A GIFT AND PLANS

"Do either of you have a mana stone by chance? I need one to complete the bracelet and I only have Amphisbaena's stone on hand." I said honestly.

"Wait a moment." Asterius spoke firmly as he rose from his seat on the rock and walked into the dim light of the tunnel.

A few minutes later he returned with a bloody fist and a stone clutched in it that he tossed to me before sitting back down on the rock he had left. I caught the stone and easily identified it as a raider fish stone by size and intensity before flexing my cursed energy slightly with the stone between my thumb and middle finger.-

The mana in the stone rapidly drained into my body only to be purged through my arms pores in a bright rainbow hued mist as I carefully emptied the stone of it's energy. My experience with the stone converters was the reason I was able to do this but in truth I wasn't actually manipulating the mana so much as coaxing it out with my own cursed energy. A good analogy would be that the mana was a fish and my cursed energy was a worm dangling on a hook.-

It attacked my energy instinctively and I simply made it so it couldn't go back into the stone once it left. As for the mana already in my body I overwhelmed it with my sheer cursed energy to push it out, hence the rainbow mist coming off my arm. It only took a few moments to fully drain the stone of mana and a split second after that to convert it into a cursed stone. I didn't care that both Asterius and Marie saw this whole process as it's not like they could really spread the knowledge in any meaningful way.-

As Xenos most adventurers were either going to try and kill them on sight or capture them to be sold as slaves. Either way I doubt they'd have any chance to spread the knowledge in any way it might genuinely cause me problems. Not that it really mattered anyways since I was the only person on the planet to my knowledge who actually used cursed energy much less could convert mana stones to cursed stones. Still with the cursed stone done I reshaped it to be a loop within the center of the bracelet like a gemstone core that shone brightly.-

"Aaand done!" I said as I finished the bracelet.

The final thing was a clear sky blue crystal band with smooth surfaces and a glow that shone through the core of the middle gently. I tossed it to Marie but Asterius caught it mid air deftly and looked it over carefully before handing it to the mermaid. Marie excitedly slipped the bracelet over her hand and onto her wrist while Asterius tensed but he relaxed when nothing happened. -

"Now you just need to ask it for a bubble to carry you and the rest should come naturally." I explained casually when she looked at my expectantly.

I wasn't joking either as I had made the cursed technique will based so once the bubble was formed initially it would worked based on how she willed it to. It was amusing to watch her struggle with getting a bubble at first before realizing I meant it literally when I said to ask it for a bubble. Once she figured that out though a blue glowing bubble expanded from the bracelet until it covered everything from her waist down and began to float off the ground. She panicked at first but once she calmed down she squealed in glee as she had the bubble float her all over the place.-

I ended up getting tackle hugged by her soon enough.

"THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" she exclaimed positively thrilled.

I chuckled "Theres no need to thank me. Consider it a gift for the first meeting. Now then if you'll both excuse me I was on my way topside before stumbling upon the both of you. Got a load of new goodies to experiment with, make some probably unhinged shit too if I'm being honest." I said with a grin as I peeled the clingy mermaid off me.

Marie looked disappointed I wasn't staying longer and Asterius merely tilted his head in acknowledgement as I left. There were no more surprises this time as I ascended the floors and finally reached Rivira. I crashed out in my base for the night after letting Hestia know I would be on my way back tomorrow for an update. I knew I didn't have enough smoke to reach max stats even though I likely qualified for leveling up but that was fine.-

Grinding out smoke was among the easiest things to do as I merely needed to kill monsters to do so. That said this next update would likely push me into the end zone of level three and may even come with another skill though I doubted it. Domain expansion was not like RCT that was a whole new thing but rather was more of what I already had. While it may seem odd that it wouldn't be a skill onto itself I found it perfectly reasonable since all it was was a cursed technique being pushed past oneself and onto an area of space.-

I was glad that I wasn't maxing out my stats anyways as I wanted to push my crafting DS to the next rank before I leveled up as I had an idea of what DS I wanted for my next level up, Mystery or Enchant. The first would broaden my horizons drastically and even possibly allow me to create a cursed energy version of the grimoires. Enchant however would be a straight up buff to any and all cursed tools I made from then on making them better than they'd otherwise normally be.-

Personally I was leaning heavily towards Mystery if it were to show up as I was confident in the quality of my craft already but being able to go far beyond the normal was not something I could just do otherwise. There was a reason why the DS was so prized by literally everyone after all. It also didn't help that there were only a handful of known holders of it in the entire world with Orario having only three. The others lived like royalty in various kingdoms and lands both literally and metaphorically depending on the holder.