"Well then, since everyone is sufficiently enjoying the food, shall we get down to business?" Alchemy asked, placing her hands together to create a platform for her to rest her head on.
"Mr. Gravana's reason for showing up is rather apparent, but I'm not exactly sure why you've come, Mr. Rio."
"Huh? The report I got was in response to our desire for a peace treaty was you sending my messengers back, all bruised, telling them to "Have some Sincerity," no?"
'Messengers? Do you mean stalkers? Or perhaps spies is a better term?'
Rio's question caused Gravana to laugh hysterically.
"Sincerity? From those trickster monkeys? Yeah, good luck with that!"
Rio glared at Gravana for a few moments before rolling his eyes.
"You're just too simple-minded. Even for us, teaching old dogs new tricks is rather difficult."
"What did you say, coward monkey?"
'Huh, that saying exists here too? Neat?' Alchemy hummed, maintaining her smile as the two got closer to going all out against each other in her home base.
"Ahem… Sincerity, yes. The matter certainly wasn't big enough for the King himself to show up. Even something simple like a ceremonial peace would have been more than enough. I'm all for peace. While I don't particularly care what fights I get into, I'd rather not get the kids involved…"
"Except maybe Nera. If she doesn't get her daily dose of violence, she might go on a rampage." Alchemy mentioned sarcastically after a long pause.
"I agree with your sentiment, but how could I not show my face when a new neighbor suddenly appeared out of thin air? And must I say, I was not disappointed. Miss Nera's theory on… Grav-E-ty was truly fascinating. To think there was an invisible force that pulled us toward its source. Such a fascinating line of thought."
'Ah, so that's how Nera befriended you so quickly. Well, I'm glad Nera has made some nerd friends already.' Alchemy nodded.
"Your words honor me, old man Rio. In truth, the Mother Goddess is the one who blessed me with such deep insights."
'OLD MAN? THEY'RE ALREADY ON A GRANDFATHER-GRANDDAUGHTER BASIS?' Alchemy's eyes raised as she turned to Nera.
'No! That's not the worst part! Nera, WHAT?! Why are you claiming that I'm good at modern science?'
"Well, I have my areas of expertise. Unfortunately, I'm a Mother Goddess and not a knowledge Goddess."
Although she certainly wasn't far off from being one.
"Hohohoho, is that so? Moving back to the topic of sincerity, I naturally brought some items with me to present you to."
"Psychos," Rio said, tapping his staff against the ground, causing a small magical circle to appear.
The wagons that the monkeys brought with them came flying over from a distance away.
"You can use magical spells without a chant?" Alchemy asked curiously.
Magic was a rather tricky power compared to the others, as there were two types.
Like what Sapphire has, Innate is obtained from having some magical stone or artifact embedded in your body. The process of getting a magical stone in your body was… For lack of a better term, random and often very painful.
Alchemy had thought that animals with magic stones in them were unusually common in this forest since she managed to obtain a magic stone so easily, but she chalked that up to this forest having a ton of ambient mana.
She had no way to tell since she lacked mana of her own, but it made sense on a surface level, at least.
The second type of magic was learned. Tiered magic was its name. Typically, a chant was needed; in A.O.A, this was seen as cast times. Skills existed to reduce or negate it altogether, but those were quite rare.
The thing was, no faction in A.O.A started with magic. Where Divine and Demonic factions could upgrade their units, the secondary [research building] of the magic factions was solely for magical research.
"Hoho, yes. After a recent epiphany, I, alongside my clan, gained this remarkable ability. While we are monsters with magical crystals within at birth, they're quite small." Rio explained, standing up to personally uncover his "Sincerity" contents.
'An epiphany, huh? His bonus from becoming a true [Hero] was probably a faction-wide passive buff. As expected of a cheat [Hero++] ability.'
"Speaking of magic, us Knowledge Seekers are quite… Rich when it comes to magic stones." Rio spoke, revealing a wheel barrel half full of mana fragments.
Alchemy's eyes widened in shock at the reveal.
"That's enough low-grade mana fragments to blow a city block off the map! What? How many monsters did you kill for this many?!" She exclaimed.
Realizing that she let out such a visceral reaction, Alchemy coughed awkwardly.
"To be able to tell the power of an amount with a glance, is the young Goddess well versed in the makings of magical stones?"
"V-vaguely," Alchemy answered, Nervously looking away from the group.
"Ahem… As a show of sincerity, this is undoubtedly grandiose." She continued speaking after fixing her mannerisms.
"Hohohoho! Since that's the case, I hope you'll gladly accept our sincerity. To peaceful times."
'You're just gonna give me a bomb and then say that's your sincerity. Is everyone who holds the title of monkey king destined to be insane? I can't even use these for anything-'
The gears in Alchemy's head began turning.
'Or maybe I can…' A devilish smile appeared on Alchemy's face for just a moment before she managed to hide it.
"Since you've given us such a big gift, how about you return in two days? Then, I'll show you something that'll shock you to your core." Alchemy glanced at Nera.
Seeing the glance, Nera caught on instantly.
"M-m-Mother Goddess! You can't possibly mean… That? But even we don't fully understand it!"
'Nice, Nera!' Alchemy gave her hero a thumbs-up under the table.
Considering that Nera managed to befriend the monkey so quickly, their personalities had to be very similar. He couldn't possibly ignore something that could lead to a new discovery.
"Something even Miss Nera didn't understand. I-I'm a very busy king, but I can clear my schedule for such a thing." He said, trying to hide his excitement by poorly covering his face with his fist and coughing.
This entire time, Gravana looked puzzled. He knew what mana fragments were, but how could pointless shiny rocks be worth enough for such an expression when they weren't even that durable? He couldn't even make a good punching bag with them! It didn't make any sense.
Then he remembered… He also brought something for the Verminae.