"Haaaaah," Luci sighed in exasperation. "Well, I can't say much anymore too… I can use flux that is based on your miserable pool of refined mana… and I am Ethereal without a sub-race too… But! I am free from now on. No longer connected to my source. So strange feeling, not being forced to help by those stupid Rules."
Meanwhile, Stone conjured an ant's soul. He felt as almost half of his refined mana left him and saw it form an ant.
"Dornus, help me! A ghost!" Dafur screamed again as he saw the small, blueish soul.
"Loud! Dafur, stop screaming all the time! Or I will gag you permanently!" Stone threatened, already angered as his concentration was broken. The ant turned to motes of mana as it dissipated. The soul did not return and he was at 36 now.
"Sorry, but t'is ghostery really scar'd me."
"Stone, be careful with this. Only the Undead, necromancers, warlocks and similar professions can use soul magic," instincts of a former Partner, the actual hero helper, kicked in.
"Why?"
"They are ev...i...l," Lucifer halted as he thought about it, "hmm, well, I guess it doesn't matter for you. I will tell you when you can use it and when not."
"Fine."
"We should look around.", "We shoulda leav'", Lucifer and Dafur remarked simultaneously.
"Partn… Luci, where to look around?" Stone asked.
☁☁☁☁☁☁
Three days before Dafur awaken from his slumber, Breadbeard and Eriv left the laboratory and passed through several rooms, protected by golems and automatons. Breadbeard effortlessly destroyed them with his bare hands. The guardians attempted to defend against him to no avail as Breadbeard's body was more durable than before. He ransacked the gold, gems and crystals and put the fresh loot in the new bag he found nearby.
The exit gate was the same as the marble gate they entered from. This time, Breadbeard did not bother with unlocking the gate as Dafur and crashed a few times with his head into it. The gate was not able to take this much punishment and broke. Luckily, Stone was not there. They stepped through the hole and emerged on a steep path on the other side of the small mountain.
The whole way, Breadbeard was either erratically laughing or crying out in pain. Eriv was trying to stop him for some time already, striving to help a friend. He always pushed her away and ordered her under a death threat to move her ass.
During the way, his skin and hair gradually turned to fern-green. His beard fell off and as he was entirely out of his mind, he did not even pay attention to it. His body grew even more robust and his muscles were constantly changing; bulging and rearranging themselves into more efficient positions. This change came with a terrible amount of pain and he was often forced to lay on the ground. But strangely, he liked that pain. He was also getting progressively more crazy and paranoid, but was still aware of himself and not feral as he still could use his Universum.
Eriv was crying, unable to hurt him or run away in the moments of his weakness; she could never abandon her friend. A friend, who was almost like a family and had grown up together for so many years. They had gone through hell together three years ago. She often had to help him move, him saying that he wanted to continue as an instinct forced him to move elsewhere. He did not know where, but he was sure he had to go in this direction.
They soon showed up near the makeshift inn, still filled to the brim with drunk prospectors. It was already dawn, but they had paid leave anyway as the marble mine was shut down.
"Hey, it's Breadbeard and Eriv! Why're ya… two… nak… Uaaaaargh!" One of the dwarfs noticed them and as he was drunk, he did not see the changes of their overseer.
"I AM RIIIIICH!" Breadbeard insanely shrieked and leapt towards the dwarf, effortlessly picking him up.
"In the Dornus ass! What're ya doin'?!" the dwarf inquired, frightened, but the changed Breadbeard threw him inside the inn through the canvas wall.
"Ye're all wanna mae treasur'! I'LL RIP YE ALL!" Breadbeard ran inside while erratically yelling profanities and started the massacre of the drunkards. He snapped their necks, tore their limbs and heads off or picked them above his head and tore them in half. Dwarfs screamed for help and in terrible pain, blood surging out of their wounds like hellish fountains.
Some of them were able to pick up their weapons or pickaxes, but they could use only a small amount of mana with it and lacked the needed expertise anyway. After all, they were just miners, and only a few of them trained some axemanship. The weapons bounced off or directly shattered upon hitting the Breadbeard's enhanced body.
Chunks of bodies were flying everywhere and Eriv could only stand there, sobbing and not knowing what to do. She picked a nearby pickaxe but dropped it as she knew it would not help. Her mind was more and more broken and what only held her together was the thought of her brother, still in their tent.
"Hah! I knew it! You wanted my GOLD! MY GOLD!" Breadbeard maniacally yelled at the corpses of his former workers and friends. "Eriv! This feels so good! Ya need to try it too!" He grabbed a few mana crystals from his greaves and stepped towards her. She attempted to evade, but a firm hand seized her forearm, even breaking it. "Ahh, I'm sorry, Eriv!" He laughed and cried at the same time and force-fed her the crystals.
Of course, she struggled to spit them out, but Breadbeard forced her to eat them again. In the end, she gave up and let it slip into her stomach.
"Ah! Yar brother shoulda be here too, right?"
"Naet! Please! Not mae brother," she pleaded quietly as she lay on the ground without any strength. She already felt how the wild, foreign radiation of mana was spreading through her body and slowly changed her. She looked at her status, but there were no changes yet, only that she was being poisoned with [Blight].
"Don't ya worry! He's a strong boya! He can take it," he cheerily exclaimed and skipped out of the slaughterhouse.
Two dwarfs stood up amidst the carnage, though covered in blood and gore they were not harmed bar a missing arm. They slowly looked around, helping each other to keep balance and one of them quietly asked Eriv. "What in the Dornus ass happened, Eriv?!"
"Run, pleas'! Inform the guild. There is a mana crystal deposit and greed overtook Breadbeard. We took quite a bit of radiation without proper protection. He killed runemae'str too. Run before he comes back…" she softly, but urgently explained, not having the strength to even weep. Then she lost consciousness.
Both of them glanced at each other and started running towards the city. That night, those two had broken the world record in the sprint for dwarfs below rank three. Too bad there was no one to take a note…
Meanwhile, Breadbeard, while searching for Eriv's brother Dori, butchered the sleeping dwarfs in their tents. They were not even able to wake up, either because they were either too drunk or were too slow to wake up.
The runaway miners ran through the gates of Arn-Dul and went directly towards their guild to report. Their missing arms slowed them down and they were breathing heavily from tiredness as they hadn't slept for almost three days.
"What do ye mean, all dead?!" Their boss shouted at them. They flinched and one of them answered, angered and tired, "Eriv told us that there's a small mana crystal deposit. Breadbeard got blighted and massacred the whole camp. He forced Eriv to eat mana crystals too."
"Go to the priest! Now!" The leader issued them while his mind spun, "Crystal deposit'! JACKPOT! We're rich! But… what about Breadbeard and Eriv… hmm, they're probably dead already. No need to report… I won't let others take over the mine! Never! I'll sae there was another collapse. Some will question, but… hehe. And those two... well a five percent ownership shoulda be enough for them."
"Wait! Here's some money," he threw them a big pouch clanking with gold, "ask the priest or alchemist to help with yer arms, and don't tell anyone about this! Understood?!"
"Yea, guild master!" they nodded with understanding.
"After yer return, we'll talk... I have a nice offer for ya," the guild master smiled.