There are many types of mana stones in this world. One of the most well known is the expendable type mana stone. Within the rock, some amount of mana is stored. Once the mana within the stone is all used, the stone turns into dust. The next type is the refill type. This type of rock does not turn into dust once all of the mana within it is used; instead, it continually absorbs mana from the atmosphere. Its quality depends upon the mana it can absorb and store within a specific time. Similarly, there are many more types of mana stones.

The type of stone being used right now was expendable. There were a total of 3 stones. Each of them was similar in size to an average man’s palm. They had a bright green color. Each stone would allow a user to perform a single middle-tier spell. So, they had to solve the problem by using single mid-tier magic or multiple low-tier magic.

“First, you have to engulf this pill; it will disable your flow of magic temporarily. Hence you will only be able to use magic from the stone, not your own. Of course, I will take one of the pills myself”, she exclaimed

“I see, but being a tower master, won’t you be able to use the tower’s magic even after taking the pill?” Azrael asked

Her gazed sharpened, “Do you really think I would need to cheat to beat a person like you?”

“Of course,” Azrael replied optimistically without hesitation

Angered, she gritted her teeth, “You don’t have to worry about that, all of the other tower master’s will observe, so I won’t be able to cheat.”

“And why would I trust them? All of you could perform cooperative cheating, then I would be helpless, wouldn't I?” Azrael replied

“Then what do you want?” she asked

“Simple, we will compete outside the tower.”

“Eh? But the challenges have been prepared inside; how can we compete outside?” she asked

“What challenge is there in solving the problems created artificially to test someone? Outside this tower within the kingdom, how many difficulties and challenges do you think the people face? Would it not be better if we compete on solving practical problems rather then premade challenges? And in the process, we might also help someone.”, Azrael exclaimed

“Eh,” Outside, she had a calm face, but inside she started to panic. If they went outside the tower, the primary advantage she had would fade away. It would then be a fair competition, but how could she let this happen?

“No, you see, I am really attached to this tower, from the moment I became the owner of this tower, I vowed never to leave this tower and forever spend my life here.”, she replied with sorrowful eyes

With no more energy or will left to argue, I agreed, if she cheated, I could do the same

“Whatever, let's just get it over with.”, Azrael demanded

“Hehe, then let us begin.”

Again, the room we were in changed. The room was covered in the illusion of grassland and a clear sky.

There was a small pool in front of us.

“Inside this pool, there are two types of fish, the 1st type is standard goldfish standard goldfishes, small and useless, the following kinds are mutated goldfishes, both of them look exactly the same from outside and inside, there is only one fact that differentiates them. You have to find out what it is and whoever finds the most number of mutated fish within the next hour wins”, she explained

Inside the pool, 1000’s of goldfishes could be seen. All of them looked the same. In reality, there were only 10 fishes inside the pool

“Oh, and let me guess you know how to differentiate them?” I asked while looking at her

“Of course, so are you going to whine about it being unfair?” she replied

Ignoring her, I simply looked at the pool

I could clearly see their outer structure, after comparing over 1000’s, I could not find any difference between them. There had to be some difference between their internal structure, but I would have to use the stone to use any x-rays spells. Then I looked at the side to see what she was doing

She had not started to act yet, “my, my, are you waiting until I catch a fish and try to spot the difference? Too bad for you I won’t act until the final hour.”, she said with a smirk on her face

Then I realized I was not going to win this without wasting much mana,

I went near the pool, stretched one of my hands. Took a dagger in another and sliced my wrist

The blood began pouring out at a rapid rate.

The blood from my hand fell onto the pool’s water and soon started to mix with it

My replica was made from the cells of a human and a high elf.

Unlike humans, elf possessed a high concentration of spiritual energy within their bodies. Not all elves had it, but the high elf I used to create my replica was exceptional. Spiritual energy came from nature. It would destroy anything that opposed the rules of nature, such as mutated organisms. Mutated beings were beings created through the experimentation between mana and living organisms.

My blood started to mix within the water.

Of course, there was a limit to how much I could lose my blood. To use regeneration, I would have to use mana from within the stone.

But this vessel was blessed by the spirits, my mana was sealed, but the elfen body would naturally heal rapidly using the spiritual energy.

It would have been a problem if Fiona noticed I was a half-elf, but humans did not naturally know about spiritual energy. She would think I would have cheated somehow, but as long as she did not figure out how, it would not be considered cheating.

“What? Just what are you doing?”, she asked but I ignored her

Soon, I could see some fishes having their bodies burnt and converted into ashes. After some time passed, I figured no mutated fishes were left

I looked at her and said,” Goodluck finding any mutated fish.”