After a period of awkward silence.

“I see…… my condolences.” Albert said consolingly.

“Hahaha! What for?! It’s not like she’s dead. She’s just in a coma, that’s all!” Sebastian tried to lighten the mood.

Wait… the legendary artifacts bound themselves with the soul of owner right? If that is the case, then doesn’t that mean the soul of the previous owner is already long gone? Can you really call that being alive?

I wanted to retort but doing so would only make the mood heavier so I held back.

“Haha! Now now, let’s not talk about that anymore. Let’s just drip a tiny drop of your blood on top of this dual bow-gun and it’s yours, lass.” Sebastian ended the topic with that and passed a needle to me.

“Mm… alright.” I took a needle offered to me by Sebastian, and reluctantly poke the tip of finger with it.

“Ouch!” The needle pierced my skin and a little bit of blood starts flowing out from the opening. I dripped the blood on top of the weapon, and they glowed dimly for a few seconds.

“Shiiing! Shiiing!”

“Huaaa… What is it? Morning already?” A voice rang out in my mind as soon as the weapon stopped glowing.

“Hm? Did you say something?” I looked at Sheena as I asked, since she is the only girl here other than me.

“No? Did you hear something?” Sheena answered while tilting her head.

“No…… never mind, maybe I just misheard.” Seeing Sheena’s innocent face, I don’t think she was lying, so I just shrugged off as my imagination.

“Well then! Now that we have your weapon and with plenty of Silver coins left, I guess we should get you some Mana Stone.” Since we didn’t spent a single penny on this weapon of mine, Sheena wanted to get me something else. She wanted to get me something with her own money to celebrate our life-time contract.

“Mana Stone? What’s that?” Upon hearing the unfamiliar term, I turned my attention to Sheena and asked.

“Mana Stone is basically a stone that can store mana to recover your Magic Power. Seeing how much Magic Power your special ability consumes upon activation. Having one or two Mana Stone wouldn’t hurt.” Albert explained in her stead.

“Hahaha… if it’s Mana Stone you want. Then you are in luck! I have one Mana Stone with 10,000 capacity left. Normally it would go for one Gold coin but for you, I’ll sell it for ninety Silver coins!” Sebastian rummaged through his stock and grabbed the Mana Stone from under the counter.

“So expensive!! Don’t you have one with lower capacity?” Upon hearing the catastrophic cost of the Mana Stone, Sheena couldn’t help but cry out in shock.

“I’m sorry lil miss, these Mana Stone are high in demand. You would have to wait for another few months before the next stock of Mana Stones are available.” Sebastian felt helpless that there was nothing else he could do.

I pulled Sheena’s sleeve lightly, and whispered softly in her ear, “Um… perhaps I don’t understand the value of money in this world, but just how expensive is this Mana Stone?”

“Sigh… Alright, let me put it in a term that you can understand. Let’s say one Bronze coin in Halkeginia equals to 10 USD on Earth. How much do you think a single Silver coin is?” Sheena heaved a sigh and used the money that I am familiar with as an analogy.

“Um… let’s see…… if one Bronze coin equals 10 USD, then ten Bronze coins is 100 USD…… one Silver coin is equal to one hundred Bronze coins, so that means… 1,000 USD?! SO EXPENSIVE!!” I shouted in the end after finalizing my calculation.

I mean, I can’t help it right? Ninety Silver coins are equivalent to 90,000 USD!! Even in my previous life, I don’t even have more than two-tenth of that amount! It’s way too expensive!!

“Uh… um… Sh-Sheena…… umm… you know… you don’t have to force yourself to buy that for me you know?? I mean… it’s too expensive! Even if you get it for me, I would feel WAY too insecure to carry something THAT expensive on me…” I try to convince Sheena not to buy it.

“Before we decide…… can we borrow that and let Sylvia recover some her Magic Power first, Uncle Sebastian? If we encounter some monsters or rogue on the way back, with her Magic Power as low as it is now, she will only drag us down.” Sheena requested Sebastian to let us borrow the Mana Stone for a while.

“Hahaha sure, go ahead and take as much mana as you want!” Sebastian handed the Mana Stone over to me.

“Eh? Won’t the value of this Mana Stone decrease if I drain the mana out of it?” I was reluctant to do it. Since I am basically draining one Bronze coin for each unit of Magic Power!

“Hahaha! Don’t worry about it lass, these Mana Stone have a function to draw mana from the surrounding like the Magic Staff, they can collect the mana and store it within them over time.” Sebastian explained briefly regarding how the Mana Stone works.

“Oh… is that how it work?” I was truly amazed, this is truly a fantasy world, there are so many interesting things that cannot be explained with logic here!

While I was still mesmerizing at the wondrous world before me, Albert said, “Yeah, the Mana Stone usually fully recovered after ten hours.”

“Phew… then don’t mind if I take some mana out from the stone.” I grabbed the stone and then stared at it. After one awkward minute of staring at the stone…

I asked, “Uh… So how do I recover my Magic Power?”

“Pfft-ahahahahahaha!” Sheena, Albert and Sebastian broke out in laughter.

Eh? Did I say something funny? They probably knew that I do not know anything, and kept their silence to watch my reaction. How mean!

“Hahahahaha! Oh lass! It’s quite simple, really! You just have to put that stone in front of your lips and suck the mana out of it!” Sebastian is the first to snap out of the laughter and explained.

I did as he told and kissed the stone. A moment later, I can feel a surge of mana flowing into my body, rapidly recovering my Magic Power.

“Wow, I feel so refreshed!” After feeling the supply of mana is no longer flowing into my body, I pulled the stone away from my lips.

Sheena, Albert and Sebastian all stared at the Mana Stone wide eyed.

Hm…… why are they so shocked? Did I break the stone? I turned my sight to the stone nervously and let out a sigh of relieve, there doesn’t seem to be a crack on the stone.

But it is too soon to feel relieved… about one-tenth on the surface of the Magic Stone seems to have turned grayish. I wonder why… did I break it after all?

I lifted the stone in front of my face, holding it up with my palm. I looked at the grayish part of the stone and asked, “Um… this is……?”

Sheena put her right hand on top of her head and shake it twice, “I don’t believe it…”

“To think it would consume that much Magic Power…… I guess this is what you call mighty power comes with great cost……” Albert was also shaking his head while he let out a sigh.

“Uncle Sebastian, we will buy this Mana Stone after all…” After looking at the stone, Sheena finally give in and decided to buy the Mana Stone.

“Ehhhhh?! Why? Did I break it after all?” I panicked.

“No…… but your innate Magic Power and the consumption rate of your skill is too high. A normal Mana Stone would be consumed immediately.” Sheena denied the claim and explained.

“That’s right, normally, a basic elemental spell usually only consume around 10 unit of Magic Power, and a beginner mage usually have an average of 200 unit of Magic Power in total.” Albert supplemented.

Then Sebastian continued, “From the looks of it, around one-tenth of the mana has been consumed within the Mana Stone. That means around 1,000 unit of Magic Power has been drained by that special ability of yours in a one go. You get what I’m implying here?”

So… that means I have at least around five times more Magic Power capacity compared to your average beginner mage, but since my special ability consumes too much Magic Power to register itself for instacast, I had no choice but to rely on the Mana Stone.

“I see…… that is bad indeed. That means I won’t be able to register high level spell for instacast.” I lamented at the thought of it.

While I was lamenting at my inability to instacast high level spell, Sheena shouted, “That’s why we need this Mana Stone all the more!”

“Why? Does it have some other function other than recovering the Magic Power?” I was surprised when Sheena suddenly said that. I know that I need the Mana Stone now, but how does that help me in regards to register high level spell for instacast?

“Hahaha! This lass truly have good insight, she caught on frightening fast!” Sebastian was delighted at my keen intuition.

“Oh… so it does indeed have other function. What is it? Tell me already!” I looked at Sebastian with gleaming eyes. My arms are in a “v-shape” in front of my breasts, and my fists are clutched tightly.

“Hahaha, you guys explain to her. I’ll do some modification with this Mana Stone.” Sebastian pushed Sheena and Albert to do the explanation while he moved into the workshop at the back.

“Oh, does that mean the other function cannot be used with the Mana Stone just as it is?” As I thought of that, I turn my head over to Sheena and Albert looking for an explanation.

1. N/a