“Topaaa?!”
‘Ughh…?!’
Having his sleep disturbed by the voice, Mrit slowly opened his eyes. Followed by the pain in the head, he got up, grunting in pain as he turned around and found Totopa on the sofa looking at him.
“Ughh… Morning Totopa.”
“Topa?!”
Instead of a regular happy voice of Totopa who called to him every morning, cheering him up, this time, he heard a rather concerned voice. Totopa looked at him in worry as he ran to him and climbed on his shoulders, gesturing towards the dried traces of blood tears on his face.
“I-I… am fine. Just got a little headache, you know.”
Mrit while saying that, went to the table and grabbed the jug of water and gulped it down. He didn’t want to make Totopa worry, so he tried his best to act like nothing happened, even though his head is still hurting like shit.
“AHHH!! That hit the spot!” Without wasting time, he gulped down the jug of water on one go. After drinking down the water, Mrit took a deep breath and then walked near the window and peeked out of it.
“Hmmm, no sign of any new people coming here. Good.” Mrit then opened the curtains and let the rays of sun in, also causing his eyes some pain in the process.
“Augh! The rays do feel sharper today. I guess the weather is nice today too.”
Having enough of the sun throwing his rays at his vulnerable, just woken up eyes, Mrit walked back towards a drawer near the table. Opening the drawer, he found a jar of coffee inside of it along with a stove top coffee maker and a small circular flat stone.
“What is this?”
Mrit picked up the stone and examined it carefully. On the stone, there were strange runes type symbols similar to the one on the teleportation stone back in the forest.
“These are red. Does that mean they are used for heating?”
After examining it, Mrit injected his death aura on the stone and similarly to what happened to the teleportation stone, the aura of death sucked up the mana inside the rune, leaving it colourless. As the aura of death got absorbed inside of, system popped up in front of him.
[You have learned a new skill!]
[Conjure Fire (Unique) (Growth)]
[You can now use fire elemental magic. Level up to unlock more spells.]
“Wow, not bad. Let’s see what this skill can do.”
Mrit then opened the skill window and looked at the description of the skill he has just acquired.
[Conjure Fire (Unique) (Growth)
The owner can now conjure fire, one of the main 5 elements.
MP Cost: 10 Mana points
*Note: This skill is a growth type. In future, there is limitless potential for this skill to evolve. Level up to acquire more spell related to fire element.]
“Hmm, another growth type, huh.”
Looking at the description, though not much impressed, Mrit was still satisfied. At least, now he has two elemental power with him, the power of space and fire. Closing the system, Mrit stood in the room, looked around and took a deep breath.
“Conjure Fire!”
From his right hand, mana materialized and erupted and an ember of fire which then formed into a handful size of fire was there. Surprised, Mrit tried to blow it away.
“Fwoohh!”
Just from a small gush of wind, the fire in his hand died down. Looking at the result, Mrit looked disappointed but there was one who was not.
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“Topa Topa! *Clap, Clap*”
On his shoulder, Totopa clapped and looked happy. From Mrit’s and any outsider’s perspective, it might look like Totopa is trying to cheer Mrit but that wasn’t the case.
“Totopa, why are you so happy? This skill is a disappointment, you know.”
“Toppaaa?!” Totopa, who was on Mrit’s shoulder, was dumbfounded by what Mrit said, shouted loudly. Being near Mrit’s ears, he accidently made him nearly deaf.
“AGHH!! Don’t shout in my ears!” Coming down from his shoulders, Totopa walked towards the door, opened it and went outside while puffing in anger.
“Huh, what was that about?” While he tried to massage his ear canal a little to ease the pain, Mrit again used the Conjure Fire skill and prepared a cup of coffee with its help. After some seconds, the coffee was prepared and Totopa too returned while dragging Rick with him.
“Huh, why did you bring him?”
Behind Rick, Pat also followed while holding Gan’s head and entered the room.
“What’s happening he...ARGHH!!!?”
Gan who was looking as to why the beast suddenly dragged Rick with him found the formerly so called cooking stove lying on the ground.
“P-Pat, pick it up, hurry! HURRY!!”
“W-Wha- Okayy.”
After Gan shouted relentlessly, Pat picked up the powerless stone and showed it to him.
“W-What happened to it? W-Who did this to it?” Gan’s expression turned to total horror as he looked at the stone in front of him. He tried close his eyes and open it again, but no matter what, the colour on the runes never returned. He then looked at Mrit, knowing that he is the culprit who did this.
“Y-You, you are the one who did this, right?” With a freaked out expression, Gan looked at Mrit, wanting to know the answers even though he the answer. And to his question, Mrit bluntly replied.
“Yes, I did that to it.”
Ignoring the speechless Gan, Mrit held the coffee maker and poured the coffee in a glass and sat down on the sofa.
*SLURRPP!!*
“Ahh, that’s a good coffee. Perfectly bitter. Noice. So, Totopa, why did you bring them all here? I was about to go meet them myself.” Mrit said so while taking a good sip of the coffee.
While Mrit was talking to Totopa, Rick, who went near and stood beside Pat took the stone from him and examined it.
“Wait a minute, what happened to its rune? Where is the mana inside of it?” Rick when he saw the stone also had somewhat similar expression like Gan, but it was little less freaky. Knowing the culprit, he looked at Mrit, seemingly also wanting to know what Mrit really did to the stone.
Seeing that even Rick is perplexed, Mrit spoke.
“What are you two getting so perplexed. I just absorbed the mana inside this stone.*SLURRPP!*”
“…”
“…”
Hearing his blatant, emotionless response, the two of them stared at him with confusion in their face. They had many things to ask but can’t as they don’t want to deal with his wrath.
‘This motherfucker!! How the hell this guy can do something so outrageous without even flinching. Psychotic bastard.’
Though Rick refrained from thinking anything bad about Mrit in the situation, Gan couldn’t hold his horses and swore and punched at the imaginary Mrit in his mind. On the sofa, Mrit who got to see everything happening in Gan’s mind grinned a little as he slurped on his coffee. Rick who accidently saw Mrit’s expression shuddered and looked at where he is looking, finding Gan beside him. Knowing that Gan got caught, Rick stayed silent as he doesn’t want to disturb the hornet’s nest.
“So, Rick. You have got the idea what really happened here, right?”
The one Mrit turned to ask was none other than Rick. Seeing that Mrit was looking at him, Rick straightened his back and sat attentively.
“Relax, I am not going to kill you now that you are already dead. You are my subordinate now, so you don’t have to fear me.”
“Y-Yes!”
After Mrit used consoling words does Rick calmed down, albeit a little. Seeing the atmosphere getting lighter, Mrit took the stone from Pat and held it.
“Gan!”
“Y-Yes!!”
Coming out of his delusional dream, Gan panicked and answered Mrit.
“So, what’s the commotion for this stone? Is it of any worth or does this have any secret or something?”
Seeing Gan’s earlier reaction, Mrit got curious. He held the powerless stone in his hands, not knowing its actual value at all like a normal stone on a roadside. Seeing his nonchalant way of questioning, Gan got more irritated and shouted at him.
“You piece of shit!! Do you know how valuable the rune stones are! They are very rare to even get. And you, y-you!!”
*SLURRP!!*
“Stop slurping like THAT!!”
Huffing heavily, Gan looked at Mrit with gaze filled with anger. The fact that even though he is cursing at him heavily, Mrit was still sipping on his coffee, ignoring him at that.
Seeing that Gan was at his limit, Mrit quickly finished his coffee, put the cup on the table and finally looked like someone who is serious now.
"So you are saying that this thing is very rare."
“Yes!”
"And that, this thing is very costly?"
“Yes!!”
"And that I have destroyed it."
"YES DAMN IT!!"
Fuming and exhaling heavily, Gan looked at Mrit as he saw him casually asking him questions. Even Rick, who was nervous on the start also had questions bubbling up inside of him.
Realizing that talking won't work anymore with two of them, Mrit stopped talking in circles and finally used tile newly acquired skills of his.
"Conjure Fire!!"
Same like how it happened earlier, a ball of fire appeared in Mrit’s hand. After using the Skill, Mrit held it and showed it to Gan and Rick.
"This is what I got after consuming the magic inside it. And this is also probably the reason why Totopa dragged you here.”
With that, he again took a sip of the coffee while maintaining the fire on his hand, thinking that he has done enough explanation for his part.
"Y-Y-You, H-how?"
It was Gan who first broke the silence as he stared at the flame on Mrit's hands. He stuttered and tried to speak to Mrit but was so shocked that words weren't able to come out of his mouth.
Looking in front of him, Mrit found a skeleton face and a decapitated head looking at him and then at the flame on his hands simultaneously with a flabbergasted look on their face. While Rick's expression was mostly devoid of human understanding, one can still guess the shock he is experiencing.
In the midst of these stuttering and silence, it was Pat who broke the weird atmosphere around them.
"You can use magic here too. Sir?”
***