169. Monster Stones Again... And You Guys Again?!

“I’m not really sure what to do now.”

I’d tried my Foreign Object Removal spell a few more times, but since each attempt had ended with me falling on my butt with nothing to show for it, I had no choice but to head into the forest myself—accompanied, of course, by my extremely attentive animal friends.

They’re probably just worried I’m gonna cast the spell again... They’ll definitely stop me from trying it, eh? But those weird dark specks are still all over the place, so they’ve gotta be coming from somewhere. I just gotta find out where...

“Argh! I can’t think of anything!”

I placed my teacup back on the table and looked toward the fields.

The Farm Brigade is hard at work today! Nothing unusual about that, though... Wait a minute, shouldn’t there have been a bunch of stuff ready to harvest right about now?

It’s all been done already...? I didn’t even notice...

“They didn’t let me help at all...”

Guess I have been a little out of it for the past month or so. It’s all well and good that I figured out what’s causing all this trouble, but it’s not gonna be over until I can get rid of it once and for all. I just need to come up with something...

My descent into yet another spiral of frustrated brainstorming was interrupted by something tugging on my pants. I looked down to find one of the clay dolls staring back up at me—a member of the Farm Brigade, judging by the colorful stone fitted into its forehead.

“What’s up?”

It held something out to me—a slate-gray pebble.

What? Wait, isn’t this a monster stone?

Confused, I accepted the stone from the clay doll. It promptly toddled back toward the fields, looking extremely satisfied with itself.

Yeah, I forgot they look like this at first. They don’t turn colorful until after I fill them with mana— Huh? Fill them with mana...

“Oh, wait! Can I