Return of the Woodcutter

"Put that down, boy. It's no use to someone who fights with a double-handed ax." Ainar said, looking at him from his counter on which the Ancient Shard had appeared from who knows where.

"Actually, I'm more familiar with a shield and a one-handed ax. I do, however, use two-handed ones when necessary. At least when I have the luxury to swap between these two weapons." Aito replied, putting down the shield. "What it is exactly? Some kind of multi-purpose weapon?"

"It's a morpho-weapon or morpho for short," Ainar explained, grinning at the possibility to sell a merchandise. He then grabbed a one-handed sword and heather shield. By infusing mana into both items, he activated the hidden mechanisms.

The heather shield rapidly opened in three equal parts. The middle part turned out to be a sheath where Ainar inserted the blade. Once inside, the sword's blade and pommel lengthened.

Ainar then drew the weapon as the other two parts of the shield closed, forming a smaller heather shield.

In Ainar's hand, instead of a one-hand sword, was now a two-handed long sword.

"And all it took me was 0.5 seconds from the moment my blade connected with the shield." He said, seemingly proud of his work. "Very practical in battle. The versatility it offers, allows the user to quickly swap weapons. Of course, you could argue that it's useless when you can store your weapons inside an inventory bag and use it to quickly swap. But the reality is, sometimes you do not have time to do so when you're in a tough spot."

What the minerian said made sense. Even when Aito had had the inventory on the island, it still required him a considerable amount of focus to switch and select the weapons.

"Focus" he could have used on something else than picking items from a blue ethereal window or, in this case, an inventory bag. Moreover, he could indeed find himself in a situation where he wouldn't be able to access the inventory bag.

Also, an inventory bag wouldn't necessarily give him the weapon he needed immediately unless Aito stuffed it with only the chosen weapon. But that would be a waste of space in his opinion.

"I genuinely think, it's truly worth the purchase," Ainar said, clearly inciting Aito to buy a morpho. "At least until you reach the level to create your own inventory."

"It is tempting, but let's first talk about what I came to see you for," Aito said, hinting at the shiny rock on the counter. "Did you find out anything concerning this… rock?"

"Right, come closer then," Ainar said, putting aside the morpho while waiting for Aito to stand in front of him. "Hum, where should I begin? You see, this… thing whatever it is, cannot be called a metal, but can also be called one."

"That's an awfully confusing answer, Ainar."

"Tsk, just let me finish, boy." The inventor said, before grabbing an iron stick. "This rock has the properties of a metal, no doubt about it. It smells like one and tastes like one."

Confused, Aito furrowed his brows and sent the minerian a complicated gaze.

"I'm called a minerian for a reason, boy. My race has close ties with metals and minerals in general because our bodies are mostly composed of them." He said, showing his rocky forearm. "Because of it, you could say we have a gift for sniffing metals. Identify their composition. As if we're able to hear it talking to us. Put it simply, and plainly, they are our cousins."

"Ehm… sure." Aito reply, not knowing what would be appropriate to say. At first, he thought the minerian was joking but only read seriousness on its rocky, bumpy face. Ainar was a real open book.

"That's what makes us good smith, but also endanger our species." He said with a gloomy look. "Anyway, that rock of yours is unusual. It is harder than steel but still can't measure to harnium, the second-best metal in Iris and durnium, which I only had the pleasure to work with a handful of times in my entire life. But compared to those, it has one trait I've never seen before."

Ainar handed over a wooden shield to Aito and asked him to protect himself with it. Although skeptical, Aito did as he was asked.

Then, the minerian brandished his iron rod on top of his head. It soon glowed yellow, showing the activation of Durability, then brought it down on the Ancient Shard.

Upon making contact, the rod shattered. Multiple pieces or iron propelled in random directions, some of them bounced off Aito's shield and Ainar's thick skin.

One of the perks of being a minerian was being covered in raw metal, which provided minerians with an incredible body resistant to physical damage.

"Glad you had a shield now, boy? Hehehe." Ainar said, half-mocking Aito's shocked face.

"Just what happened?" Aito replied, unable to process the phenomenon.

In response, Ainar grabbed another iron rod and hit the Ancient Shard again, without using Durability this time.

Aito lifted his shield up for fear of iron shards piercing his body, but the expected outcome didn't happen. Instead, the iron rod just bounced off the shiny rock.

"Do you understand now?" Ainar asked, smirking.

"Incredible…" Aito said, almost speechless.

Ainar's test showed that the Ancient Shard violently repelled the iron rod when coated with Durability, a skill using aura which was a mix of mana and soul power.

But when he had hit the shiny rock with the uncoated iron rod, the violent reaction had been nowhere to be seen.

From this experiment, Aito could guess that the Ancient Shard rejected aura. And since aura coated the outside but also the inside of an item, acting on the molecular level, shattering upon touching the Ancient Shard was inevitable. 

Basically, it was an anti-aura rock.

Aito then thought back to his arrival when he had shattered Sam's sword, that had been coated with Durability, using his Ancient Shard. 'It makes more sense now.'

"However, the rock does accept mana." Ainar said, "Which means aura isn't what it rejects, but soul power. In fact, this thing absorbs mana like I eat charcoal for sustainment. It feeds itself with mana. At least when it's whole."

The minerian brought out a small piece of shiny rock from under his counter and showed it to Aito, who was starting to wonder if there was an inventory inside this furniture.

"I've extracted a piece of this shiny rock using harnium tools and guess what happens when it's not connected with the mother piece," Ainar said, speaking with apparent passion while forgoing the fact he had extracted a piece without asking the owner first. "It receives mana normally, like any other metal, but keeps its anti-aura property. Moreover, just a day after I've cut it out, the mother piece regenerated, growing back the exact same amount of rock that had been extracted."

"What are you getting at?" Aito asked.

Ainar sighed, seemingly drained speaking with an ignorant. "Don't you get it? I'm saying there is a high possibility that inside this rock, resides a living… thing.. The metal is only its outer shell protecting what's at the center of it."