Stone was confused by so many words again, but Partner slowly explained them. Stone understood that there are too many things he still did not know and for the first time in his brief life he felt a desire to learn more.
So, he sat and patiently listened to the wisdom of the strange voice in his mind, Partner, without interrupting.
This time the lecture went for several days and not weeks or even months like before.
[Your intelligence had risen by 0.4]
[New attribute limit is 1]
He was getting smarter and more knowledgeable with every Partner's word. Now he was wise as a very stupid human, but the endless, monotonous speeches began to already bore him. Even with his stony patience, he wanted to do something else.
"I want to see. I want to go outside and see the world. I want to feel good," Stone restlessly expressed his desire and if he could, he would throw a puppy stare.
"Fine, fine. I see you are impatient already. Which is quite odd. For a stone. Today I will teach you how to control mana. Some basics, but it should be enough."
Partner concentrated again and used his last bits of mana he scraped from the reserves that barely regenerated over the days and sent the needed knowledge to Stone.
"Screw it! Well, boy, this is the last time I can do this," Partner said with a falsely cheerful voice and thought to himself, "what the hell?! It can't be because I missed my target, right? I am almost completely cut off..." The Partner panicked a bit, but soon he realized he could not do anything with it anyway, so he let it go.
[Partner offered you knowledge. Do you accept?]
"Yes," again, the Stone's mind was swamped with foreign knowledge. Soon, he absorbed it into his mind and for the first time he felt his own magic. How it flowed in him. How he could use it to 'see' and feel better.
He coated his surface with a very thin layer of translucent mana. For the first time, he felt cold. Pressure. Before, he could hear before, but everything was muffled. Now it was all so… sharp and clear.
He heard clinging and thudding like if something metal was impacting into a rock. Heavy breathing. Voices. Strange, rhythmic sounds. He usually ignored these sounds, but everything was amplified. He was overwhelmed for a while.
He swiftly adapted and ignored them again; it made him quite uneasy.
"Good. You are a fast learner... Way too fast. Who are you?" Partner pensively examined the pebble. "Anyway, let's see if you can do it. Do the same thing when you were coating yourself with mana. However, this time spread the mana as far as you can without losing touch with it, otherwise, it will disperse."
Stone did as said and soon created a sphere of thin, translucent mana around him. It was a mere 1 meter in diameter, but he 'saw' everything inside. Even underground. Small pebbles, crevices in walls. Strange things crawling around.
"What are those moving things?" Stone curiously asked. It was something new for him. Self-moving things...
"Those are bugs, non-sapient animals. Try to squish one with Mana Bubble. You should know how to do it."
Stone did not wait and casted a small mana bubble in his dome directly above himself. Mana amassed inside the bubble, one centimetre in diameter until it reached the critical amount. The bubble silently popped and a new tablet appeared.
[You have learned a spell Mana Bubble]
"Oh, nice. Mana Bubble spell is a part of basic mana control expertise. Accumulate mana in one place and hold it. It can be used to push things around, or in your case, as a bug exterminator," Partner explains in more detail. "Now, again. But before it reaches the critical amount, stop the accumulation. You have used slightly more than one point of mana this time, so you should have plenty left."
Soon a new bubble of mana floated near him, half as powerful than before. "As you hold it, put it above that bug," Partner pointed to the bug.
Stone could not move the bubble even one millimetre. He let it explode with a silent 'plop' and generated a new one above the ant.
The bug exploded in gore.
[You have killed an ant. You have gained 0.001% experience]
"New voice. It says I gained 0.001% experience."
"Oh, this will be a pain in the ass…" Partner groaned. This will be an excruciating grind. He frowned a little bit, "wait. It should congratulate you for the first kill."
"Really?"
"Wait a minute. Did you have some experience from before?"
"Yes. Half a percent. Why?"
"Oh... nothing... poor dwarf," Partner felt sorry for the dead dwarf. "Hmm, you didn't gain much, even though you killed the dwarf," Partner paused for a second, trying to figure out the reason. "Hmm... oh... It is because you were the weapon," in the end, he found the reason and stopped caring about it. "Now… Where were we? Oh. Mana. You should have less mana, right? Now, sit down," he giggled at his own joke and gave the order, "concentrate.".
Stone concentrated. He was good at that.
"Feel the mana around you... in the atmosphere and within the ground."
Stone tried to feel the mana around. He was not very good at feelings as it was quite a new ploy for him, but after a few days, he succeeded.
"Haaah. Finally. Now, connect to the mana with your mind. And pull it towards your body."
The efforts were rewarded, and the new technique was learned.
[You have learned a technique Ambient Mana Gathering]
Stone slowly gathered the mana around and while at it he discovered something, "Why do some messages pop up, and some are heard?"
"Well, some messages are more important. Level ups, creations of skills, talents acquiring, prompts, and others are written. The less important messages like killing, gaining experience, changes in abilities, and similar are heard. Otherwise, people would go insane from constant messages long ago. Well... The voice messages are annoying too, but you will learn to live with them. You can disable both whenever you want, but the sound messages can't be heard again. So, it's better to let them on and learn to ignore them. After a time, I will teach you a special technique which will allow you to record these messages," Partner explained while silently sighing to himself. "You are way too big dummy to learn something like that," he again sighed and inwardly lamented.
"Now. Kill those ants the same as before, so you can finally level up. It's time to learn how to live a little bit," Partner spoke and Stone commenced his first massacre.
He liked that.
[You have killed an ant. You have gained 0.001% EXP]
[You have killed an ant. You have gained 0.001% EXP]
[Your spell Mana Bubble gained a level]
[Your technique Ambient Mana Gathering gained a level]
[...]
[You have killed an ant. You have gained 0.001% EXP]
[...]
[Your spell Mana Bubble gained a level]
[Your technique Ambient Mana Gathering gained a level]