This... is quite serious.

I sighed as I looked down at the ruined village.

"Grrrr..."

A pack of wild dogs, or rather, monsters, were tearing apart the lifeless bodies. The fur on their bodies was slowly emitting flames.

The small pioneer village in the mountains, which had about 30 residents, had become the lair of these flaming beasts.

There were about 10 of them, but that was still a terrifying threat to the humans.

I let out a small sigh and lightly severed the neck of the largest of the flaming beasts that was focused on tearing apart the bodies.

Suddenly, as one of their heads flew off, the other beasts raised their heads and looked around, but none of them could find my hidden form.

I placed my hand on the body of the decapitated beast and rummaged through it with my magical power.

I found a small, gemstone-like object near the heart, and extracted it with my magic.

A deep red, crystallized stone - a stone found within the bodies of magical monsters. The so-called "mana stone."

I examined the stone from various angles, then took out the black diamond I had been carrying and held it up to the mana stone.

But there was no change.

"Darn, that's not the one."

I sighed again and looked around. The remaining flaming beasts were on high alert, ready to flee at any moment.

Well then, let's just tear open their bellies and see.

I snapped my fingers, and blades of magical energy simultaneously severed the necks of the beasts.

Ah, one of them managed to survive? Sensing the danger, it had already started to flee.

"Trying to escape, huh? Looks like that's the one."

I muttered to myself, then snapped my fingers again, and the fleeing beast was pinned to the ground as if by an invisible force.

Crash!

Hmm... Maybe a bit too strong? It's completely crushed.

I sighed and approached the now blood-stained beast, channeling my magic to search for the mana stone. Fortunately, I was able to find an undamaged one.

I wiped the blood off the mana stone and brought it to the black diamond. This time, a tiny shard of darkness seeped out of the stone and flowed into the diamond.

A minuscule fragment of darkness. Well, at least I didn't waste my time.

After searching the other bodies, I found no more usable mana stones.

Hmm, one out of many. That's quite a low success rate.

I pocketed the black diamond and the mana stones, then set off towards the human city.

The appearance of monsters was a great crisis for humans, but it also presented an opportunity.

The meat, hides, fangs, and bones of the rapidly multiplying monsters became valuable resources for humans.

The most valuable of these was the mana stone - the crystallized form of a monster's magical power.

Initially, these deep red stones were discarded, but now their uses are known.

By grasping a mana stone and focusing one's thoughts, even those who cannot wield magic can utilize its power.

Of course, the amount of magic they can use is limited, but they can still conjure small flames or illuminate the darkness.

Thus, the mana stones have become a new and sought-after resource for humans.

Well, in my eyes, it seems they are wasting most of the magic power contained in these stones.

If the mana stone I just extracted had 10,000 units of magical power, the humans would only be using about 1 unit of it to create a fireball the size of a fist.

But I suppose that's just how clumsy humans use magic.

Even though humans were using the mana stones so inefficiently, they were still very interested in them.

Of course, I was also interested, but for different reasons than the humans.

Among the mana stones of the monsters... very rarely, a tiny fragment of darkness was found in the mana stones of exceptional monsters.

Naturally, it was a shard of Erebus.

As a result, I found myself in the situation of having to defeat even the monsters I wouldn't have bothered with before... how annoying. Really.

Should I outsource it? Or should I just buy the mana stones at a high price and check them?

But the problem was that the monsters with Erebus' fragments embedded in them were somehow exceptional - they could be called elite monsters without any exaggeration.

And those kinds of monsters were too difficult for the current human power to capture.

Even the flaming beast from earlier was able to dodge my blade of magical energy once. Maybe it had the ability to sense danger or even precognition.

It also seemed quite intelligent. Humans wouldn't have been able to handle that one.

And so, here I am, wandering around and defeating the seemingly strongest monsters to check for the mana stones.

Really... how annoying. Truly.

Ahem, let's get back to the topic of the mana stones.

Humans have started using mana stones for various purposes.

They use them to create light at night, to start fires, to make agriculture more bountiful, to purify water, and so on.

And this was not much different for other races as well.

First, the beastmen who live most closely with humans.

The beastmen use the power of the mana stones to enhance their physical abilities.

Strength, senses, endurance, and so on. It would be appropriate to call it a reinforcement magic that strengthens the body.

Of course, this was also possible for humans, but the difference in physical strength meant they couldn't achieve the same level of efficiency as the beastmen.

Next, the dwarves.

The dwarves were obsessed with mana stones.

If they used mana stones on ordinary iron swords, they could imbue them with special powers.

For example, the sword could emit flames, freeze the cut area, or electrify anything that touches the blade.

Moreover, there were about three main ways to imbue these powers.

One was a permanent imbuing. The power was embarrassingly weak compared to the other two, but the effect would last until the item was destroyed.

Hmm, like a softly glowing lantern or a subtly warm cushion. The power would scale with the size of the mana stone used, but other than being permanent, it didn't have many advantages.

The second was a temporary imbuing. The power was quite strong, and there was no burden on the user, but it consumed the mana stone.

They would have a slot to insert the mana stone, and the power would be activated by draining the stone's magic.

Of course, the downside was that the mana stone would be consumed.

The third was drawing on the user's own magical power. The power was weaker than the temporary imbuing, but it didn't consume the mana stone.

Since the user's own magic power could be used endlessly as long as they had it, the only problems were that the magic would run out, and overexerting without magic could be life-threatening.

Anyway, the dwarves were using mana stones in these ways.

As for the elves... they were using the mana stones to absorb their magical power and replenish their own, like a magical recovery potion.

The only concern was whether they might accidentally absorb a fragment of Erebus as well.

Well, if any problems arise, Yggdrasil will take care of it

The lizardmen, unfortunately, lacked an affinity for magic, so they couldn't use the mana stones. How sad.

But they were giving them as gifts to their spirit friends to improve their relationship.

The spirits seemed able to absorb the power of the mana stones and grow a little stronger.

Fortunately, the mana stones weren't completely useless!

As for the giants? They probably don't even know what mana stones are.

It's impossible for giants, who are larger than houses, to rummage through monster bodies and find mana stones.

Occasionally, they do manage to capture monsters as large as themselves, but... I wonder how the mana stones of those monsters would be.

I should go visit the giants' side and find out.

In this way, the various races were starting to adapt to the sudden appearance of monsters and began using the new resource of mana stones.

And the ones who used the mana stones the best were the humans, who could instinctively use magic - the mages.