Embracing Magic - E.M Chapter 139 (Part 2)

Killing all the orcs wouldn’t bring peace to this area anyway. The central continent was crawling with monsters, so if the orcs were wiped out, some other creature would just take their place.

“Shall we head this way?”

“Yeah.”

They traveled for quite a while in a clockwise direction, taking a wide detour to completely avoid the orc village.

Along the way, they encountered several orc patrols, all of which were dealt with swiftly. Since they were weak enough to kill with a simple swing of the hand, it wasn’t particularly bothersome.

Although a few hours were wasted on the detour, they managed to cross to the other side without engaging the orc village. From there, Rodin’s group continued their journey without stopping.

They had set out in the morning, but before they knew it, the sky was dimming with the approaching evening.

“Brother, we should probably find a place to rest.”

“No need. I’ve already found one.”

“Really? Where is it?”

“This way.”

Rodin dismounted his horse.

The area was a rocky terrain, making it impossible to proceed further on horseback. Besides, they were nearly at their destination.

Seeing Rodin dismount, the others followed suit and tethered their horses. The horse carrying Karis and Jena seemed particularly relieved.

Together, the two women weighed over 150 kilograms. The horse had essentially carried the weight of two grown men all day while traversing rough terrain.

“Brother, do we still have a long way to go?”

“No. If we go around this way, we should be there soon.”

Once again, Rodin took the lead and guided the group.

After rounding a large boulder ahead, a deep canyon came into view. Below, they could see a long, narrow fissure running through the canyon.

“Big brother Rodin, my back hurts.”

“This is the place.”

“Here?”

“Brother, are you sure this is the place? It just looks like a cliff.”

“Let’s go down and see.”

As usual, Rodin cast a spell on the group.

They floated into the air, descending slowly to the bottom. The cliff was quite deep, and it took some time to reach the bottom.

At the base of the cliff, they found a massive crack in the rock wall. Piled beneath the crack was a heap of black stones.

The black stones, stacked waist-high, were dull in color and rough in texture. They resembled the Magic Stones they had seen before but were noticeably different.

“Are all of these Magic Stones?”

“No. Most of them have already lost their functionality. They seem to have decayed over time. Magic Hand.”

Rodin conjured a magical hand, which sifted through the pile of black stones. Among the non-functional black stones, he found a few that weren’t dull in appearance.

“These are Magic Stones, right?”

“Yeah. There aren’t many functional ones here.”

“But there are more than ten of them.”

Rodin continued to sift through the pile, extracting all the stones that emitted any trace of magical energy. In total, there were twelve functional Magic Stones.

“Big Brother Rodin, wouldn’t carrying those around help with magic?”

“It’s the opposite. It would only reduce the efficiency of mana cultivation. It’s better not to have them.”

Mana cultivation (meaning mana training or absorption) begins by chanting runic incantations to absorb the surrounding mana. Magic Stones, which also absorb ambient mana, would inevitably compete for the same energy.

“Ah, I see.”

“Hmm.”

After clearing away the pile of decayed Magic Stones, Rodin turned his gaze to the large crack in the wall. From deeper within the fissure, he could feel a much stronger concentration of Magic Stones.

“Brother, are you going in?”

“Yeah. Now that we’ve come this far, we need to handle this properly. What about you guys? It could be dangerous inside. There might be situations where I can’t protect you.”

“You want us to stay here, don’t you?”

“No. The choice is yours. I’m not going to interfere with your decisions anymore. You’re all grown up now.”

After witnessing Larry and Bianca fight against a second-tier swordsman yesterday, Rodin had decided to acknowledge their abilities.

They were no longer children who needed constant protection. They had grown enough to take responsibility for their own lives.

“I’m going in.”

“Big Brother Rodin, I’m going too.”

“Alright. Let’s go in and finish this quickly.”

Jena, holding her shield, took the vanguard position. Behind her were Rodin, Larry, and Bianca, while Karis brought up the rear.

“Light.”

Rodin conjured multiple orbs of light, eliminating as many blind spots as possible. Only then did they get a proper view of the interior of the fissure.

Inside the fissure, black stones were scattered everywhere, so densely packed that they got in the way as they walked. Rodin carefully picked out the functional Magic Stones as they progressed.

Whenever Rodin identified a Magic Stone, the others would kick aside the non-functional stones, clearing a path as they moved forward. Fortunately, the fissure wasn’t very long. Soon, they emerged into a wide cavern.

The cavern was filled with an even greater number of black stones than the fissure. It looked like a warehouse built specifically to store these stones.

“We’re too late to finish today. Let’s camp here.”

“Here?”

“Yeah. It’s going to take a while to find all the Magic Stones.”

Using his Magic Hand spell, Rodin swept the black stones into a pile, as if sweeping the floor with a broom. In the cleared space, he retrieved two carriages from his dimensional storage bracelet.

“We won’t need to set up tents, right?”

“No, let’s just rest in the carriages. Dinner will be dried meat. I’ll finish collecting the Magic Stones.”

The Magic Stones they had found outside the fissure, combined with those from inside, amounted to nearly a hundred. However, the cavern contained several times that amount.

Fortunately, the Magic Stones in close proximity were detectable not only by Rodin but also by Karis and Jena. With their help, they quickly sorted out the functional stones.

Karis and Jena had also demonstrated the ability to read magical patterns in underground ruins. They used those patterns to determine whether something was a threat.

While they struggled to sense mana from a distance, it was an inherent limitation of their combat construct nature, something that couldn’t be helped.

“Big Brother Rodin! Is this one good?”

“Yeah, that’s a good one.”

As a mage, Bianca could also sense mana. However, her talent wasn’t particularly outstanding, so she had to remain constantly focused to locate Magic Stones, which was mentally exhausting.

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