Jarka stood on the front, prepared to defend while Durza shot a few bolts in their direction. However, before the charging dwarfs could ram in them, they were halted by a barrage of <Mana Missile> and <Flux Missile> spells. 

<You have killed a 2nd-rank dwarfs 3 times>
<10.86% experience is split according to talents Subordinate and Parasite>
<Stone gained 9.77% experience>
<Lucifer gained 1.09% experience>

<You have gained 3.50% experience from Lucifer>

However, a dwarf with a messy beard and embroidered armour, that could only belong to an Army of the Abyss captain, conjured a 4th-rank skill <Runic Shielding>, effectively stopping the missiles that just harmlessly broke upon the contact. 

“Forward!” The captain ordered and the line of 6 dwarfs moved slowly stepped forward safely hidden behind the shield of pure refined mana with runic words.

“See, Stone? No spells are weak,” Lucifer muttered as their spells were not able to even dent the shield.

“I can’t,” Stone replied.

“What?”

“I see only the blue wall, but anything behind it is blank.”

“Fuck!”

“Luci, what now?” Stone asked. This was the first time he was in such a situation. Before, it was always easy. Hide, ambush, kill. Now? The meatbags knew how to defend themselves. Problematic. He thought of using Firey, but the little spark refused. It was on cooldown or something. Maybe it was just lazy… Who could ever know?

“We run,” Lucifer flexed his <Weak Fluxkinesis> and easily picked up Stone who did not try to struggle. His refined mana reserves had run out anyway after five 25-RM <Mana Missile> spells. He began to use his nigh-endless ambient mana, but when the refined mana failed, how could ambient mana work. At least it slowed the dwarfs down.

The captain was visibly sweating from the pressure. Still the spell held firm as another missile broke at it.

<Spell: Mana Missile levelled up>

“Druegars never run from battle!” Jarka yelled, her eyes filled with lust for battle. Her bloody mist surged forth, slowing them even more.

Durza stood next to her, his bolts flaring up with brown rays as he cast a skill over them. It was for nought. He knew it. They never stood a chance against a bonafide 4th-rank. Still, he would stand with her. Forever.

“Don’t be an idiot! It’s a fourth rank runemaster!” Lucifer yelled back at her from the shaft entrance.

“Jarka. You should retreat and inform the shaman,” Durza said as the dwarfs were a mere 10 metres from them. Luckily, they could not attack from a distance. The shield worked both ways.

“Ye bastards! Ya killed dur brothas! I’ll hang yar intestines on a pole! Captain! Let us go!” One of the forefront dwarfs screamed, his eyes red with wrath. The others joined in yelling profanities, but captain Baelgin did not flinch and instead, he flashed his aura, “silence! Six of you are already dead!”

“For hells…” Lucifer rolled his eyes and sent his last missile at Jarka’s head, stunning her. Before she slumped he caught her with Dori’s arms. “You stay here, Durza.”

He glanced at the strangely familiar dwarven captain in the back.

“Dori? Eriv?” The captain gaped and his shielding flickered a bit as he hesitated. Stone did not miss the opportunity and the <Mana Missile> hit another dwarf in the chest, wounding him.

“Yea, I planned for this. I’ll hold them off. Run! Save her!” Scout-Durza pulled out a silver, circular amulet and deeply cut his hand. A small eye opened in the middle and drew the blood into itself. His whole arm slowly dried up as it sucked the blood out of the wound.

Then the amulet broke in a flash of cold-blue rays and icy droplets appeared in the air. He raised his healthy arm and tens of small <Ice Bolts> surged towards the dwarfs, stopping them in the track.

Meanwhile, Lucifer with an unconscious druegar female on his male shoulder and Stone carried by Eriv’s body, was running as fast as he could.

“Luci, I don’t like running,” Stone proclaimed after an hour of their frantic sprint.

“Guess… Huf.. huf… what! Me too!”

“No, I mean the movement. It feels unnatural. Like flying. I don’t like it.”

“You… “ A person would say that he would already be used to Stone’s annoying view on life and new experiences. The person would be wrong.

They were blindly running around and after an hour Stone asked, “Luci?”

“What?”

“Where are we?” Not like the pebble cared too much. He had already refilled his refined mana reserves and was covered by <Mana Shield> yet again.

Lucifer slowed down and looked around. As he was kind of panicked, he completely forgot to watch where he was tactically retreating.

Jarka was still unconscious so she could not lead. Which was, after Lucifer calmed down and was able to think clearly, quite a problem. Being lost in the first layer… 

“I would say we are lost.”

“Oh… And who are they?” Stone innocently asked. 

Many red-glowing eyes that belonged to blue-skinned goblins, druegars and animalistic Monsters, from snakes to spiders, turned to them as they heard them.

“Those are Myceliar drones, Stone. They scrounge after meat.”

“And that's why we are running away from them, again?”

“Yes, Stone. I don’t want to be eaten alive. Again.”

“Again?”

“Shul-Gahat,” Lucifer did not even lie… Still, it was not what he had in mind.

“Oh… Why don’t we kill them?”

“Because, if you didn’t notice, there are around five hundred of them,” 

“But I have Firey! We could set them all on fire… Phhuuush!, and they are ash.” 

“You won’t gain any experience from them and doing that might anger the powerful being who controls them.”

“Oh, in that case it's not worth it. Run faster!” Stone changed his mind and Lucifer facepalmed.

“Darkul ass…” Jarka groaned as her head hit the wall. For the seventh time.

“Finally! Wake up, woman!”

“Minion! Wake up!” Stone said and added a blue mana wall slapping her.

“Minion? Who’re ya? Who am I?”

“Luci? Why is she so confused?”

“Why’re those odd people chasin’ us?”

“Why me? Seriously. Universum, Gods, gods… Anyone. Why me?” Lucifer asked into the void while tears streamed from his two sets of eyes. He picked up the pace as he felt a cold hand almost grab ex-Eriv’s shoulder.

☁☁☁☁☁☁

“So…” Lucifer was sitting on the ground in a cavern… somewhere. He did not know where. At all. 

The <SuperFlux> signature he left in the cave with the storybook had dissolved long ago, not that he’d admit it to Stone

“So?” Jarka was sitting before him with an incredulous expression.

“Luci?” Stone was between them.

The boulder felt like he should do something, but most of his attention was on the mana wall at the entrance as the blue-skinned humanoids tore at it. His mana regeneration was barely able to keep up and from time to time he had to pump refined mana into it. Firey was still sleeping, no matter what he tried. This situation stressed him, which displeased him.

“You don’t remember anything?” Lucifer asked.

“Nae!" The amnesiac druegar woman replied. "Ya said I’m Jakra?”

“Jarka.”

“I said that…” She cocked her head left.

“Haaah…” Lucifer sighed, “no you said Jakra. You are Jarka. Jaaar~ka.”

“Fine… and who’re those… those… blue-skins?” She pointed at the savage beings at the entrance.

“Controlled corpses. They want to eat us.”

“Oh. And what’s this… this… stone?” She pointed at the pebble who had full 'hands' with saving their assess.

“Stone.” Lucifer flatly replied.

“Yea, but what is it?” Jarka's eyebrows drew together.

“Stone… with big S. Do you remember anything at all? Like where we are? The layout of the Abyss?”

“No… But ya can ask those dwarfs!” She pointed behind him.

Lucifer froze. He slowly turned 180° and saw a heavily armoured, crossbow equipped dwarven scout emerging from the only other exit in the cavern.

“They're here!” The scout shouted at his group closely behind him.

“Oh… For fucks' sake… It really never ends. Never!” Lucifer cursed. If he would not be so exhausted, he would even ask how they found them. He guessed it was the mana-leaking... Idiot. 

Lucifer's <SuperFlux> was at all times low, a mere 20 points, leaving him on the verge of collapse. Stone had to block the blue-skins, Jarka seemed to have lost all of her memories… which was his own fault. Maybe he should not have hit her with such a strong missile. Or maybe he should take greater care of her when rushing through the narrow shafts. Meh…

The six dwarfs surrounded them, equipped with axes, shields and crossbows, from which one looked like a smaller sister of the ballista. Lucifer eyes wandered at it, asking himself if they were planning to siege a freakin’ castle?

“Eriv? Dori?” The captain stepped to them but jumped back, grimacing as he felt the Monster inside, respectively the <SuperFlux>.

The dwarven party aimed at the three of them.

Lucifer examined the dwarf before him and a name immediately surfaced in his memory; Baelgin! The 4th-rank runemaster and a friend of 5th-rank runemaster Therdreag, father of his two unfortunate hosts. He knew them well, which was a great problem. His brains worked overdrive, attempting to find a way out.

“Luci?” Stone weakly asked through their link. Stone had to constantly focus on renewing the wall to stop the blue-skins. It was extremely taxing. He never felt so much tiredness before. He tried to conjure a <Mana Missile> but could not. 

“Don’t even try… and focus on the wall. And for gods’ sake, don’t say a thing aloud!“ Lucifer sent the reply, his focus solely on the dwarfs.

“Luci! I won’t be able to hold it for too long!” Stone cried out, the speed of mana wall's rapid destruction increased yet again. Only thanks to Stone's fast regeneration, he was able to hold his own.

“Hello, master Baelgin.” Lucifer decided to talk first, hoping he would not be shot by the nervous dwarfs.

“Who are you?” The runemaster frowned, full of alertness. The <SuperFlux> he was sensing was unmistakable. With one eyes he observed the blue-skins, and searching for the source of the mana wall.

“Well… that is a long story, and I will explain it shortly after we dispose of the Myceliar's drones.”

“Who. Are. You?” He hissed his question again and pulled out a vial with crystal-clear liquid inside.

Lucifer knew what it was the moment he took it out. A fucking Holy Water Potion from Dornus’ clergy! The bane of low-grade Undead, Ethereals and a potent <Flux> suppressor. He slowly looked around at the deeply frowning, angry dwarfs. All of them had the same vials at their waists. At least two of them. That could only mean one thing; the Undead were getting rowdy. His head began to hurt again; What the fuck was happening here?

Stone sensed Lucifer’s distress and dropped the wall to conjure a <Mana Missile> to protect him.

“You idiot!” Lucifer screamed as the horde surged inside. His <SuperFlux> was still low, even though his <Refined Mana Drain> was working overdrive. Stone’s refinement was not so fast anymore.

The dwarfs forgot their previous targets and began to cleave through the blueskins who were plunging at them without care for their own lives.

‘TREEEENG!’

A brown-glowing more of a spear than bolt flew out of the small ballista and pierced through the crowd. It continued unhindered until it hit the wall above the entrance, collapsing it. 

Lucifer facepalmed. That did not occur to him.

If Stone would have eyes, his pupils would enlarge. Stone-Breakers!

“Stone! Don’t!” Lucifer screamed through their link.

“But! Stone-Breaker! He broke a stone! Look at it!” Stone highlighted the rubble.

“Don’t! Or they will break you!”

“But…!”

“Just don’t! Please, Stone! Just this once! For me!”

“For you, Luci.” Stone agreed, disgruntled. He marked the dwarf in his mind. He would never forget him. The dwarf would die. And that was a promise.

The ballista dwarf felt a powerful murderous intent aimed at him and became full of alert. The poor dwarf did not know from where it came, but raised the ballista again, after he quickly reloaded it.

“What are you doing, idiot! It’s forbidden to collapse a fuckin’ shaft!” Baelgin shouted after the rest of the blueskins were easily disposed of. The whole time, he observed the battle without interfering, guarding the Lucifer and the rest.

“Luci? Isn’t this bad?” Stone asked.

“Yes. A lot.”

“What are we going to do?”

“How is your refined mana?”

“Ten points. And it should refine faster...”

“That is because of me… Fuck it back and forth!”

“So, who are you?” Baelgin turned back to them after he was done berating the poor, disgruntled dwarf who just saved them all.

Before Lucifer could explain, a grey-haired, clearly experienced warrior stood before Baelgin. “Sir!” 

“Don’t you see I am interrogating prisoners?” Baelgin’s eye twitched.

“Sir, we shoulda leave! Now! The Myceliar controllin’ the horde won’t be far and they’ll clear the way soon!”

“Fine! Bag them up!” Baelgin ordered. He hated the Abyss and never truly explored the place. He never wanted to be here. And now he had a mess to deal with. What to say to Therdreag?

Jarka was extremely confused and did not say anything the whole time. However as they neared her with a rope, she began to struggle, hitting two of the dwarfs in the noses before Baelgin himself pacified her with well-aimed rock. No, no skill. Just good olde smacking. 

“Luci?”

“Don’t do anything! Please, be a nice pebble this time and regenerate mana first!” 

“I just wanted to ask if they have my storybook!”

“For gods’ sake!” Lucifer rolled his eyes.

“Sir! We founda the source of Blight!” One of the dwarfs pointed at Stone.

“Leave it to me,” Baelgin conjured a runic word above his wrist and touched the ground. 

“No! Stop!” Lucifer yelled, knowing it would not stop the runemaster. It was for his own consciousness than for anything else.

The rock around cracked and the gravel began to slowly cover Baelgin’s arm to the shoulder with the rune hovering above his wrist.

“Oh… fuck…” Lucifer whispered in anticipation of the near future. “Stone! Don’t!” 

Stone observed the destruction with horror. 

“Stone-Breaker! Stop at once!” Stone shouted, angered.

Everyone was completely consternated. The baritone voice came from the boulder. Which as they looked at it, appeared as the Dornus-damned largest mana crystal they ever saw. 

Then, they felt the small surge of refined mana and bewildered watched as the <Mana Missile> spell materialized a metre above the pebble.

Stone shot the 11-RM <Mana Missile> at the incredulous captain. Baelgin was no experienced warrior. He was just a mediocre, pampered runemaster.

Baelgin was completely rooted on spot and could only watch as the blue ball of death skimmed through the air nearer and nearer.

His arm was paralyzed as the skill was still activating, which also meant he could not cast another spell, nor trigger one of his protective charms.

However, before the missile could land on him, his soldier jumped in the way of the flying missile. It hit him squarely at the chest, punching a gaping hole through him. Where once was a heart, was now a hole.

Baelgin watched as the dwarf collapsed on the ground, dead as a tree in a desert.

<You have killed a 2nd-tier dwarf>
<5.0% experience is split according to talents Subordinate and Parasite>
<Stone gained 4.5% experience>
<Lucifer gained 0.5% experience>

<Spell: Mana Missile levelled up>

Everyone froze.

Their confusion was soon replaced by an anger, for retribution for their comrade.

Lucifer inwardly groaned.

The dwarfs picked their weapons and rushed to Stone.

Stone cast one <Mana Missile> after another, but the dwarfs either evaded or just hid behind their thick shields.

The Baby Elemental was still conveniently sleeping and no matter what Stone did would wake him up.

Two bolts hit Stone’s shield, almost piercing it. He charged it with more mana again, stretching his amazing mana regeneration to the maximum.

“Bolts!” Baelgin ordered as he saw that the dwarfs were not able to near the boulder. 

The dwarfs charged their bolts with skills. Even a few vials landed on him, however, nothing happened.

Stone had to fully concentrate on the flickering <Mana Shield>.

“Luci! Help!” Stone anxiously called for help. He did not like this situation at all. He realized something; he feared death. He did not want to die. 

<Spell: Mana Shield levelled up>

Lucifer formed a hasty plan and prayed that it would work.

He gathered as much <SuperFlux> as he could sacrifice without harming himself and conjured a <Flux Expulsion> spell.

The purplish sphere slowly expanded from him. It stopped around a mere metre from him, but he gritted both of his jaws and pushed. It was like taking a dump after drinking Ouzo and eating a goat for a whole week.

The sphere was getting thinner every centimetre he pushed, but soon, it covered all of the dwarfs.

Lucifer smiled. The hallucinogenic properties of every offensive spell functioned as intended.

The dwarfs began to act erratically and fight each other, except the 4th-rank runemaster.

“What are you doing, idiots?!” Baelgin yelled. He only saw the possessed dwarf cast a flux version of spell <Mana Expulsion>. First, he had scoffed at it. It was too weak. But now…

Lucifer was almost out of <SuperFlux> again and he felt like passing out.

Stone used <Weak Manakinesis> and <Mana Carving> to get them out of the bags.

“Her too,” Lucifer pointed at her.

“Why?”

“I will explain later! Now hurry up, before the runemaster is free!”

“Okay, okay!” Stone agreed and freed her.

Lucifer picked her up with ex-Dori’s body, but the runemaster’s skill finally ended. His arm was completely covered in dirt and metal.

“And where do you think you are going?!” He menacingly asked.

“Shit,” Lucifer swore.

Stone conjured a normal <Mana Missile> but the raging runemaster caught it with his armoured arm and clenched his fist, turning the spell into motes of translucent mana.

Baelgin grabbed a one-handed mace with the enchanted arm and lunged towards them, breaking Stone’s walls of mana like a bull. 

Stone realized how weak he was. Until now, he ambushed and surprised only weaklings and avoided the strong ones. 

But now, no matter what he did, he could not stop the dwarf rapidly closing on them.

Lucifer made a very desperate decision.

He used ex-Eriv’s body and tackled the runemaster to the ground. He grabbed Stone in one hand, Jarka in another and ran as fast as he could.

“Keep the shield up! They had to track us by your leaking mana!” Lucifer sent a message as he blindly ran through the system of shaft and caverns, up and down. He halted around 50 metres away, feeling his connection to the other body rapidly weaken.

He stumbled and collapsed on the ground. He spasmed as his whole being was torn apart. Eriv’s body was destroyed and with it, half of his <SuperFlux> was gone. Permanently.

He began to mumble some strange words in a language far different than Stone ever heard. It was gruff, brutal… Even Stone inwardly shuddered when he heard the words.

<Changes in Subordinate talent! Changes in Stone {wielder} talent! Changes in Lucifer {wielder} talent!>

“Luci?” Stone asked his delirious servant slash friend slash teacher, while completely ignoring the Universum. Maybe he shouldn’t… 

“Sia? Is that you?” Lucifer asked after he stopped spasming, seeing a beautiful woman with green eyes and wearing a green dress.

“No. I am Stone!” Stone would frown if he could. 

“Oh… hi, Tia…” Lucifer grimaced at the beautiful woman dressed in a red open-back evening gown, her features dainty but for her piercing red eyes.

“Stone! I. Am. Stone! Remember that! Who are Sia and Tia?” Stone asked, confused.

“Lucifer! Jarka! There you are!” A known voice echoed before them.

“Meatbag! You brought experience bags too! You are a good minion!” Stone welcomed Dafur who was accompanied by a unit of goblins.

“Platypus! RUUUUN!” Lucifer yelled and began to struggle under Jarka’s body.

“What platypus?!” Dafur cowered. He did not know what platypus was but the urgency in Lucifer’s voice spooked him.

With the cleared view behind ‘the platypus’, Stone prepared to massacre the goblins.

His <Meditation> technique already increased his casting speed by a whopping 450%. And as he was not in battle… 

The barrage of Stone’s spells ploughed through the unprepared greenskins like a hot knife through butter. It even pushed him to another level.

<You have killed a 2nd-tier goblin 13 times>
<39.00% experience is split according to talents Subordinate and Parasite>
<Stone gained 35.1% experience>
<Lucifer gained 3.9% experience>

<You have levelled up!>

Stone felt the great feeling again, but now… it was somehow dulled. After the mass-level ups, this was too weak.

The faint light receded, and Stone was once again returned to the realm of mortals.

“Stone? Why did ya kill those goblins?”

“Experience.”

“But they’re here to protect mea.”

“Experience.”

“But…”

“Deal with it,” Stone ended the conversation.

“Fine… Shaman-Ganra sent me to find Jarka. What happened?”

“Dwarfs. They attacked us.”

“Out of nowhere?”

“Yes.”

“That’s strange. What they’re doin’ here?” He mumbled.

“Oh. One survived.”

“What?! How?!” Dafur was seriously interested. He had never seen a survivor of this little murderous… stone’s rampage… Just how strong the survivor had to be?

“Lucifer said something about fourth rank runemaster. He was a Stone-Breaker. I tried to punish him, but…” Stone let the sentence slip to nothingness. He would punish the Stone-Breaker later.

“Is the platypus gone?” The said Devilish Sorcerer peeked around.

“I… Where is he?”

“Here.”

“What?!” Dafur jumped up, frantically turning around, looking for the runemaster. After he saw there was nobody except them, he composed himself. “Ehm…” He cleared his throat, embarrassed. “What did ya mean by here?”

“In the next shaft,” Stone answered. He would grit his teeth if he would have them. 

“In that case, let’s go. Jarka? Why’re ya so silent?”

“Oh. She is unconscious.”

“Platypuses! Everywhere! Run!” Lucifer unsteadily stood up but fell almost immediately if not for Dafur who caught him.

“Dornus ass! What happened to ya?”

“Platypuses! And Tia! You bitch!” Lucifer yelled.

“What are platypuses?” Stone asked.

“How should I know… What happened to Jarka?”

“Hmm… That the Stone-Breaker,” he uttered that world with all the hate there was, “smacked her in the head when she struggled.”

“Fuck! They wanna prisoners… Shaman-Ganra was right! Mae people really wanna war. But why? Why now? The crystal mine is naet that big!”

“The Stone-Breaker is coming near.” Stone informed him.

“Platypuses!”

“Luci! What is wrong with you?” Stone worryingly asked.

“Tia! I should have known…” He grunted as he hatefully stared in the empty air, ignoring Stone. 

Dafur grabbed now-single-bodied Lucifer and Jarka and put them over his shoulders.

“Don’t ya have anything that woulda help mea?” 

“No. Now go, meatbag!” Stone ordered and himself conjured the 5 ants’ souls, still refusing to even touch the levitation.

<Spell: Ants’ Souls levelled up!>

Stone noticed that the messages changed again. “Uni?”

<...>

“Uniiiiii! You there?”

<...>

“Universum! Uni! Hey!”

<...>

“I won’t stop until you answer me!” Stone learned this from Lucifer. When someone ignores you or refuses to listen, just annoy him long enough.

<What?> The Universum growled, clearly annoyed.

“Why are my messages different again?”

<Because I wanted to! And don’t bother me! I have important things to do!>

“Oh… Okay!” Stone accepted it easily. It did not matter to him. “Dafur?” He turned his attention back to reality. 

“Yea?” The dwarf huffed and puffed.

“The Stone-Breaker disappeared from my sphere. Is it good?”

“How big is your sphere?”

“67 metres.”

“In that case… No!” Dafur picked up pace however the two on his shoulders were too heavy. “Why did ya have to kill those goblins?!”

“Experience,” Stone's single-word answer made the dwarf desperate. Was this really the… the… entity he had to put his future in its hands?

“Haaah…” Dafur felt the frustration Lucifer was feeling every day for the first time.

“We outran platypuses! Yaaaay!” Lucifer greatly enjoyed his ride. 

Something bugged Stone. Something about Dafur had changed. He was too… happy.

“Luci?”

“WHO SAID THAT?! Sia?”

“Luci! Wake up!”

“Aaaaah! I am possesseeeeed!” Lucifer yelled. The irony of that sentence completely eluded him.

“Loud! Luci!”

“It speaks in my head! Platypuses! Uaaaaa!” Lucifer struggled against Dafur and the beardless dwarf was forced to drop him with Jarka who groaned but did not wake up.

“Come ooon! Platypus!” Lucifer jumped up directly into a boxing stance.

“What’s yar deal with those platypuses?” Dafur asked as he evaded the thrown punch and hit him directly in the jaw.

Lucifer collapsed and Dafur picked him up again with a sigh.

Stone was in an unprecedented situation. His guts telling him something was wrong. So, he dropped the shield and even used refined mana to leave a trail. The Stone-Breaker would surely find them. 

He would not abandon Luci. He could. But he wouldn’t. Never.

They ran through a few caverns to an entrenched large cave with an entrance guarded by several 2nd-tier goblins.

“Kulbu!” A 2nd-tier goblin raised his arm, but Dafur pulled up the token and they were let inside.

When they saw the boulder on the ants’ souls’ backs, their eyes bulged out.

“Krukula! Krukula!” They surrounded them and pointed spears at Stone. 

Stone abandoned any kind of stealth and conjured a bluish <Mana Missile> above him.

But before he could do anything else, a large rune appeared out of nowhere and covered them in a bloody mist. The <Mana Missile> collapsed and Stone could not properly cast another spell, which confused him.

He wished to ask Lucifer, but he was completely out.

“Ah, ya’re here! Finally! Where’re the goblins?” Shaman-Ganra 

“Master!” Dafur happily exclaimed and unceremoniously dropped Lucifer on the ground, while Jarka was carefully handed to two goblins with stretchers. “They’re dead, master. This pebble did it. It’s as I told ya! See!” He picked up Stone and enthusiastically shoved him into the shaman’s face.

The shaman squinted his eyes. He saw the leaking mana and from before, the basic <Mana Missile> spell but from refined mana. It intrigued him.

Stone did not move even an inch and waited for an opportunity. He was good at that. The Stone-Breaker was angry. Surely, he was still following him.

The shaman pulled a silky glove embroidered with runes. He wore it and transferred a bit of mana to the rune. The rune faintly glowed and a <Mana Shield> covered his hand. He did not want to be blighted and could not activate another skill rune as the area was still thick with the bloody mist.

The shaman then grabbed Stone and carefully examined him, turning him up and down. He even chipped him a bit and put the shard into a vial.

Stone’s lifeforce decreased by a whopping 55 points. He was glad he could not feel pain.

Dafur told Shaman-Ganra it did not like loud sounds. So he shouted, “who’re ya?!” 

Stone did not answer, but instead intensely focused on him with his sphere.

He was loud. Too close and too loud. 

It took everything in Stone for him not to complain. 

But he made it! He did not say it!

After a while, Shaman-Ganra asked with a questioning stare, “are ya sure, slave?”

“Yea, master! He was speakin’! And ya saw the spell too!” Dafur answered, not even being angry to be called ‘slave’. One of the worst insults for the Dwarven race.

Before the shaman could reply, a bolt hit a goblin standing next to him. 

The poor greenskin incredulously glanced down at the shaft lodged in his chest. He collapsed and all hell broke loose.

The goblin screeched as they threw spears at the ambushers, while the dwarfs were shooting bolts back safely behind the <Runic Shielding>.

“Platypuses!” Lucifer woke up and proclaimed, still out of his mind. 

Stone realized Lucifer was not pilfering his refined mana like usual.

“Luci! Refined mana! Take it!” He yelled in his mind, but the Devilish Sorcerer kneeled with his head between knees and palms over his ears loudly humming and occasionally yelling something about revenge against platypuses.

The shaman handed Stone to a goblin ‘assistant’ and focused on the mist. The <Runic Shielding> sphere battled with it for every centimetre and was even slowly winning over.

“Master?” Dafur saw his dwarven master. His eyes cleared for a bit and the surging memories gave him an opportunity to fight whatever the shaman did to him.

“Dafur?!” Baelgin exclaimed, his focus slightly wavered and the bloody mist reclaimed half of what it lost. He turned his attention back to the mist that attacked with renewed efforts.

The bloody mist shifted and the suppression was lifted. 

Meanwhile, Stone felt he could cast again. 

So he used the chaos and easily killed the goblin who was holding him. After another two normal <Mana Missile(s)> and two dead goblins, from which he did not acquire any experience to his displeasure, he conjured a full-powered 27-RM <Mana Missile> and shot it at the shaman.

The shaman was sharp and made an attempt to dodge. Instead, the missile hit him in the shoulder, the explosion deeply lacerated it, even almost blowing it off. Shaman-Garza’s bloody mist thinned as he screeched in pain and rage and stumbled.

The shaman activated a rune tattooed on his body. A film of refined mana spread around his body and the mist thinned even more.

However, it was enough for Stone to realize he did not stand a chance.

The runemaster, using this opportunity, expanded his sphere, gaining metres.

The shaman did not have another option than to turn his attention back to the ambushers and let Stone to run away.

The small camp held around 50 goblins from which already half were dead. However, they were good cannon fodder and gave Stone an opportunity to tactically retreat.

He would never admit he was just running away like a beaten dog. Nor that he was tense from the two 4th-ranks. As a Mana Crystal, he could feel their mana. How it coiled. How it expanded and retreated. It was much, much more powerful than what he ever felt before.

Also, it took him most of his will and focus to not go berserk from the permeating refined mana. Fortunately, it was too thin. He would have to thank Lucifer for teaching him how to resist it.

“Dafur!” Stone yelled and the blighted dwarf looked at him, disoriented and muddled.

“Stone? What happened? Where’re we?”

“Grab Luci and Jarka and let’s run!” Stone knew he did not have a chance. The goblin, even though winded from his ambush, would not be an easy opponent. And mostly he needed him to slow the Stone-Break down.

Dafur nodded and did so. He trusted Stone. After all, the odd rock saved his life.

Stone disposed of a few stragglers from his moving soul throne and they ran and ran. 

Stone wanted to give Lucifer some refined mana through their link, but could not. Well, it entered the body, however, it began to wreak havoc inside. The rotting even accelerated at some unspeakable places. Meh… he would just say it was the bloody mist. Otherwise, he would be loud again.

During another ‘tactical retreat’ Stone contemplated his life up to this point... It was the first time for him. And he did not like it.