“Captain Baelgin! Shielding!” 

Captain Rolly shouted as the goblin ambushers emerged from the freshly dug hole in the wall and swarmed into a small cavern that served as one of the main supply-lines for the main battlefield.

Baelgin hastily conjured the <Runic Shielding>, the bluish sphere with runes floating around it grew from his hand and covered their two groups.

The goblin ambushers were prepared and threw acidic and explosive potions at the sphere, slowly, but surely weakening it.

“Soldiers! Line!” 

The dwarven guardians formed a line right behind the flickering sphere, waiting for it to collapse. They put shields before them and prepared their crossbows.

The last potion landed with a loud bang and the <Runic Shielding> broke like glass, forcing Baelgin to his knees. He checked his status and cursed; his mana was running dangerously low. The <Runic Shielding> skill had taken a tad larger bit out of him than he had expected.

The first volley of bolts flew out, penetrating the greenskins with precision.

The goblins screeched and in their pain and battle-lust fueled frenzy, they charged towards the dwarf line. Some of the goblins activated their own skills, colours enveloping them or their weapons.

The dwarfs managed to fire the last volley, slaying another ten or so goblins and then they clashed.

This was not a fight… A massacre would have better described the scene.

Dwarfs were just better equipped. The goblin ambushers, even though there were many of them, were considerably weaker. 

Some of the experienced dwarfs laughed in joy as the free experience appeared right before them, like lambs to a slaughter. Their maces and axes glistened with different colours of skills as they cleaved goblins in half or broke their bones.

However, a shadow suddenly ran through them and a few weaker dwarfs fell, dead before they reached the ground, with broken or slashed necks. The shadow halted for a moment behind the goblin forces and changed its trajectory.

“Third tier assassin! Baelgin!”

Baelgin kneeled, placing his hand to the ground. A sandy rune formed on the floor but an explosion in the dwarven line disrupted him.

“Fuck!” Baelgin swore as his rune disappeared, the invested refined mana seeping away from his grasp. 

The 3rd-tier assassin had to stealthily drop some explosives when he ran through them.

Captain Rolly joined the fray when he saw that the decisive victory he had predicted was at stake.

He glanced at the perspiring Baelgin with a contemplative expression. He grinned and activated a skill alongside his technique.

Bloody mist surfaced from behind his plate armour and converged on his enormous mace.

The power of the 4th-rank warrior was nothing to scoff at. Even though their curve of power was lower than Runemasters’ or Wizards’, they were all able to unleash incredible destruction, especially in crowd warfare.

He hit the ground before him with an echoing bang. The mace’s head easily shattered the rocky floor and the bloody mist entered the cracks.

Everyone became still as the ground shook.

Stony pillars entwined by the thinning mist emerged from the below and ran through the goblin’s and dwarfs alike, tearing them apart. It wreaked havoc on the battlefield filled with screams.

Even though the assassin struggled to avoid the pillars, he still wasn't hurt a bit.

Baelgin watched the unfolding spectacle with a deep frown. He had already seen that mist. Or something extremely similar to this when he battled the druegar shaman.

He glanced at his fellow captain who noticed and shook his head; ‘No here, not now.’

Baelgin slowly nodded. He knew that something had been happening. He suppressed his thoughts about this and focused on the 3rd-rank assassin.

“Rolly! Did you tag them?” Baelgin asked.

“Nae! Feel free!” The captain answered while carelessly leaning on his mace, observing the unfolding slaughter.

Baelgin nodded and picked up his crossbow. A small, magmatic rune converged on the bolt’s tip.

The bolt leisurely flew past the struggling soldiers and landed right next to the struggling assassin with a loud bang. The goblin was thrown towards one of the rocky pillars, a few of his bones audibly cracked. Tendrils of the bloody mist enveloped him and firmly bound him to the pillar.

The battle ended soon after. The goblins were completely routed, suffering most of the casualties from the blood mist.

It was only now that Baelgin noticed most of the killed dwarfs were from his own unit. He tensed, glaring at captain Rolly.

On the other hand, Rolly, who was still casually leaning on his mace, just amusedly observed as Baelgin readied himself for battle.

“Really, Baelgin? Wanna battle mea?” Rolly laughed. A few of his nearby soldiers raised crossbows and aimed at the runemaster.

Baelgin slowly dispersed his rune and raised his hands, deeply frowning.

“Naet gonna ask what’s happenin’?” Rolly raised his thick eyebrows.

“No. I can already guess. Army of the Abyss and Harkon Boomhammer are walking into a trap. And you want to dispose of me because I’m close to Therdreag.” He glowered while he carefully activated his lifeline rune. Something he had prepared just for exactly this type of situation, some may have called him hasty but in this moment he knew it had been the correct choice to get it tattooed onto himself. He even had to ask Therdreag for help. The greedy dwarf took advantage of him and he had to release quite a hefty sum of mana crystals.

A large runic tattoo on his back shifted and ambient mana began to slowly converge behind his back into slowly strengthening tendrils.

“Ah, ya’re naet stupid. Ganra said ya’re an idiot…” He ruffled his messy beard. A thick blood mist coiled around him as he slowly moved towards Baelgin.

After his unit killed all of the goblins, except the assassin, they stood behind their captain in a crescent-moon formation, their sharp gazes watching every Baelgin’s movement.

“Stupid? Therdreag trusted him enough to release him unharmed, even going as far as healing him,” Baelgin grinned, knowing this information would halt Rolly. He wasn’t wrong. The captain halted in movement, deeply frowning.

He just needed a little bit of time… “Come oooon!” he silently pleaded for the rune to charge. 

The warrior captain frowned as he halted his slow advance. Baelgin could see as gears spun in his head.

The tendrils of mana behind Baelgin suddenly became visible. The ethereal rune painfully peeled off his back and forced its way through his armour.

A few bolts flew from the dwarven crossbows but were stopped by the sudden appearance of a small, but concentrated <Runic Shielding> between them.

Baelgin swiftly activated the enchantments on his armour and braced himself for an impact.

“Soldiers! Retreat!” Rolly commanded, not wasting any more time. He hit the ground again, cracking it even further, but a few pillars emerged between them and Baelgin.

“This is gonna hurt,” was his last thought before the explosion sent him to oblivion.

‘Kaboom!’

☁☁☁☁☁☁

Meanwhile, below Baelgin and Rolly, in a vast cavern, hundreds of goblin and dwarven soldiers were preparing themselves for the first large battle in the war.

Bolts, spears and javelins were already flying from both sides, chipping the ramparts. 

The Quite-bored Harkon Boomhammer, fully armoured in a silvery mithril armour and equipped with his signature enchanted sword and repeating crossbow, stood on a small platform, staring at the large, green-skinned 5th-tier Ogre, the Great Leader of Grand Goblin Army on the other side of the cavern, who smirked back with both heads. The Ogre was clad in dark plate-mail armour and armed with a menacing black hammer one side was carved into a skull, the other side tapered to a spike.

Harkon was sent there by the Assembly’s direct orders. The reason was that if this battle would get out of hand, even Arn-Dul would be affected. He scowled at this reasoning.

The Assembly would have to explain a lot to the citizens of Arn-Dul after he got out of here; this was a trap, specially prepared for him and the local Army of the Abyss. He knew it. Therdreag knew it. His advisors knew it. Even the Dornus' damn captains knew it. Only the poor Baelgin was still oblivious.

Still, orders were orders, and he would not disobey direct orders, but after finishing up with this farce of a ‘war’, he would get out of here and show the greedy bastards what happens to those who sold his corpse to the Undeads… 

Therdreag and Tafur accompanied him, even helping with the enchantments. Tafur was not allowed into the battlefield, but Therdreag let him climb to ramparts and send a few runes at the goblins.

The happy apprentice even levelled up from it as his <Acid Blast> hit the 3rd-tiered goblin right in the head, melting him on spot, reducing the corpse to a puddle of organic sludge and metal.

He grinned. The Assembly still did not know he was in the 6th-rank of his <Master of Arms> class. 

Turning to the Undead did not bother; his soul was protected by Paragon Dornus. He unwillingly touched the symbol of Paragons hanging on his neck. 

Harkon caught a javelin thrown by some eager goblin with ease. Poison dripped from the tip on the ground and menacingly hissed. He threw it back with incredible power and pinpoint precision, exploding the goblin in gore.

“Sire!” His advisor said next to him, “we’re almost ready. Only captain Baelgin and captain Rolly’re missin’,” he reported.

General Harkon frowned. Baelgin was an integral part of defences. Runemasters were rare, especially in the Army of the Abyss. Luckily, the other three runemasters had already strengthened the walls on their side.

“Send a unit of scouts to search for them. What abo’t goblins?”

“They’re done with reinforcin’ the walls too!”

Harkon nodded. He clapped with enough force to cause all the dwarves to look at him.

“Soldiers!” He roared from his platform. He was not one to give speeches.

That was enough for his army to know.

Steely plates created angled platforms behind the small, enchanted wall.

“Chaaaarge!” Harkon pointed his drawn sword at the goblin’s side.

The volleys of spells mixed with enchanted bolts flew from both sides, but harmlessly broke upon the defensive spells that flickered and disappeared into nothingness.

The armies clashed, the second- and third- pathed soldiers charged their skills and spells while the fourth-pathed leaders stood behind, using their miniscule scraps of refined mana to snipe the especially powerful cannon fodders.

The ground shook, but the powerful enchantments and runes held it together.

The Ogre and Harkon with their elite guards observed it both with bored expressions. For them, this was just a beginning, a little taste before the main battle.

They let the younglings gather experience, and let the weak ones die.

The battle continued for an hour, both armies at an impasse. Goblins were many, while Dwarfs were better equipped and their classes provided better skills.

The general shot a challenging look at the Ogre, who nodded with both his heads.

Harkon Boomhammer grinned under the silvery helmet, gripped his crossbow and sword and kicked off the floor, leaving a dent in it, as if it theplatform was not crafted from an enchanted steel.

He overcame hundreds of metres in a mere three seconds.

The Ogre did the same, just a tad slower.

They clashed in the middle of the battlefield, creating a pressure wave from the sheer power of their ‘love tap’.

The battling goblins and dwarfs near the point of impact, were thrown away, some of them even with broken bones.

The ground shook even harder and some of the wall and ceiling enchantments shattered under the pressure.

Harkon nor the Ogre went for killing blows. Their fight was more of an exhibition and a spar than a life and death battle.

Harkon kept his true strength hidden, not releasing even a bit of his <Aspect>.

They clashed with strikes powerful enough to raze buildings, using only a minimum of their power.

However, even now, Harkon was able to hit the Ogre’s armour, tearing it as if it was a mere paper. The Ogre angrily roared. A deeply bloody mist surged from his bulky forearm and converged on his mace.

Harkon frowned and his sword glowed with a silvery light.

They clashed again, but this time the pressure wave was strong enough to smash every single enchantment near them and disrupt the ceiling’s integrity.

The weakened ceiling cracked, too fast even for the 5th-tier elites to react. 

☁☁☁☁☁☁

At the same time, in the cavern between the battlefield and Baelgin, Lucifer's eyes popped out of his skull as he observed the spreading fissures from above and below them. The stone rapidly fractured, cracks running in the middle through the ceiling, walls and ground. 

Fortunately, he didn’t use his eyes much as he was still able to use his perception sphere for some reason. Probably, something to do with his broken Path.

“Stone! You idiot! You did it again!” He yelled, frustration released from his barely functioning heart.

The falling rocks shattered on the ground, missing the group by a thin hair. The melted statues cracked even further. The floor was shaking as if the god of elements, Elementum was dancing with his wives.

Stone was completely livid and ignored Lucifer colourful swearing. He had never seen such a large-scale example of stone desecration… Stone felt rage, it was the Stone-Breaker, Stone just knew it. “Fireyyyyyy! You bastaaaaaard!” He yelled, his deep voice drowned by the collapsing cavern. 

The elemental grinned inside Stone’s body and went back to sleep. He was extremely tired as the Prime Material Plane’s will had been constantly pushing him back to his home, the Fire Elemental Plane, lately.

“Luciiii! He… Look! He broke… He broke so many stooooone!” Stone wept like a little child.

Lucifer frustratedly groaned. He grabbed the enraged Stone, who despaired and cursed Gorash to seven generations, who on the other hand couldn't care less. His resistance to the curses was high enough.

Jarka was woken up by the shaking ground and instinctively grabbed Dafur. As a druegar from the Abyss, she was used to the ground shifts and collapses. For her, it was instinct and frankly, she couldn't care less.

Lucifer kissed the ground after his right foot lodged into a crevice created by the collapsing floor, his body fell with a soft thud. 

Jarka and the squirming Dafur were right behind them, so was the large crack that looked like a snake hunting them.

“I. Refuse. To. Fall. Again!” Lucifer hastily scrambled up, jumping on one leg away from the still-spreading fissure.

Jarka supported him with her shoulder.

They limped forward, attempting to run away from the collapsing cavern.

Then the time slowed down. 

A silvery bolt emerged from the floor. It near-missed Stone and Lucifer’s nose, and continued its path up barely impeded by the rocky earth.

Lucifer’s pupils would enlarge, but… well… He no longer had them… 

The ground below them exploded a single moment after.

“Not again! Not again!” Lucifer repeated the mantra, in his mind resurfaced the memory of the Shul-Gahat’s stomach, as they were thrown up.

Jarka conjured the bloody mist to protect herself and the rest.

And Stone? The boulder did not care. He was way too enraged at the yet-again-snoring elemental to notice he was falling.

He had enough of Gorash! So, he began to think of how to get rid of him. He dubbed him as a Stone-Breaker and in his inner world that meant a death sentence. 

There was a slight problem however; he did not know how to dispose of him. When he wanted to ask Lucifer, the Devilish Sorcerer repeated “Not again!” constantly, while swearing things that no person would write down, for the curses would incinerate the paper. Stone tried to gain his attention a few times but no sensible answer ever came back.

<Lucifer had been cursing you for some time… I even feel sorry for the guy… Naaah! I don’t!> 

Then he remembered; the elemental was hurt when he pushed the refined mana into his spell through him.

He mentally grinned.

So, he began to pump all of his mana and refined mana into the suddenly-awakened fire elemental.

“That hurts!” Gorash yelled. “Why ?! Stop it! Please!” Gorash was flickering as Stone was pushing all of his refined mana into him.

“You know I hate Stone-Breakers, right? Answer!” 

“Auchiee! Yes! But it was not meeeee!”Gorash regretted a few things now; the insanity  of Stone was too deep. He had made a grave mistake. He never should have gone into him and formed the contract. 

The mana began to really hurt him as it coursed through his sparkly body, forcing him to leave the Stone’s body.

“Mast…!” He tried to say something but was silenced by Stone with a direct order.

Every drop of Stone’s rapid mana regeneration and refinement was used to pump the squirming elemental full.

Gorash felt fear and pain. His body grew, illuminating the falling bodies and rocks.

Meanwhile, Lucifer was weeping like a kid, “I hate you, Stooooneeeee!”

“Yahoo!” 

On the other hand, Jarka was enjoying herself. The bloody mist enveloped them, forming a cushion under them. On her shoulder, Dafur just silently closed his eyes, praying for his master to save him; be it Baelgin or Shaman-Garza.

Speaking of Baelgin…

“Shiiiiiii…” 

‘Thump!’

The 4th-rank runemaster landed in the midst of them on the bloody mist cushion. His eyes shot open. “Hahaaaa! Fuck you, Rolly!” He laughed, ignoring everything else. Half of his armor was melted but otherwise he was fine. Well… if you didn’t count the scratches on the face from when he face-planted the ground,  the deep gash on his back and a missing eye. 

“Stone-Breaker!” Stone recognized the dwarf, but couldn’t do anything as all of his mana had been used up in his punishment of the other evil stone-breaker. Stone sadistically giggled; punishing stone-breakers was fun.

Gorash swelled more and more, silently shrieking as the forceful mana transfer forced him to grow and swell. He was already as big as a baseball. He could finally screech as the command wore off.

“Stooooone! You idioooooot!”  Lucifer roared as they heavily landed right on the top of the rocky hill. 

The battle halted as everyone, including Harkon and the Ogre, observed the bloody mist to clear out with opened mouths, revealing the pulsating baby fire elemental, laughing Jarka, crying Lucifer and mortally pale Dafur.

The Ogre and Harkon glanced at each other. They shrugged, showing they didn’t know what the fuck was happening.

“BAELGIN!” Therdreag shouted from the dwarven ramparts, utterly stumped. 

Baelgin, still half-dazed and in quite a pain as the adrenalin receded, answered, “Therdreag?!”

“DAFUR!” Tafur yelled, standing next to his master, noticing his twin brother. Dafur recognized the voice and found the source, “TAFUR!”

“IDIOT!” Lucifer added at Stone’s address.

“LOUD! Silence!” Stone commanded. Very audibly. Every single eye landed on his body still held by consternated Lucifer, who suddenly decided to be a very devout priest. He didn’t care for what deity… He just hoped that some would reply.

Gorash was in so much pain as the mana and refined mana was already bursting out in fiery tongues, he decided to do something he truly did not want to do. His last trump card. His lifeline. Something he knew he would regret for a very long time.

“Mooooooooom!”

As Gorash yelled, Stone gave him the last push of mana, and sent him towards one of the warring sides, feeling that the elemental reached the critical amount. He did not care which one, as far as Stone was concerned, both sides were just experience packs, waiting to be killed.

Sadly, the goblins cared. A lot. The screeching baby elemental exploded in their midst.

‘TTTRRRIIING!’

The explosion was comparable to a full-powered 5th-rank explosion-type spell.

It was not because of the amount of mana inside of him. That would push it to only 4th-rank.

It was because the moment Gorash exploded, he was able to open a small portal back to his plane in an attempt to flee. The mana stimulated the spell, making it two-way. A small portion of the Law of Fire leaked to the Prime Material Plane,  creating flames fueled by the very laws of the Fire Plane.

The fire from the Fire Elemental Plane seared everything in its path, bypassing the shields and defences as if they were not there. 

The goblins did not even have time to scream as they ceased to exist, the floor beneath them turned to lava.

The reinforcement enchantments almost shattered again, but this time the spell-slingers were prepared and strengthened them.

The powerful pressure wave slowly weakened, and finally stopped before the goblins casters.

Baelgin gathered his bearings and ran away towards the dwarven encampment with haste, seeing the double-headed Ogre, Harkon and the purple fiery deathball next to him. 

Jarka clapped, enjoying the spectacle, while Dafur had lost his consciousness long ago. It was too much for him.

The two-headed Ogre roared and charged towards Stone’s group, but was stopped by a silvery bolt in the thigh.

Harkon shifted and appeared between them. His mind was simple; the enemy of my enemy was my friend.

The battle resumed, this time it was a full powered attack. Remaining Orcs with their large groups emerged from behind their ramparts and clashed with the dwarfs.

This was the last thing that Stone registered.

His ‘vision’ was filled with many thudding tablets and Universum’s mechanical notifications.

<You have killed many, MANY goblins above your level...>
<You have gained 1617.72% experience>

<You have reached maximum level for your tier!>

<I would say that Universum notices… but why even bother… sigh…>

<You have fulfilled all requirements!>
<You are evolving to the Greater Mana Crystal!>

<You have broken Elemental pact with Baby Fire Elemental, Gorash in the most brutal way!>

Stone bathed in golden rays. 

At first, his mind was empty. He did not feel; there was no good feeling nor bad feeling. Only silence. Calmness.

Then a tsunami of pleasure hit him. 

Then again.

And again.

The sheer pleasure sent his mind over to the white space.

His meditation technique automatically activated.

Ooooohmm… He was Stone. He was awesome. He was Mantra. He was Stone! He was! 

“I AM!”

The white space surrounding him shattered as a window hit by a stone the moment he shouted he was.  

Even on the outside, the space itself cracked also. 

Lucifer saw a tendril of dark light to sew the cracks back, stimulating his memory. The dark light was extremely familiar to him. He felt the memory there, in his head. Just reach for it… If he would be in an ideal situation he would do it… however, he was in the middle of what seemed like a battlefield between Goblins and Dwarfs, with 5th-tiers and 5th-ranks as leaders… He sighed, praying again to any god nearby, which in hindsight was quite strange. Why was he always praying when he was in distress?

The Universum still did not respond to him, and he wondered what the fuck was happening… Only thing he knew was that a person can’t get a moment of peace. He wishfully remembered the days of hunting ants; what nice days they were...

Stone regained his reason again.

His talc shell shattered like an egg and unravelled his golden matrix. He rose from Lucifer’s hand into the air. 

Every single being, bar the enraged Ogre and Harkon, were gaping at him, observing the insane evolution of unique beings.

The shell slowly turned to dust and formed a small white tornado with golden rays glowing through, around him and attracting even more dust.

He lacked a certain material; Calcite! However, there was no such mineral in the vicinity to attract. Except...

He instinctively reached with his mind to the dwarven corpses near the hill, relieving them of their bones, using the <Weak Manakinesis> and <Mana Carved> dagger.

The golden glow and the tornado turned them to dust, using calcium and carbon from the air to form calcium carbonate.

The golden matrix grew more complex as his core expanded, becoming more profound.

Azure tendrils of unknown language sprouted from his core of existence, his very being. They merged with the celestian language writings, adding and changing something deep within Stone, making him even more of a conundrum for gaping Lucifer.

The azure-gold matrix shifted again.

Stone could now choose; remain as a mere boulder or mould his body as he wished.

He made a split-second decision.

Lucifer observed the changes, satisfied. It felt like he just finished some quest of his own. His <SuperFlux> had begun to rapidly deplete as his connection with Stone broke. He lacked the strength to even move.

Meanwhile, behind the portal was hovering a sun-like ball of fire with tendrils of fire helping Gorash to reform. 

The moment he could, Gorash began to complain, “moooom! He... he... wanted… sob sob… to kill meeeeee!” Gorash wept next to his mother behind the portal.

“Who?!” The adult elemental boomed.

“Him!” He pointed at Stone, who was still evolving in the midst of the battlefield.

Right before the portal closed, a tendril of fiery curse shot from the Gorash’ mom and merged with Stone’s matrix.

<You have been cursed by Adult Fire Elemental with Curse of the Elemental! Unable to use Natural Elements!>

Stone had two templates to choose from; a goblin, which he knew Luci hated so much, or a dwarf.

He began to mould his new body. He started first with bones. Spine, skull... Two legs, two arms. Don’t forget fingers. AH! He almost forgot the ribs… Joints! Joints everywhere... “Stupid meatbags… Why are they so complicated?” He inwardly groaned.

After they formed, he refused to have fluids as some dirty meatbag, so he just added joints at proper places.

Also, he did not forget a mouth, with a tongue, and teeth and an extremely complex maze of small tunnels inside, so he could speak. He didn’t wish to repeat the painful carving and drilling.  

The azure-golden matrix adapted and permeated his body, forming something like a central nervous system. However, instead of electrical impulses, mana began to circulate from one part to another. The red lifeforce permeated every single molecule of his new body.

The golden glow disappeared with the small tornado. He dropped on the ground with a heavy thump.

<Evolution completed!>
<You became Greater Mana Crystal!>
<Sub-race: Talc changed to Sub-race: Magical Calcite Android!>

There he stood like a one-metre tall, bulky statue. His appearance was of a very well developed, hairless dwarf, with a chiselled body. Michelangelo could go weep in a corner!

First, he moved all of his 16 fingers and toes, four on each limb. He realized it didn’t match the dwarfs, but what the hell… Who needs a pinky anyway… He was hurrying and some stupid mistakes were a given.

Next, he moved his limbs. He made a few turns with them.

So far so good.

He gathered a bit of mana in his mouth, an equivalent of deep inhale.

“I. Am. STONE!” He roared with a surprisingly normal, deep though a bit rocky voice, over the battlefield crowded with stumped dwarfs and goblins.

He nodded; his mouth worked as intended. He was proud of himself. Making a mouth from stone was no easy task.

Next came the most important task. He took the first unsteady step forward. And planted his head right in the ground as he stumped over the rock.

He slowly rose back up and tried again. This time, it went well as he took great precaution. Why did nobody tell him that walking on his own was so stupid? So many things to take care of…

He sat next to Lucifer, completely ignoring the soldiers, spellcasters and runemasters ogling him with great interest.

And opened his tablets.

☁☁☁☁☁☁

Encyclopaedia Stonia

Physical-based classes
Most warriors do not use mana. Instead, they use their own stamina and lifeforce.

The first three ranks are easy to master as it's mostly about honing basic skills, techniques and hardening of the body.

However, to attain the 4th rank, the non-mana-based class has to cultivate the Essence.

The Essence enhances each and every expertise in their own unique way.

To attain the 6th rank, the practitioner has to transform the Essence to the Aspect.