'Woah! What is that glowing purple letter?' Arvin asked, pointing at the letter.

{That my friend is a rune.} Lopt replied ​​

'What does it do?'

{It is a rune that lets the writer of the rune know when some other party is trying to touch the writer's thing behind his back.}

'Come again…'

{This rune has the power to let Alman know when someone is interacting with his vault.}

'So if we try to open the safe then Alman would know that someone is trying to open his safe?'

{Yes. And not only that he would also be able to know that location of this place.}

'Then it is a good thing that you are here. Or otherwise I would have been in a lot of trouble if I tried to open the safe with the help of Dobby… So how should we open it?'

{First, we have to destroy the seal. Then only we would be able to do something to the safe.}

'Lopt wait how did you know that there is a rune on this safe. You told me that you can only see or feel that I am able. But I on the other hand was not able to sense anything on the vault.

{You are too small and significant to understand the intricacy from which I do things. So don't overload the pea brain of yours and focus}

'…..'

{Anything else?}

'Is there any way in which we can quickly open the safe and get out of here before Alman could get here?' Arvin asked.

{No. Your encounter before was just a fluke. You were very lucky that you were able to get rid of him that time. You probably got him off guard or something. That is why you were able to get out of there without a scratch. But if he gets to know about this place location then we will in a very deep sh*t.}

'Ok, so what should we do?'

{With your mana you have to burn away the mark.}

'How?'

{Same way we were able to see the rune in the first place.}

'Mana eyes?'

{No dumba**. No. Use the mana inside you. You have to try emitting mana out of your hands. And when your hands start emitting mana, keep your hand on the rune. That will burn the rune.}

'Would tampering with the rune somehow be able to send a signal to Alman?'

{I don't know. But it may happen.}

'….'

{What? If you got a better plan than this then I am all ears.}

'Ok'

........................................

It turns out that emitting mana out of one's hand was also a very difficult task. Arvin was able to guide the mana towards his hands but no matter how hard he concentrated, the mana did not come out of his hands. It was like that there was some kind of dam or blockage that was making mana stop at his wrist. After 2 days of practice, finally, mana broke the blockage and finally came out of his hand.

But it turned out that one has to use a lot of mana to deteriorate a rune. And the amount of mana that Arvin was able to emit out of his hands was very minuscule. So Arvin took about 2 more days to finally destroy the rune for good.

Arvin felt happy when he destroyed the rune. But then he faced another problem. That was the vault itself. He didn't know how to open the vault. So he did the same thing that a person in his position might do…

After 5 hours of continuous banging the vault with a large stone, the small door of the vault finally opened. But as Arvin saw the contents of the vault all his frustration vanished like a fart on a windy day. Inside the vault, he saw pouches filled with golden coins. There were some trays filled with weird and colorful liquids. There were also some jars with some plants preserved in some liquid in them. But the most eye-catching thing in the vaults were glowing blue stones.

There were 6 of the blue glowing stones present in the vault. The sizes of all those stones were comparable to a baseball. Arvin could feel some heavy amount of mana inside of them without even touching them…

{See those glowing stones… They are your ticket to the second floor.} Lopt said.

'How?' Arvin asked while still mesmerized by the stones.

{These stones will help you to gain the strength that you desire…} Lopt said mystically.

'How should one use these stones?'

{Keep those stones in your hand and start meditating.}

'That is it?'

{Yeah…}

Arvin was in a good mood since he found the stones. He decided that after he had enough rest he would start training with these stones. Arvin made a makeshift bed from leaves and layed down on the leaves. It had been almost 2 weeks since he came to this forest. Now he was starting to miss the comfortable bed, he started missing civilization. And more importantly, he started missing Josh. That old man did a lot for him, even though they were a couple of strangers. And yet not only gave him a job but also gave him a roof to live in. Arvin was grateful for that.

But as Arvin was remembering Josh and his time there, he suddenly remembered the weird old black broken ax that Arvin brought with him. That broken ax was lying in his inventory. He had forgotten about that ax altogether. That time he didn't have any information about that ax, but as now he had Lopt with him, he thought maybe Lopt would be able to recognize that ax…

'Hey Lopt, could you check something for me? Tell me what you think about it?'

{Don't ask me how sure I am. But you are a little bit above average.}

'No, I wanted to ask…' Before Arvin could finish his sentence Lopt cut him in between.

{Kid haven't you heard? Techniques matter… People who care about sizes are just kids.}

'But I wanted to ask…'

{Don't worry. I will show some techniques from which you can make a girl moan like a cow who has not been milked in a while…

'NO! Could you please look at this…' Arvin said while taking out the wood… (😜 )

{Interesting… Where did you find this?} Lopt asked as he saw the pitch black ax.

'Didn't you scan my memory?'

{I scanned through important moments.}

'Well, Josh gave it to me.'

{Well, consider yourself lucky as you have just won a jackpot!!}

'Why?'

{Try to feel it. What is different about this broken weapon?}

'Well when I first saw it, I felt something odd about it. Now that feeling has intensified…'

{You felt the flow of mana you idiot!}

'What do you mean?'

{From what I can tell, this weapon is sucking in mana from the surrounding.}

'What does that mean?'

{Idiot… Think of this ax like a fish. It is desperately trying to suck mana in…}

'It is trying to breathe?'

{Correct.}

'Why is it doing it? And what should I do?'

{From the amount of mana it is collecting in it, I think it is a very high-grade weapon.}

'So can I repair it?'

{Feed this ax some mana stones.}

'Feed it? How am I supposed to do that?'

{Keep a stone on the ground and smash it with this ax.}

'Ok.'

Arvin then got up on his feet and did as Lopt instructed him to do. And it worked phenomenally…

As soon as Arvin smashed a mana stone with the ax, he saw that mana trapped inside the stone come out of the stone in the form of a blue haze. And the ax hungrily devoured the blue haze. After devouring the blue haze the chipped head of the ax started repairing itself with a speed visible by naked eyes. But that stone was not enough to repair the ax fully. So Arvin smashed another stone with the ax.

And after giving away two stones to the ax, the ax fully repaired itself…