Yea, mister Stone?”

“Where are we? Exactly?”

“Three days from Arn-Dul, around one kilometer from the white marble small mine and 70 metres undrground. This place seems to be the laboratory of an ancient high-ranked runemae’str. But I am a mere 1st rank runemae’str,” Dafur ultimately got ahold of yourself and examined the unpowered runes around. He recognized some of them, but most of them are a complete mystery to him.

“I wonder what master Baelgin woulda say… oh…” He realized he cannot return. Not as a druegar. New tears emerged from his eyes and he was starting to sob again.

“Loud! How many times do I have to repeat I don’t like loud?” Stone sharply said and conjured a new blueish wall.

“Sorry,” Dafur apologized, broken. He failed his mission to protect miners and investigate. His world completely flipped and he had nowhere to return. Everything was slowly dawning on him; that he was blighted, druegar, and who knows what else. His mind was slowly, but gradually warping. However, he did not perceive this nor would he ever. “I’m sayin’ sorry to a piece of talkin’ rock… hehe,” Dafur slightly grinned.

<Your Ambient Mana Refinement gained level 3 times>

“Luci?”

“Yeah?”

“You are draining me too much…”

“Sorry!”

“Hm… is this training? Repeating one thing again and again?”

“Yes.”

“But isn’t that insanity?”

“No, that would be expecting to have a different result. I am expecting the same result over and over. How’s your regeneration of mana and refinement? Exact numbers.”

“Oh… I can now refine 8.5 refined mana per minute and 37.4 of normal mana per second.”

“Good. How much is your intelligence?”

“Ten. But I have a limit of fifteen.”

“Hmm. The more mana you have, the stronger we both are. And with your insane regeneration… We need to raise your intelligence as soon as possible.” Lucifer scrutinized the Stone’s insides yet again. This time the mana veins were sharp and a little bit more complicated. As he examined the surroundings, still in Stone, he recognized a spell from the School of Soul engraved in a small circle of celestian language inside Stone’s body. “Stone? Did you gain spell from the School of Soul?”

“Yes.”

“Haaaaah,” Luci sighed in exasperation. “Well, I can’t say much anymore too… I can use flux that is based on your miserable pool of refined mana… and I am Ethereal without a sub-race too… But! I am free from now on. No longer connected to my source. So strange feeling, not being forced to help by those stupid Rules.”

Meanwhile, Stone conjured an ant’s soul. He felt as almost half of his refined mana left him and saw it form an ant.

“Dornus, help me! A ghost!” Dafur screamed again as he saw the small, blueish soul.

“Loud! Dafur, stop screaming all the time! Or I will gag you permanently!” Stone threatened, already angered as his concentration was broken. The ant turned to motes of mana as it dissipated. The soul did not return and he was at 36 now.

“Sorry, but t’is ghostery really scar’d me.”

“Stone, be careful with this. Only the Undead, necromancers, warlocks and similar professions can use soul magic,” instincts of a former Partner, the actual hero helper, kicked in.

“Why?”

“They are ev...i...l,” Lucifer halted as he thought about it, “hmm, well, I guess it doesn’t matter for you. I will tell you when you can use it and when not.”

“Fine.”

“We should look around.”, “We shoulda leav’”, Lucifer and Dafur remarked simultaneously.

“Partn… Luci, where to look around?” Stone asked.

☁☁☁☁☁☁

Three days before Dafur awaken from his slumber, Breadbeard and Eriv left the laboratory and passed through several rooms, protected by golems and automatons. Breadbeard effortlessly destroyed them with his bare hands. The guardians attempted to defend against him to no avail as Breadbeard’s body was more durable than before. He ransacked the gold, gems and crystals and put the fresh loot in the new bag he found nearby.

The exit gate was the same as the marble gate they entered from. This time, Breadbeard did not bother with unlocking the gate as Dafur and crashed a few times with his head into it. The gate was not able to take this much punishment and broke. Luckily, Stone was not there. They stepped through the hole and emerged on a steep path on the other side of the small mountain.

The whole way, Breadbeard was either erratically laughing or crying out in pain. Eriv was trying to stop him for some time already, striving to help a friend. He always pushed her away and ordered her under a death threat to move her ass.

During the way, his skin and hair gradually turned to fern-green. His beard fell off and as he was entirely out of his mind, he did not even pay attention to it. His body grew even more robust and his muscles were constantly changing; bulging and rearranging themselves into more efficient positions. This change came with a terrible amount of pain and he was often forced to lay on the ground. But strangely, he liked that pain. He was also getting progressively more crazy and paranoid, but was still aware of himself and not feral as he still could use his Universum.

Eriv was crying, unable to hurt him or run away in the moments of his weakness; she could never abandon her friend. A friend, who was almost like a family and had grown up together for so many years. They had gone through hell together three years ago. She often had to help him move, him saying that he wanted to continue as an instinct forced him to move elsewhere. He did not know where, but he was sure he had to go in this direction.

They soon showed up near the makeshift inn, still filled to the brim with drunk prospectors. It was already dawn, but they had paid leave anyway as the marble mine was shut down.

“Hey, it’s Breadbeard and Eriv! Why’re ya… two… nak… Uaaaaargh!” One of the dwarfs noticed them and as he was drunk, he did not see the changes of their overseer.

“I AM RIIIIICH!” Breadbeard insanely shrieked and leapt towards the dwarf, effortlessly picking him up.

“In the Dornus ass! What’re ya doin’?!” the dwarf inquired, frightened, but the changed Breadbeard threw him inside the inn through the canvas wall.

“Ye’re all wanna mae treasur’! I’LL RIP YE ALL!” Breadbeard ran inside while erratically yelling profanities and started the massacre of the drunkards. He snapped their necks, tore their limbs and heads off or picked them above his head and tore them in half. Dwarfs screamed for help and in terrible pain, blood surging out of their wounds like hellish fountains.

Some of them were able to pick up their weapons or pickaxes, but they could use only a small amount of mana with it and lacked the needed expertise anyway. After all, they were just miners, and only a few of them trained some axemanship. The weapons bounced off or directly shattered upon hitting the Breadbeard’s enhanced body.

Chunks of bodies were flying everywhere and Eriv could only stand there, sobbing and not knowing what to do. She picked a nearby pickaxe but dropped it as she knew it would not help. Her mind was more and more broken and what only held her together was the thought of her brother, still in their tent.

“Hah! I knew it! You wanted my GOLD! MY GOLD!” Breadbeard maniacally yelled at the corpses of his former workers and friends. “Eriv! This feels so good! Ya need to try it too!” He grabbed a few mana crystals from his greaves and stepped towards her. She attempted to evade, but a firm hand seized her forearm, even breaking it. “Ahh, I’m sorry, Eriv!” He laughed and cried at the same time and force-fed her the crystals.

Of course, she struggled to spit them out, but Breadbeard forced her to eat them again. In the end, she gave up and let it slip into her stomach.

“Ah! Yar brother shoulda be here too, right?”

“Naet! Please! Not mae brother,” she pleaded quietly as she lay on the ground without any strength. She already felt how the wild, foreign radiation of mana was spreading through her body and slowly changed her. She looked at her status, but there were no changes yet, only that she was being poisoned with <Blight>.

“Don’t ya worry! He’s a strong boya! He can take it,” he cheerily exclaimed and skipped out of the slaughterhouse.

Two dwarfs stood up amidst the carnage, though covered in blood and gore they were not harmed bar a missing arm. They slowly looked around, helping each other to keep balance and one of them quietly asked Eriv. “What in the Dornus ass happened, Eriv?!”

“Run, pleas’! Inform the guild. There is a mana crystal deposit and greed overtook Breadbeard. We took quite a bit of radiation without proper protection. He killed runemae’str too. Run before he comes back…” she softly, but urgently explained, not having the strength to even weep. Then she lost consciousness.

Both of them glanced at each other and started running towards the city. That night, those two had broken the world record in the sprint for dwarfs below rank three. Too bad there was no one to take a note…

Meanwhile, Breadbeard, while searching for Eriv’s brother Dori, butchered the sleeping dwarfs in their tents. They were not even able to wake up, either because they were either too drunk or were too slow to wake up.

The runaway miners ran through the gates of Arn-Dul and went directly towards their guild to report. Their missing arms slowed them down and they were breathing heavily from tiredness as they hadn’t slept for almost three days.

“What do ye mean, all dead?!” Their boss shouted at them. They flinched and one of them answered, angered and tired, “Eriv told us that there’s a small mana crystal deposit. Breadbeard got blighted and massacred the whole camp. He forced Eriv to eat mana crystals too.”

“Go to the priest! Now!” The leader issued them while his mind spun, “Crystal deposit’! JACKPOT! We’re rich! But… what about Breadbeard and Eriv… hmm, they're probably dead already. No need to report… I won’t let others take over the mine! Never! I'll sae there was another collapse. Some will question, but… hehe. And those two... well a five percent ownership shoulda be enough for them.”

"Wait! Here's some money," he threw them a big pouch clanking with gold, "ask the priest or alchemist to help with yer arms, and don't tell anyone about this! Understood?!"

"Yea, guild master!" they nodded with understanding.

"After yer return, we'll talk... I have a nice offer for ya," the guild master smiled.

☁☁☁☁☁☁

In Arn-Dul was an association named Gilded Runemaster Guild. Their history was shallow as it was one of the newer guilds in the city, however… Who cares?

“Hmm?” A dwarf with wild black hair and an unattended beard raised his eyes from his work. The rune on the hammer flickered, so he turned his attention back on it to stabilize it. The hammer shimmered with blue rays of refined mana, and the rune stabilized completely. He closely examined it and hurled it into the trash barrel nearby.

“Dornus dammit… Trash. The engraving was successful, but the refined mana flowed wrongly. Sell it to the second-hand grocer.”

“Master Baelgin won’t be happy, master.” His apprentice, a youngling with trimmed beard according to the latest fashion, with brown eyes and clothed in brown robe engraved with dark runes, replied. He wore a little badge with a rune showing that he was 2nd rank runemaster on his chest. Also, he was so similar to Dafur, one could even say they appeared the same.

“Hmpf! He won’t know if you won’t tell him,” the master replied with a small, playful grin. The master closed eyes, his natural frown deepening.

“What is it, master Therdreag?” His apprentice asked, worried. When his master frowned like this, there was always some kind of problem.

“Laboratory number two was activated, but the signal was delayed. Go and prepare my teleportation circle,” master Therdreag commanded him after opening his eyes.

“Yea, master. When shoulda it be done?”

“In an hour. I need to finish this order. You know what, stay here and watch, you deserve it anyway, my little genius Tafur.”

“Thank ya, master, for this opportunity,” Tafur slightly bowed.

“Servant!”

“Yea, master?” A dwarven servant replied from outside of the door.

“Go and take three outer disciples to prepare my teleportation circle to laboratory number two.”

“Yea, master.”

“Now, my little genius, hand me another hammer, this time from mithril and seven high-grade crystals. I want to show you a neat trick I learned back in the days,” master Therdreag grinned and focused his mana on the new tool handed to him.

☁☁☁☁☁☁

In an undisclosed area, during the process of blightification of Stone’s company, something else was happening too.

An elven man, clothed in exquisitely crafted white robe, jogged through a long hallway. He gracefully evaded several people, mostly servants, slaves, golems and elementals waiting for orders or completing their duties. In the corner of his eyes, he saw many rooms; laboratories with holding pens filled with exotic animals and Monsters, alchemy workshops with bubbling apparatuses and resting rooms with talking people of many colourful races.

At the end of the hallway, he leapt down the stairway directly to the underground level. It was a fairly long fall, but he conjured a gust of air that slowed him down to comfortable speed. He softly landed and continued his jog.

A few left and right turns, a little bit more of running and he stood before white, wooden doors, slightly glowing blue with refined mana.

He took a deep breath and conjured a weak shield with streaks of blue rays around his hand and banged on the doors. After ten minutes of waiting, the glow dulled and the door opened.

In the reception room were two simple chairs, crafted from rare beautiful white wood and a matching table. The white walls and ground were covered in glowing golden runes, made by a runemaster of at least 5th rank. There was also a metallic, white door leading to the inner area, where everyone was forbidden to enter.

The metallic doors opened to the side and a beautiful human female, who wore a black robe with red lining that emanated a protective barrier, copying her curvy lines, entered while yelling, “you idiot! I was in the middle of an important experiment! This better is important, or I swear to Conjurarum, I will castrate you on the spot!”

He gulped, knowing the threat was not plain, and went straight to the point, “madam Tia! We lost contact with one of our Partners!”

She halted in the middle of swearing and creased her beautiful eyebrow. Her long red hairs, bound in a simple ponytail, slightly flickered with mana. She was a known beauty. The man who watched her almost as if hypnotized blushed like a schoolgirl who met her idol in person.

After a moment of silence, she asked, “and? Which one, you moron?”

“Number 666, madam Tia.”

“My favourite comedian got lost? That won’t do… Can you track him?”

“No, madam. It was all too strange. He was going towards his target, Orifog Blackbeard, but the target died before he could even make contact. What was strange was that instead of returning, he embedded himself somewhere else,” he stopped his report while pondering what to say next. He gulped several times, not able to find the right words as he was immersed in the woman's beauty.

“Well? Where is he?” Madam Tia inquired impatiently, clearly starting to be angered.

“Ehm… I am sorry, madam!” He bowed, finally awake and continued, “we don’t know! The connection is completely broken. We don’t even know if he was destroyed.”

“When and why did that happen?” She questioned. A dangerous undertone was apparent to anyone who wasn't a complete moron. And the elf was not a moron.

“Ehm… we didn’t notice until more than three…,“ he mumbled the last words, but she heard him properly.

“Three months!? FUCKING THREE MONTHS!?” She screamed like a banshee and picked him up with a big hand made of refined mana.

“I… aaargh… am… auch!… sorry… It hurts!… madam Tia,” he said while his bones are being crushed.

“Divination school?”

“Doesn’t work… auieee! Please, madam! You are breaking my bones!” He cried out, but the hand was still slowly tightening.

“So, for more than three months, you did not notice that one of the Partners was missing. And what’s more, you lost my favourite. I was hoping to see a nice show tonight!” She hissed with a not-so-hidden threat and clenched her raised fist.

‘Splash!’

The man exploded in chunks of blood, meat and bones.

“Take this as punishment! And your payment is lowered by thirty percent for a year!” She stated and cast a spell over the splattered body. Green motes of light enveloped his remains.

“Thank you, madam, for your generosity,” a voice echoed over the red-and-white room as the blood, meat and bones slowly connected back to themselves. After he was wholly regenerated, he deeply bowed again and shot her a last glance. She exploded his eyes with simple <Mana Point>s and hissed, “take that dirty look to the brothel, pig.”

The man smiled and backed out of the door. He regenerated his eyes with a potion he always had in his pouch for these occasions and sighed in relief, “Thanks Conjurarum, she had a great mood…”

“And write him off… Partner number 666 is considered missing, presumably dead!” He heard as the door shut behind him, slowly enveloped by the blue glow again, this time much more intense.

Inside the room, madam Tia deeply frowned, but with a devilish smile quietly said, “So… in the end, you were able to run away… Hehe, this hunt will be fun. I can feel it. I wonder where you ended up. I will give you a headstart… Naaah… Too bothersome. But how to find you? Hmm… dwarfs will help...”

The poor soul of an unknown creature, laying on the metal table engraved with magic circles written in the golden celestian language, writhed, silently screaming in terrible pain.

“Now, where were we? Oh yes…” She held her hand over the soul and many strings of pure blue mana poked into it.

☁☁☁☁☁☁

Dafur picked up Stone, while Lucifer was still training and scanned the area. During the search, Stone expanded his perception sphere to 10 metres, but when he had done that, he wasn’t able to see through everything like before.

<Your technique Ambient Mana Refinement gained a level 5 times>

“Luci?”

“Don’t bother me now,” Lucifer dismissed him. Lucifer understood that this was very strange conduct for a Partner, but he grasped that he was no longer one. This thought broke his concentration and his bubble and wall fizzled, turning into motes of purplish flux. He imaginary shook his head and resumed the training.

“Dafur!” Stone called for the dwarf.

“Yea, mist’r Stone?” The dwarf absentmindedly replied.

“Why can't I see through things after I expanded my perception sphere?”

“Ya have a perception sphere’? That’s a mid-tier technique…” The dwarf blinked several times. He finally began to come to terms with his situation.

“I don’t have a technique like that. Luci said it’s part of my natural sensing.”

“How shoulda I know?” The dwarf shrugged.

The conversation ended and an awkward atmosphere fell between them. Needless to say, the awkwardness was missed by Stone who did not care a bit. He was happy he acquired a new minion. Hopefully, this one will not betray him or expire too soon.

After they searched the whole room, the single path they found was leading back to the crystal deposit and stairways leading up.

“Dafur, I noticed something,” Stone proclaimed in his high-pitched voice, while they were climbing the stairways.

“What?”

“That you had second skin and those other two too. But the male one tore that skin out of her and put stones with golden runes and refined mana crystals into it…”

“WHAT?!” Dafur cried out, not realizing Stone was talking about clothes.

"Loud!" Stone grumbled and conjured a bluish hand to slap Dafur's cheek.

"You slapped me!"

"Yes! Don't be loud," Stone firmly issued while thinking, "slapping these bipeds is a nice way to make them shut up. I have to remember this."

Dafur peered at the strange piece of white rock and decided to let it be. He had already enough on his plate and this weird entity could help him.

Meanwhile, Stone continues his story, “well, she then got up and left my sphere.”

“Wait… got up? After skinnin' her alive?”

“You had that second layer too, but it was disintegrated when the glow enveloped you.”

“Oh! Ooooh!” Dafur exclaimed and facepalmed, “ya mean clothes!”

“What are clothes?”

“… Do ya realize how odd this is? A talking piece of talc asks mea what clothes are…” He laughs with a tinge of craziness in his voice.

“Tell me about it,” Luci added his own sigh… Of course, Dafur could not hear him as it was in Stone’s mind.

“How shoulda I know?” Stone innocently replied. Dafur didn’t know how, but he could hear the shrug in the sentence. Luci rolled his imaginary eyes and continued to train the basics.

“Clothes're protective barrier for people like mea. Some can be enchanted, metallic…” Dafur proceeded to explain what clothes were and how they worked to the talking piece of mineral.

<Your intelligence had risen by 5>

After five minutes of climbing the stairs, they reached the ransacked room, filled with torn golems and automatons.

“What is this?” Stone asked, when he saw it with his enlarged but weakened, perception dome.

“Seems like Breadbeard brok' his way out… shit…” Dafur stated as he peered at the destruction around.

Slight tremor rattled them and from the room linked to the hallway came a bluish light.

“Fuck! This place is naet abandoned!” Dafur swore simultaneously with Lucifer.

“Loud!” Stone was disregarded again. When Dafur saw the incoming conjured hand, it was too late. The slap was heard all over the place.

“Let’s go back, maybe there will be another way out… or we coulda go back to the crystal deposit'. I'm blighted anyway…” Dafur said while caressing his red cheek yet again.

☁☁☁☁☁☁

Encyclopaedia Stonia

Perception sphere technique
It’s one of the essential techniques, known for being a technique used by warriors, assassins and others such classes. It creates a sphere, or a dome, of mana, specially attuned to the caster's mind. Of course, there are skills that can interfere with it.

Some races don’t have any other ways to perceive their surroundings (like our Stone). In this case, Universum doesn’t count it as expertise but as a natural perception of the lifeform.

It's almost undetectable.

Ethereals and Undeads
Ethereals are not considered Undead in most cases. Ghosts (and similar sub-races) created from living souls are counted as Undead, but naturally produced spectrals are not.

Partner
Kind of public secret. Those who have them don’t talk about them but they are Heroes.

No one knows how Partners are obtained. They are an assistants, a companions and a library in one. A few old heroes wrote about them in their memoirs, at least those who lived long enough to actually write them. These writings always disappears in a large explosions. Always. As if somebody did not want people to know about them.

Partners have to help their hosts and push them towards 'right' decisions. Problem is, the 'right is subjective.

Their incredible amount of knowledge and wisdom to use it 'correctly' is superior to most. Of course, there are exceptions to everything. Like Luci.

Strange is that almost none of those heroes lived more than a hundred years, excluding a few exemptions, but those are mostly cowering hidden in their fortresses, erratic and paranoid.

Magic - School of Soul
School of mana manipulation used by those who are often considered as evil in nature like Undead, warlocks, necromancers… Priests can use it to a certain limit. Still, they only cast it with their deity's permission and utilize it for healing.

It allows you to manipulate the souls of 'living' beings to a certain level. Those who practice it often refer to it as the ‘original magic’ as it is said to have been the first magic used by Mortals and thus should not be shunned as an ‘evil’ magic. It is too bad that those same people use others' souls to increase their lifespan. But again, evil is not the weapon but the person who wields it.