"Yaaay…" a lukewarm welcome came from Lucifer. He really enjoyed the freedom he used to have.

"Luci! There are dwarfs breaking stone everywhere! Make them leave! I don't like them!" Stone yelled, Of course, that would be the first thing Stone would do; complain…

"What are you talking about? There are no dwarfs! Except… Oh! There are no dwarfs! It's a hallucination!" Lucifer realized that thanks to his insanity called Path, his spells carried a trace of darkness that made people hallucinate. Every, single spell! Including hexes.

"Hallucination? What is it? And also, I feel weird. I think… bloated?" Stone asked question after question.

“Come back, silence!” Lucifer inwardly facepalmed, but still answered, "A hallucination is something only you can see, while others cannot! They are not real! Just hold on…"

For Dafur, Lucifer was just sitting there with a fired up deep-blue hovering around him.

Not for long as new words appeared before him, "now, put the crystals on those two and connect Stone to it!"

Dafur understood what Lucifer wanted to do. Maybe… Maybe he did not fail after all! Maybe he would be able to save the siblings!

He divided the crystals into two stacks and piled them on the siblings barely rising chests. He focused on the crystals and Stone.

A golden string emerged from his chest-crystals and arched towards the targets.

The moment they touch and envelop Stone, he feels immense pressure in his head. Panic, disgust and rage filled his mind. Dafur was hardly able to suppress it.

"Stop it! Luci! Stop them!" Stone commanded his partner.

"Dafur! Merge those crystals into their bodies!”

Lucifer was compelled by the talent as the Stone’s command took effect. He had to fight with every single scrap of will he could muster against it. However… It was possible!

“Calm down, Stone!”, “Don’t shoot, Stone!” and “Please, don’t kill Dafur, Stone!” rolled out of Lucifer's nonexistent mouth in a fruitless attempt to pacify the more and more angered pebble.

Lucifer was exasperated to the core of his being. He had created backup plans for backup plans, analysed guard rotation, waited for the opportune moments, not to say anything about the long-term plans!… but forgot to account for Stone!

The flew around, missing Dafur’s head by a hair and hitting the imaginary targets.

Meanwhile, Dafur picked up the prepared razor-sharp dagger and cut open the siblings' chests. They weakly hissed in pain but were too weak to even lift a limb, much less to defend themselves.

Dafur closed his eyes and slowly merged with the mana crystals.

The siblings’ eyes shot open—their sclerae flashed dangerously to a fiery-purple for Dori and scarlet for Eriv.

The mana crystal pulsated, sending weak waves of mana as they slowly merged with the tissue.

"I am done! Hurry! I can't hold it!" Dafur tiredly exclaimed, his face as pale as the Prime god of Death himself.

Stone brought his assault upon the non-existent dwarves to a halt, seeing as his attacks caused no damage nor pain to the ‘stone-breakers’ and even reluctantly agreed to Lucifer’s plan. Though, the main argument that persuaded him was; “Stone, you will have more minions!”

"Do it Now! The idi…” Lucifer scratched it out of the ground, “Stone agreed!"

Dafur let the pressure overpower him. He connected to Stone through the talent . It was bizarre. Stone’s mind… It almost overwhelmed the dwarf and only thanks to his training as an apprentice runemaster he retained his sanity.

“Let me go, Stone!”

“But…“

“Otherwise, we will explode! Both of us!”

“What?!”

“Hehe… Let me go or we will die! Hurry!”

Stone agreed in the end and Lucifer tethered in happines; It worked! His soul was freed from Stone’s matrix!

Lucifer then pushed his soul, crawling his way through Dafur’s golden strings. The dwarf’s own mana pushed against him, but his easily dissolved any kind of resistance.

He passed through the focusing dwarf, directly to the bodies of the two siblings and seared their minds into oblivion.

Dafur was finished, his body drained of and . He slumped down, utterly exhausted and drained of water. He was so parched that he shakily picked up the closest canteen, not checking the content. A mistake he would never do again. The disgusting grog filled his throat and he coughed as his eyes bulged. A small tear of blood emerged from the corner of his eye. He gagged as his stomach revoltied against him. His eyes rolled back and he slumped down. Yep, a mistake.

"Luci?" Stone asked in his emptied mind. Nobody answered.

He felt so… Good. It was as if someone lifted a mountain from him. He never realized that Lucifer was oppressing his mind so much.

The stone-breaking dwarfs disappeared and he heard the messages from the Universum.

(A/N: Lucifer’s journal messages end here!)

"Luci!" Stone yelled in his high-pitched voice over the tent as his mind cleared.

"Sto… cough… Stone?" Dafur woke up from the grog-induced coma quickly. It was only a mouthful.

"Dafur! Hi. How are you? Did you see Lucifer? What does it mean?" A barrage of questions landed on Dafur. It was supereffective.

He attempted to answer, but before the first syllable could escape his lips, he bent forward and released the grog back to the world. There was no need to remind that it smelled and had the same taste as before the ingestion; "Bleeeeeergh!"

"Anyone here? I mean, anyone who is able to answer!" Stone inquired into the space, hoping for the answer.

The three beaten-up goblins entered the tent right after.

"Boss! Success!" Moron The Leader, now towering half-a-head above others, exclaimed with happiness in the voice.

Stone registered that there are several goblins around. He liked when the experience bags walked into his vicinity by itself.

"Stop." "Stone!" Two voices said one after another, one of male and one of female. "What the!" The male dwarf exclaimed. Then the female moved the right hand before her face. "Oh." "For." "Fucks." "Sake…"

"Luci?" Stone asked. He was not confused, not even curious. He was just happy his friend was not sleeping again.

"Yeah." "I am." "Here," Lucifer answered in the brusque male and female voices.

"Where are you?" Stone asks, confused.

"From." "What." "I understand." “I’m.” "In." "Both." "Of them."

Lucifer checked his status and journal and sighed. The mana crystals were still connected through a mana string. Permanently, according to his status screen.

That dwarf’s talent… He could do a lot with this.

"Maaaassstteeeeeer?"

"You are that purple fire elemental, right?"

"Yyyyeeeeesssss, maaaassssteeeer," he elemental replied, not caring about the change of his master. He was bound to the body, not a soul. Whoever controls the body controls him. Actually, he got a better source of food now. All elementals loved flux, especially as tasty as this one; "Maaastteeer, yyyyooouuurr fluuuuuxxx taaaasstyyyy"

"What? You pesky shite! Keep away from my Flux!”

“Fffiiiiinnnneeee, maaaassstteeeerr…”

“Now… Let's try to move."

Lucifer's fast ability to adapt proved itself; after a few minutes of attempts, he could move to a certain extent. His movements were zombie-like. Still, he was happy to move on his own.

His flux continued to plunge as he had to establish the technique again. He was still connected to Stone by his ‘talents’, and .

It did not make sense. He was alone in these bodies now!

Then he checked the Stone {wielder}. It was a permanent connection in the level of souls! They were soulbound… Lucifer wanted to cry... And it happened. His two pairs of eyes teared up.

He could finally cry. So he let it happen. It was therapeutic.

Stone patiently waited, ‘staring’ at the goblin trio. If he could frown, he would. He had nothing against them and he had never seen them break a stone. They were nothing more than pesky meatbags and sources of levels, but he could let them live. For now.

There was also that connection to them… He did not know what it was. Another question to add to the pile.

Finally, Lucifer was able to stand up. He slowly walked towards Stone and grabbed him.

"Luci! What happened? I know I was sleepy, and I was awake for a moment… But I do not remember anything else."

"Wait." "I need." "To." "Establish." "The." "Connection." It took a moment for Lucifer to successfully access the in the new situation. He still needed the RM, because his very own existence continuously consumed the . And the only source was Stone…

"Ssssmaaaalll maaaaasssttteeeeer. Heeee iiissss biiiiggg maaaassstteer. I haaaveeee toooo joooiiiin hiiiim."

"What?! No! Stay here!" The sudden elemental's declaration broke Lucifer's focus.

"Cooooonnnntraaaaaccttt iiissss annuuuulleeeeddd, wheeeen aaa biiiiggg maaasstteeeerr aaaaappppeeeeaaaarrrssss. Yooouuuuu diiiidd nooooot saaayyy yooouuu aaaareeee slaaaaveee."

With these words, the elemental parted with Dori's body and concentrated on the Stone.

“Maaaasssteeeeer Sttooooneeee, acceeeeept meeeee.”

"WAIT!" Lucifer screams in his mind in frustration.

[https://i.imgur.com/bOXESPw.png]

"Okay!" Stone did not know what was happening, but Lucifer had taught him that he should take anything and everything that had been given to him through the Universum.

[https://i.imgur.com/K54nT4m.png]

"FUUUUCK!" "FUUUUCK!" Lucifer screamed, utterly frustrated. He wanted him so badly!

The trio of goblins quivered. They were scared shitless. Not only did the pebble leak mana, blighting his vicinity, the two dead bodies suddenly rose up…

"I aaaammm fiiiireeee eeleeemeeentaaal, Goooraaaash, yooooouuur faaaaiiittthhfuuul seeerrrvvvaaaannnttt," the purple-fire elemental introduced himself to Stone.

For Stone, it was a voice in his mind. He was already used to something like this. Plus it was not oppressive as Lucifer.

“Hi! I am Stone, servant! Who are…” The indeed conversation between Stone and his new friend was interrupted by fuming Lucifer.

"You!" "Miserable!" "Stone!" Lucifer yelled as the last, hidden part of his perfect plan collapsed.

He knew that if he had the elemental on his side, he would be able to find a better way to survive and finally be free! However, he was still dependent on Stone’s refined mana...

This plan had been hidden so deep that even the mark could not afflict them.

He had long since realized that he could evade the talent to a certain degree. The battle did not end, however, he had a chance now!

"What? Luci, why are you angry?" Stone innocently asks.

"Aaarrgh!" The male dwarf grunted, "nothing…" the female one said, dissatisfied. He could not tell him…

"Oh, Luci. I want to ask something," Stone shifted the conversation. He wanted Lucifer to feel better. And he always loved his lectures and long explanations... "Why do you have two bodies?"

"… Don't." "Ask." "Me." "I… Think it's because of Dafur," Lucifer answered, managing to say one full sentence with one mouth.

"What's wrong, Luci?" Stone caringly inquired.

"Again." "Don't." "Ask." "Me." "Hard." "To." "Control!" "Dafur?"

"I think he is sleeping," Stone examined the exhausted minion of his.

"Good." "Let." "Me." "Work!" "Do." "Whatever." "You." "Want."

"Okay!" Stone replied, his body tethered in anticipation.

Lucifer felt like maybe he made a big mistake. But he had more important things to do; like controlling his… bodies.

Stone turned his attention to still confused three goblins, "Who are you?"

"Boss?" The 2nd-tier leader, Moron, asked, still confused. The duo behind him did not care much. They just happily ate, sitting on the ground.

However, they were all compelled by the talent, the same thing Lucifer had. Their bodies grew rigid, kneeling down before the Stone, compelled by the talent. After all, it was their boss!

"Moron!" The 2nd-tier answered first.

"Idiot!" Idiot answered after Moron.

"Tafur!" Tafur answered after Idiot.

"Minions!" Then all three of them said at once and reflexively stood up to attention.

"You are my minions?"

They rapidly nodded.

"As ants?"

They did not know what he meant, but still they nodded. Who were they to disagree with their boss, right?

"Awesome! Bring me talc! And goblins! I want to level up!"

‘The hunt!’ the simple word endlessly coiled in their simple minds. The goblins smirked and grabbed ropes and daggers.

They brought a bound, trashing goblinette. The moment she appeared in Stone’s the tent, her neck was slashed by RM dagger.

"Too weak! Bring someone stronger!" Stone commanded, disgruntled.

They brought another cursing goblin and a blueish arrow pierced his heart.

<1.20% experience is split according to talents Subordinate and Parasite>

"Stronger!" Better, still not enough.

The goblins looked at each other and nodded again—it was time to employ some trickery.

After a moment, they came inside with a 2nd-tier goblin. He was thin but tattoos enveloped his body, clearly the rare magical type. It had to be sentry, left to guard the camp.

"Gulha! Where are mana crystals, trash?!" The overconfident goblin loudly inquired.

'Bang!'

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

A full-powered mixed with heat exploded on his head. Stone decided he would not hold back… He was able to use Gorash’s heat to charge the heat ‘battery’ in his body. He learned that his was as powerful as a a 2nd-tier spell. If he used refined mana, it was strong as a 3rd-tier Monster spell.

<10.20% experience is split according to talents Subordinate and Parasite>

"Seeeeee, maaaaassssttteeeeerrr? Iiii caaaaannn maaaakkeeee yoooouuuu stttrrroooonnngggeeerrr!" The elemental proclaimed as he hovered near Stone. A small spark of purple fire.

Gorash, the tiny fire elemental. He was considered as a newborn, with 2000 years behind him. When he was younger, he had run away with a foolish hope of having a good adventure.

It did not work out well. He was caught and bound with a gene-lock contract by a lucky dwarf.

The line almost died out and he was forgotten. The dwarfs as a race were in a continual decline, be it technological, magical or just sheer numbers. He had even returned to the Elemental Plane for almost 500 years and nobody even knew he was still bound.

But now, thanks to many odd and stupid coincidences, he was summoned back to the Prime Material Plane yet again.

The gene-lock contract degraded so much he could even wiggle himself out of it. He just needed to find an idiot who would risk his life for him.

The first host, Dori, was an idiot. And blighted. Gorash knew the dwarf’s days were numbered.

His second host, Lucifer, horrified him. The fear came from his very core. Something deep inside him revolted and wanted to run away as far as possible.

Fortunately, there was a link. Even though it was a bogus reason, a loop in the rules, he could use it.

And now, he found him. A perfect idiot. A little bit strange, he acknowledged that. It was a sapient, living Mana Crystal. It was squishy and weak, but innocent and naive.

He had to prove his own usefulness first. Gain trust. And then… Hehe…

"Oh! I like it! Can you do more?" Stone asked, full of curiosity and excitement.

Stone truly liked useful beings—especially those that could make him level up faster.

"Yyyooouuu caaannn…" Gorash was interrupted by Stone, "Can you talk normally? It's really annoying…"

"Yes, master Stone!" The elemental answered with perfect celestian.

"Why didn't you talk like that before? It was really annoying!"

"Fun, master! I love when contracted beings are being annoyed!" Gorash truthfully answered.

"Don't annoy me, Firey!"

"Firey?"

"Yes, your name."

"But I am Gorash!"

"Sure, Firey."

The elemental frowned. Maybe it was not such a great idea. At least he had refined mana to eat. He loves refined mana.

"Anyway, master, you can use me as a heat source and when you supply me mana, you can create a lot of things from fire. More mana and better quality means I can use more powerful spells and abilities, including an area of effect spells. You have actually enough ambient mana for me to conjure my signature . It will cost 500 mana points. The spell is powerful enough to annihilate 1st-tier goblins and severely hurt or kill 2nd-tiers. 3rd-tiers will become irritated and some of them can be even slightly burnt," Gora… Firey proudly explained.

"Awesome! Moron! Idiot! Tafur! Bring me 1st- and 2nd-tier goblins. As many as possible!"

"Do." "It." "Elsewhere!" Lucifer objected. He did not want to be caught in the spell. Not now, when he finally found a body. Bodies...

"Fine! Minions! Bring me with you! We will find a better place," Stone respected his only friend’s wish.

The goblins gazed upon their master and the 2nd-tier reluctantly picked him up. However, as he touched him, he flinched from the blight.

"What are you doing? Hurry!" Stone would frown if he could, annoyed at the goblin.

"Blight!" Moron yelped and slowly backed out.

"Stone!" "You." "Are." "Leaking." "Mana." "Conjure." "Shield!"

"Oh..." Stone promptly conjured the . The leak dramatically weakened. The 2nd-tier could now touch him without fear.

They left the premises of a tent and arrived on the outskirts of the camp.

"Krakla!" Moron shouted in an attempt to raise an alarm.

Fifteen 1st-tier goblins and even four 2nd-tiers emerged from the tents nearby, all of them armed to the teeth.

Stone pumped the mana to his new friend who used it as a fuel for his favourite spell.

As Stone heard the message, he would smile devilishly if he could. He gave everything to Gorash, including refined mana.

Gorash flashed and purple tongues of flames covered the marked area. A small tornado appeared as the heated air met the cold underground air.

Everything in the 10-metres diameter was obliterated to ash. The ground was scorched black. Smoking pieces of burnt bodies littered the edges of aftermath.

"Master! That hurt! Please, don’t send me the refined mana! I am too weak for that! And did you just transfer heat?!”

"Yes!”

“How?!” Gorash was bewildered.

“I have the talent Heat Accumulator," Stone replied with a flat voice.

“But only elementals can do that!”

“Me too,” Stone deadpanned.

Gorash began to doubt… Was it a really good idea? Is the little strange pebble truly that naive?

[https://i.imgur.com/XDwq9PJ.png][https://i.imgur.com/XDwq9PJ.png]Meanwhile, Stone was tripping on the good feelings.

"I want more! More!" The high-pitched voice echoed in the silent camp..

Tafur, the ugliest, least useful goblin, snickered even as he was shaking. It was such a funny voice! He was slapped in the back of his head by Moron and Idiot stared at him. (A/N: Imagine a human and a large amount of helium…)

The firenado along with the ash remains of the goblins raised an alarm in the whole camp. The flames slowly faded and a few braver goblins came to investigate. Fortunately, his minions were not so stupid and ran away with him long before.

Stone did not even notice them as he was completely wasted from the waves of euphoria.

"More!" He commanded.

"Yes, boss!"

They arrived at a newly built part of the camp, where newly incoming goblins lived.

"Krakla! Krakla!" The trio started to raise the alarm and soon enough, the goblins quickly gathered before them.

Even a single, wounded 3rd-tier crawled out of his hiding. She snarled at the weaker-than-her goblins and quickly organized them into searching groups.

Stone could even hear some of them whispering ‘The Ghost’... whatever that meant...

"Gorash, heat!" The elemental listened while his not-so-inner pyromaniac traits made him tether in excitement.

A powerful cracking of the purple flames could be heard all over the camp. Another firenado emerged, leaving only ash behind.

A heavily burned 3rd-tier, groaning in pain on the floor. Her eyes melted and her limbs became only lumps of charred meat. The attack came too quickly, and she was only able to conjure a weak mana shield.

Stone ended the goblinette's life with a blueish to the noggin, exploding her head into a puddle of gore.

[https://i.imgur.com/XDwq9PJ.png][https://i.imgur.com/XDwq9PJ.png][https://i.imgur.com/XDwq9PJ.png]Stone almost passed out from the utter bliss. Orgasm times a hundred. Even though he did not know what that meant…

The feeling faded and Stone… wanted much, much more!

☁☁☁☁☁☁

Back in the tent, exasperated Lucifer read his journal. When he quickly did the math, he became pale as death; the three idiots were led by a level-up addict with a fire elemental at his disposal, running around and setting everything on fire.

The passive flow of experience was amazing, but it meant only one thing… He had made a terrible, terrible mistake!

"Yeah, this will not end well… It never ends with the idiot, does it?" He sighed and wondered what he should do next.

"No," an unexpected answer came.

"Aaaa!" "Aaaa!" Lucifer's bodies loudly yelped.

He frantically looked around and saw Kretin still sleeping on the ground, rolling over and snoring.

"Calm yourself. We don't have much time. It's me, You. Really… What happened to you? You were never so stupid," You berated Lucifer.

"That's a lot of 'you'…" Lucifer was… perplexed. This came out of nowhere...

"… Haaah," You sighed, regretting he ever agreed to this, "does not matter. No time. Find Lich Hen'Tai. Remember, he owes you.”

“Who now?”

“Hen’Tai! Stop being moron! And find him!”

“Fine, fine… anything else, strange voice in my head?” Lucifer thought it had finally happened. He went mad!

“Try to recall your memories! Countless years are still locked in your mind!"

“How?”

“...”

“You there?”

“...”

“Hey!”

“...”

"O… Oooookay. This just happened..." Lucifer muttered.

He still did not understand how it worked… Why was he named so stupidly? You? Whoever heard of such a name? Even Stone’s name was better… Not by much though… Why didn’t ‘You’ show up on his status screen? Why did he only appear when it was convenient? He wondered what they should do next and it said… What was happening here?

Lucifer shrugged, deciding to leave it. The answer would emerge sooner or later. No… not emerge… With Stone, they would probably drop out of the blue sky. Landing right on his lap, knowing his luck.

"Feels good to have your own body… Bodies," Lucifer grinned. Though the last part did not work out…

He could finally stand up and move fairly smoothly with both bodies. Not proficiently, he tripped over and staggered more times than his ego would allow him to acknowledge.

Still, it was enough to kick Kretin in the nuts to wake him up.

The goblin sprang up like a jack-in-the-box, hissing in pain, "boss?"

"Yes." "Now hurry." "And bring me to those four crazies!" “Before they burn down the camp!”

"Yes, boss," he answered without questioning and caught the staggering Lucifer's bodies.

☁☁☁☁☁☁

Stone and his meaty minions hid in one of the unoccupied tents.

Stone, strapped to Moron's back and wrapped in the olive-green leather like a baby, tagged the goblins, who yelled at each other in the middle of the camp.

“Firey, can you take them all at once?”

“Master, maybe… but it will hurt me…” Gorash reluctantly replied. He sensed the refined mana coursing through Stone’s body. He loved ... And the one with diluted refined mana was the tastiest meal he had ever had… However a raw refined mana?

Stone patiently waited for the elemental to continue.

“Fine! If you carefully hand me some refined mana it should be enough…”

“Good! I like useful minions, Firey!” Stone sent him as much as he could. At once.

“I said carefully! AUCH!” The spark near him flashed and grew.

Gorash cast the spell. It was three times bigger than before and much more powerful.

Stone remembered he had a nice spell to protect himself. The blueish covered him, making him virtually invulnerable against second-tier damage.

The heat wave backlashed on his shield but harmlessly broke part on his shield.

“Master, add all of your heat to it! And keep it flowing!”

Gorash had trouble controlling the firenado. The goblins noticed and shrieked, alarming the others.

Stone sent everything directly to the spell, his soul tethered with anticipation. He wanted to see what would happen.

Gorash decided that the spell was too difficult to control and the sheer power behind the spell strained his will. So he changed the spell in mid-cast through his trait to a fiery ball of pure death; .

Normally, he would not be able to cast this spell, however, the amount of heat and refined mana bestowed by Stone was just enough.

The fire elemental maniacally chuckled and aimed directly amidst the frightened goblin group.

The fireball flew with the speed of a bullet.

'BAAAAAAANG!'

An immense explosion vibrated through the camp and nearby shafts.

The flames cleared out, revealing the pure destruction behind.

The explosion wrecked the entire ‘square’, leaving only a smoking, charred-black crater. Everything in the targeted area had turned to ash.

[https://i.imgur.com/XDwq9PJ.png][https://i.imgur.com/7uM1qUR.png][https://i.imgur.com/XDwq9PJ.png]

Level ups popped up one after another, finally stopping at level 26.

The last time he had mass-levelled-up he almost passed out from pure bliss.

Now? He was like a monk. Calm. Meditating. It even automatically activated the technique.

He was the zenith. He was Stone. He just levelled up. He was amazing. Stone. Mantra. Stone was Mantra. Stone was the level-up. Oooooohhhmmm.

The best feeling soon receded as he stopped glowing and growing, leaving him… Full. He did not crave more of the good feeling. He was satisfied. For the moment at least.

Stone checked his lifeforce. It suffered a slight damage, a mere 100 points of near 300… as he was caught up by the fiery blast that cracked his shield.

He would regrow later. For now, he wanted to look for another prey before the strong goblins returned. Maybe he did not crave the good feelings, but he still wanted them.

And there was nobody to stop him.

“Minions! Carry me!” He ordered Idiot, Moron and Tafur, who were laying on the ground, quivering. They slowly got up and scurried for their master.

“Master, strong! Master, amazing! We serve!” They flattered Stone as they pushed each other, fighting about who was going to carry him.

“Enough! Tafur! You carry me!” Stone had had enough, he was getting tired of his minions getting more and more rowdy. He would have to lay some rules... later. But now, the hunt would carry on.

They left the area and the smoking aftermath of the littered with goblins’ leftovers on the sides were completely ignored by him, why would a stone care for the lives of… as he looked at the smouldering rocks, Stone felt his will shudder...he who hated the Rock-Breakers, became the Rock-Breaker.

It was only after this existential crisis that he noticed that two dwarves were waiting outside the camp, visibly seething as they looked at the destruction that Stone… no that Firey had caused.

“Oh, here you are Luci! I want my experience! More goblins!” He shouted with his still high-pitched voice. He completely forgot his little crisis.

“You fucking, miserable, piece of stupid mineral!” Lucifer’s bodies yelled at the same time as they were unburied out of the smouldering rubble by Kretin, who was shivering too. One of his arms was completely burned off, only a black stump remaining.

“What happened?” Stone asked incredulously as he watched his teacher and friend slowly get up with both of his bodies. They were messy, a little bit baked, but otherwise fine.

“You happened!” The male said. “Always you!” The female said after. “Fuck, that hurts!” He continued with both bodies. He was finally finding the handle on how to talk properly. He hoped that soon, he would be able to use both bodies doing separate actions simultaneously. Hopefully, there was an expertise for that. Really, anything.

“Sorry?” Stone tried a new angle hoping to end Luci’s endless rambling.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry,” the female said. “Sorry, he says…” The male continued. “Fuck!” he swore, getting annoyed at the weird talking.

“Luci, what now? Goblins went away… I… I feel good now. I want more but before I had to have more. What happened?” He asked a barrage of questions.

“...” Two pairs of eyes looked at Stone, carried by the three goblins. He sighed with both bodies. “Now,” “We,” “Hide!” Lucifer said, knowing that the hunting parties had to have heard the commotion.

“Let’s go back to the tent!” Stone ordered and his small procession left the smoking crater. He wasn’t completely stupid anymore.

In the middle of the crater, slowly the weakest parts of the floor crumbled, revealing a small crevice that was slowly but surely increasing its size.

In the tent, the three goblins carefully laid their master on the ground and prostrated.

“Hey, not-so-small master! Let’s go burn something else!” The pyromaniac who was, by no accident, a fire elemental, suddenly voiced his request. This was more fun than he had had in the last hundred years or so.

“Later, now I have to regrow,” Stone communicated in his mind and activated the . He was still bleeding mana by a large amount, but the amount had vastly diminished as he levelled up so many times. Of course, he needed more levels to be rid of it entirely.

“Firey, can you make your spell even stronger?” Stone asked as he slowly regenerated his lifeforce. The talc gravel around slowly merged with him, making him whole again.

“Yes, small master, but your body won’t be able to take it,” the elemental truthfully answered. “And I need to regain the lost mana too. I am only taking what is necessary from Your Stoneniness,” he explained.

“Oh, that is too bad…” The pebble was disappointed. “How long do you need?”

“Quite a while with this speed… Day or two,” Firey was feeling inadequate now. If he would be a larger elemental… Nah, It was all of his master's mistake.

The fire elemental also decided he worked enough for today and went to sleep.

Dafur was still sleeping, more like being unconscious, on the floor, deeply and regularly breathing.

“Stone?” Lucifer resounds in Stone’s head, completely surprising him. He thought his partner was gone and they could not talk again like that.

“Yea. Luci?” Stone replied. Then he noticed a small patch of mana flowing to him, some kind of connection.

“Excellent! It works!” Lucifer celebrated the success. He had enough of talking like two broken dolls, so he created a new spell, now that he had an actual brain. Two of them, he thought... This will take quite a lot of time to get used to.

Now that he knew they had a little bit of time, he wanted to try to talk Stone into changing his tablets into something much more manageable. He did not look forward to it. What a hassle, but it needed to be done. Lucifer sighed with both bodies and took the challenge.

Lucifer blinked at the cheeky Universum admin but he took it.

“Stone, I want you to do something very important,” Lucifer went around it slowly.

“What is it, Luci?” Stone asked innocently, not knowing the calamity coming for him.

“I want you to…” Lucifer could not find proper words. How to ask something like this to this ever-and-forever tabletophile?

“Shut the fuck up, universum. Try it yourself!” Lucifer snapped at the cheeky voice.

Lucifer decided to bite the bullet. He didn’t live for who knows how long, being a laughing stock for beings who enslaved him and then spending months in this stupid rock teaching him basics and delving deeper and deeper into the Abyss just to be stopped by a stubborn peice of shitstone.

“I want you to change your tablets! Just change them to talking or just a plain text, I plead you on knees, please!” Lucifer just spluttered it with a single breath. He sent a flood of emotions into the link so the Stone would understand how desperate he truly was.

“Okay,” Stone flatly replied. It went well with his natural deadpan expression.

“Stone, please, I beg you! Do it!” Stone’s answer clearly did not reach his mind, as he continued to beg and plead.

“I said okay,” Stone repeated.

“What?” Lucifer was stumped. He was preparing for a battle of the ages, a battle of wits and words, of promises and backstabbings.

Lucifer decided to ignore the Universum for now as he processed the pebble’s sudden ability to hear reason, or even to listen to him…

The former Partner gazed at the new screen before him.

Allows you to do multiple things at once. Good for puppeteers, summoners and stock exchange brokers. Simultaneous actions: 2 (+1 per tier). Limited to normal actions. That means no multiple spells at once spells or skills. Able to evolve.>

And Luci put it to use almost immediately. His bodies moved as he wished. Even though it felt bizarre, he could get used to it.

Lucifer felt good for the first time after a very, very, long time. Not only had he persuaded Stone to change his tablets, he even acquired the technique he needed so much due to Universum’s own cheekiness…

When he thought about it… Wasn’t that strange? Why did Universum and even Prime gods bet on a single mortal? Even though anomaly, but Stone could not be the only anomaly there…

Then he frowned… Something was wrong… And something was going to happen soon. Things were moving too smoothly for him. For them. He could feel it in his bones... Both sets of them.