For advance/early chapters : p atreon.com/Ritesh_Jadhav0869
Caelan tasted the dried fruit. It wasn't sweet but salty and a little spicy. The flavor was certainly unique, and he found himself wondering what kind of fruit it was made from.
Over by the shelves, Musta was rummaging through boxes, creating a mess, but he still hadn't found the runestone.
Caelan couldn't help but speak up. "Uncle Musta, why don't I just run back to my shop? It's not far."
"No, no! I have piles of unused runestones here. There must be some. I'll find them very soon," Musta replied, his voice muffled as half his body disappeared into a crate.
Helpless, Caelan could only wait. Out of boredom, he watched the two little dwarves play Elemental Contra.
They were currently on the eighth level. It was clear they had used the thirty-life code, as Hogan was dying constantly. In the short time Caelan watched, the older brother sacrificed three lives while his own counter had long since hit zero. Karrum, however, operated with nimble precision—monsters and enemy projectiles couldn't touch him. He was clearly guarding against his older brother scrolling the screen too fast; after gaining some distance, he would always stop and wait patiently for Hogan to catch up.
Suddenly, a crisp clack echoed through the room.
Caelan's mind palace churned. Following his intuition, he looked down and saw a fist-sized black stone rolling toward him. It stopped right at his feet, emitting a faint green glow visible only to his enhanced senses.
Caelan hesitated. The green light looked ominous. Could it be radioactive?
"Aha! Found it!" Musta exclaimed, ignoring a jar he had just broken. He walked over and dumped a large pile of runestone tablets in front of Caelan. "See? I told you they were here. They were just under that jar."
Caelan picked up a Size 6 tablet. He thought for a moment, then pointed to the object at his feet. "Uncle Musta, what is this thing?"
Musta peered over. "Oh, that? It's a fragment of an extraterrestrial meteorite. Some meteorite powder, when added to molten iron, can improve weapon quality or enhance enchanting affinity. My wife tested that one a few times, but it's useless for smelting."
Caelan remained silent, staring at the glowing stone with indecision. His mind palace urged him to touch it, but his knowledge of radiation from his previous life made him wary.
Seeing Caelan's interest, Musta shrugged. "Little Boss, if you like it, you can have it. These things are common—meteorites crash down on our continent all the time. If they aren't useful for smelting, they aren't worth anything."
Caelan considered it. The stone had been in the dwarf's house for a long time, and no one here seemed sick. If it were truly radioactive, at this distance, he would have been irradiated long ago.
"Thank you, Uncle Musta," Caelan said, picking it up.
Nothing strange happened physically, but the turbulence in his mind palace instantly quieted down.
After Caelan engraved the game for Musta, he engraved a smaller runestone with a separate introduction guide, treating it as a mini-manual.
He handed everything back to Musta. The dwarf tried to pay, but Caelan refused. Musta put the money away but insisted on dragging Caelan into a drinking session.
They drank wine and snacked on the salty-spicy dried fruit. Caelan told Musta about the game leaderboard, specifically mentioning that Karrum was the First Clear champion of Tank Battle and had maintained the top spot. Musta beamed with pride upon hearing this.
After bidding farewell, Caelan returned to his residence. Looking at his cramped living quarters, a rare thought popped into his mind: Should I move to a bigger house?
Lying in bed, he tossed the black stone in his hand.
He had learned from Musta that to normal eyes, the stone was simply black. Only Caelan could see the faint green glow. He examined it closely; there were fresh cut marks on the surface, likely from Musta's wife grinding samples for testing.
He channeled mana into it—no reaction. He probed it with his mind palace—still no reaction.
After experimenting for a long time with zero results, Caelan placed the stone on the table and got up to use the bathroom. However, as soon as he moved about half a meter away, his mind palace surged again, filling him with inexplicable confusion.
He walked back and touched the stone. The mind palace calmed instantly.
What kind of ghost reaction is this?
He tested it repeatedly. The stone caused the most intense mental turbulence when it was exactly half a meter away from him. The effect decreased with distance until, at two and a half meters, there was no reaction at all.
Caelan didn't want to sleep with the thing, fearing it might do something weird while he was unconscious. He tossed it onto the front counter of the shop for the night and went to bed.
He slept peacefully.
The next morning, Caelan washed up and greeted Ella.
"Boss," Ella said, "several merchants came looking for you yesterday. It seems they want to place bulk orders for game runestones."
"Ah," Caelan replied. "Didn't you give them the address of the new shop?"
"I did! They said they'd come find you there today or tomorrow. Also, someone came to apply for a job right before closing. I told him to find you at the new shop this afternoon."
Caelan nodded and headed for school. As he passed the counter, his mind palace surged again. After a moment's thought, he grabbed the stone and took it with him.
Today's schedule featured a sparring class: Year One Class Five versus Year One Class Eight.
The sparring grounds had activated a Spatial Array, expanding the practice areas so that each of the hundred-plus rings was roughly half the size of a football field.
As a well-known "genius" throughout the academy, Caelan's reputation as the "weakest combatant" was equally famous. Consequently, several slackers from Class Five eagerly vied for the chance to spar with him, nearly starting a fight amongst themselves for the "easy win."
Caelan maintained an indifferent attitude. He couldn't beat anyone anyway, and poor students never cared about exams.
After drawing lots, Caelan was matched with a chubby student named Hadwin of House Embertiger.
His House was fire-associated, but Hadwin himself was a martial artist who primarily studied Wind magic.
At the start of the match, Caelan circulated his mana and threw a Fireball Spell. Hadwin didn't care at all; he casually flicked a Wind Blade toward Caelan, intending to neutralize the attack mid-air.
However, things didn't go as planned.
Caelan's fireball devoured Hadwin's wind blade and continued rushing toward him without slowing down.
Caelan was surprised. In his memory, his spells were pitifully weak. It seemed that as his mana capacity increased, the potency of his spells had grown significantly.
Hadwin dodged just in time. As a Wind Element martial artist, speed was his specialty. Seeing Hadwin rush toward him, Caelan felt a surge of confidence and decided to test his limits. He quickly circulated his mana, firing several consecutive fireballs.
Hadwin dodged them one by one. Just as he was about to reveal a triumphant smile, Caelan clenched his hand and yanked it back.
The two fireballs Hadwin had just dodged suddenly pulled a U-turn and smashed into his back.
"Tracking Fireball Spell? Caelan, your mana has improved!" Hadwin was startled but not flustered. He formed his hands into claws, preparing to use Wind Claws to shred the fireballs.
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck him.
Hadwin's body stiffened, paralyzing him just long enough for the two tracking fireballs to slam into him.
Elementary Lightning Spell: "Lightning Strike." It was one of the most powerful elementary spells, though it came with the drawback of extremely high mana consumption.
Although Lightning Strike was powerful, Caelan only had a One-Star talent. His understanding of the Lightning Element was shallow, so even with the perfect recall of his mind palace, the spell wasn't as devastating as it could have been.
Hadwin emerged from the smoke, battered and disheveled, but unharmed thanks to his mana defenses. He looked angry. Waving his hands rapidly, he sent a volley of seven or eight Wind Blades flying toward Caelan.
Caelan stomped his right foot. An uneven earth wall rose before him.
Thud-thud-thud!
Dirt splashed as the wind blades cut into the wall. The defense was poor, but it successfully blocked the wave of attacks.
Before Caelan could sigh in relief, Hadwin burst through the splashing dirt. Propelled by wind magic, he threw a punch straight at Caelan's left arm.
Caelan only had time to reinforce his body with mana before the blow sent him flying.
Hadwin prepared to follow up and finish him off, but Caelan's hand speed was faster. He raised his uninjured left hand high.
"I surrender!"
Hadwin's charge came to an abrupt, awkward halt.
A teacher overseeing the sparring slowly floated over. He nodded at Caelan, who had loudly declared surrender without a hint of embarrassment.
The teacher noted the result in his book. "Your records previously showed you at First Circle strength. Now, it seems you've reached the Second Circle. You've made rapid progress. However, you surrendered too quickly, so one academic credit will be deducted."
"Really? I'm already Second Circle?"
Caelan completely disregarded the credit deduction. He rubbed his swollen right arm and stood up, grinning.
Beside him, the disheveled Hadwin looked depressed. He couldn't understand how Caelan, the guy famous for having zero resistance, had suddenly reached Second Circle strength. Hadwin had been careless and ended up looking foolish; he knew his classmates would be laughing at him later.
For every 300 Power stones bonus chapter.