-"A... divine stone..."

"Unbelievable..."

As soon as I opened the box, a blinding light escaped the box, and the light was truly blinding, but Rein and I could see the thing laying in the box finely.

An egg-shaped small stone almost Anna's palm size was securely sitting in this special box.

The blinding light that escaped the box was rainbow-like, a mix of countless different colors.

This stone... I knew quite a lot about this one and this was my first time seeing one myself like this.

[[ Master... this... ]]

[[ "Yes. A stone of concentrated pure energy. A phenomenal mineral that contains the ability to strengthen the origin connection of those with the powers of [Origin skill] and their respective origin." ]]

It was natural Celes would sense what this was. It was something like her, after all.

A mineral created by mother nature himself.

Something that just appeared in nature by itself. In random locations. At random times.

It stays there for a certain period, and if not preserved in a certain period of time, then it just becomes one with nature. Vanishing in thin air, just like it appears.

This was my first time seeing this thing.

And just the fact that I was seeing this was enough of a reward.

But... this was mine? My birthday gift?

"Damn..."

A holy stone.

A natural mineral made of a high concentration of natural energy.

It is believed that these stones appear in areas with a sudden high-energy concentration bombardment or space collisions.

Special stones that appear in random places after these catastrophic moments and after a while, they disappear as their energy empties out in the surrounding.

Sometimes, adventurers find these things in random forests, dungeons, or labyrinths.

They are more frequently found in remote places with no frequent human presence, so wanderers that roam the world mostly come across something like this, if they are lucky.

They are also found in places like in some ancient abandoned cities, islands in the middle of the sea, high mountains, or... maybe sometime in your house? Well, the appearance of these things was too rare, so there hasn't been an incident where this thing appeared in places with human activities.

I have read about these things and the most basic use of these stones is to train your origin skills.

As the stone is made of pure natural energy, if one properly trains in the presence of this stone, the radiating natural energy will help change the closed-off environment and if you use proper breathing methods to absorb the surrounding energy, you can progress in the origin skill's stages.

But this is something rarely known by people and no book contains this knowledge as these stones are so precious that even if someone manages to secure them, they don't have legal permission to sell them off to anyone other than the island of magic's wealth, in other words, the academy.

You can keep it as a family heirloom and wait for a child with a rare gift like [Origin skill] to appear, but selling it is a crime punishable by exile if found out by the authorities.

Few know the existence of this stone, and maybe I would be the only one who actually knows how to properly use this precious mineral.

The great forest of Kamut is a place filled with high-density special Mana and natural energy. That was a place too balanced for something like this to appear.

Master never needed something like this so she had never used it. But she still taught me how I can properly absorb the energy of this thing if I ever come across one.

I had thought that I would come across this one at least once.

I was going to join the academy, anyway. The only place that trained the best of the best and the ones with origin skills were treated even more special.

Anyway, I now had this divine stone in my hands. As a birthday gift. From my grandma.

I don't know if it's true or not, but I have definitely heard that there's a secret island in the north that periodically produces these stones.

That place must be quite a dangerous place to survive if that were true, though. But... this phenomenon is just a momentary thing in the end.

Maybe the rumors were true?

But giving it to her grandchild, who just turned twelve, was definitely quite something.

-Clap.

Closing the box with a surprised smile on my face and surprising my friend beside me, I took a deep breath and just stored the box in my white crack.

It is a superb gift and something I won't be using for a while.

The divine stone is only usable until someone reaches the Advanced Origin mastery. The reason they are specifically sold to the best educational institution that trains young ones.

I am at the upper-intermediate stage right now, so that means I can only use this stone till I reach the higher stage of this level.

But... I had just reached this level a while back and it hasn't even been a month since then.

I have to first grasp the more profound functions of Lucy and I am still not the best with my eyes, heart, and white crack.

I haven't even gone through the true origin awakening.

So, this one could help me with that, and actually... this one is a really, really amazing gift.

Rein's eyes were shining like stars while looking at that stone and box and I couldn't help but smile while looking at her sad expression when I just stored back the spectacular-looking stone.

It was actually very pretty. Anna might also love holding it... not that any one of us would let her do something that was life-threatening.

Rein and I both were comparatively high-origin skill users, so we would feel attracted to this stone, just like Celes or her crow would.

But, for normal people, just the high natural energy radiating from this thing would be too much to even withstand.

Rein was attracted to this. And actually, she would naturally crave this stone more than I did.

She had already gone through her true origin awakening a long time ago, so she can use her skills far better than I do.The first reveal of this chapter happened through n(0)vel(b)(j)(n).

Her origin skill, [Maiden of dusk], was a very rare armor skill... and I know she will use that during our dungeon raid, so I won't say much about that one for now.

She definitely had some very special skills. A skill like her dark chains, which can be used as a weapon skill, defense skill, or restriction skill.

The ability to travel through shadows. A teleportation ability that just had one limitation, limited travel distance.

The last of her origin skill... it was a conditional skill like my [Stark's triangle] but the one she had was far more powerful and dangerous than any of my skills.

But as dangerous and powerful as it may be, the condition of use was far more complex than my simple stark triangle.

She knew how to best use her skills and as her origin skills were primarily focused on fights and hunting or travel, my origin skills were focused on survival, sustenance, and magic archery.

She had high-grade special skills and they all are skills she specifically chose after her origin awakening.

According to her, the skills she had prior to go through the Origin awakening were focused on battle and high physical and magical output.

They were just too unbalanced, so she was glad they just disappeared and then... she made a good arsenal of skills.

She had twelve skills right now, all of them compatible with her and greatly useful in most situations.

Well, for now, I could have one more skill after I gained [Vital Healing] from the jewelry store last time.

I was thinking of a good (Indigo) or (Purple) raked skill as my last one but I know aside from mom's auction house, things like that aren't sold anywhere in this empire.

I don't know when I will have my own origin awakening.

Not that I wanted to even know that.

When I do go through my true origin awakening, most of my skills would just become one with my existing skills, and gain new abilities.

Maybe my heart will gain the healing power while the appraisal just vanishes and the white crack would have the functions of a 'mana shield' and 'energy burst'.

Well, I am looking forward to that day and I know it will be a long time before I do go through that, as the master had said, but for now... I received my first gift.

And even though she had this sad expression, she won't be having this precious gift that grandma gave me.

It was too precious for me to not have.

So... I just patted her head and opened the piece of paper that was with the box.

She understood from just the head pat that her absurd desire to have something that precious was really absurd.

She just shook her head and smiled at me, and I smiled back with a helpless expression.

She was strong, but still, I know she will grow and become far stronger even without a shortcut like this one.

The latter... this one had the handwriting of grandpa.

'Are they going from elders to children in decreasing order or something? I'm getting even more excited for mom's gift now~!'

If I consider that they all knew what gift the other was giving and I knew my dear mom would know at the very least so, what was there that was even more precious than this divine stone?

There was only one way to find that one out.

Reach her gift and get it myself... now I'm worried it will be difficult.