The Reverse Mana System - Chapter 11

Alex was finally in front of the dungeon boss of this beginner level dungeon. He had already gathered goblin cores and blood of the goblins that he had killed. The only item left was that he had to collect from this dungeon which was enhanced moon steel.

Alex searched around the room and finally found out something that could very likely have been enhanced moon steel. It was a lump of metal of irregular shape that was placed in one end of the room.

But, before he could get the metal, he had to defeat the dungeon boss.

[Name : Grobzarten the flail]

[Race : Goblin]

[Level : 25]

[HP : 4770 (1800)]

[MP : 1600]

[Skills : poison flail, whirlwind blow,.

flail wielding( low level)]

[Abilities : steel body, dungeon lord( increasesHP)]

[strength : 340 agility : 200 ]

[Endurance: 320 intelligence : 160]

‘This one is going to be tough.’ Alex said to himself.

Due to this goblin being the boss of the dungeon, it had gained bonus HP. Not only that, this goblin was an experienced combatant who radiated an oppressive pressure. Alex knew that he was no match for this goblin in the current situation, so he decided to increase his level.

Alex took a look at how much exp he had gathered. He still had about three hundred and sixty thousand exp left.

‘System, level up to level 20.’ Alex said under his breath.

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[+40 all stats, +80 free attribute points, +16 skill points, +400 HP, +600 MP.]

Alex still felt that this was not enough.

‘System, can I level up my spells using skill points?’ Alex asked in his mind.

A system screen appeared before Alex.

[Spell level 1 to 2 cost : 5 skill points]

[Spell level 2 to 3 cost : 10 skill points]

[Not available at current level]

[Not available at current level]

….

…..

[Not available at current level.]

Alex had 32 skill points, so he decided to level up fire stream and wind blade by spending 15 skill points. With a level 2 speed enhancement which essentially doubled his speed, Alex was ready to begin.

By now, the goblin boss had already drawn back it’s flail and was preparing to attack again.

Alex immediately dodged to his left and cast wind blade projectiles. A series of wind blades that were larger than any he had previously cast was launched at the goblin who used the head of it’s weapon to dodge it. Alex immediately cast shadow movement and appeared at a different position. Before the goblin could turn around, a black coloured flame covered it. Alex had just cast a fireball and was preparing to attack again, but he suddenly felt a sense of danger. Alex immediately used speed enhancement and got away. A spiky macehead hit the ground where Alex was standing with considerable force.

Alex had no time to be distracted, so he used speed enhancement and immediately charged in at the goblin while it was pulling its weapon back. Alex cast a windblade and stabbed it in the goblin’s gut.

The windblade was able to only make a shallow cut before the goblin punched back at Alex.

Alex was barely able to block the punch from directly hitting his ribs and was thrown back a few meters.

Alex immediately pulled back because he wasn’t expecting this goblin to be so proficient at fighting. But, the goblin immediately followed him around.

Alex cast multiple wind blades to stop the goblin from closing in. The goblin was not affected by the wind blades much, but even then it didn’t dare to take all those head on and so, it had to give up on chasing Alex and defend itself.

‘ I can’t engage it in melee or hand to hand combat at any cost and also it has an effective range of about six meters with that thing in its hand. I can’t even get near it without risking my head.’ Alex was feeling a bit pressurized.

The only advantage he had was that he was inside a run down house and a large part of the floor was covered by shadows, but the goblin had already seen him use shadow movement and was on guard against it. The only way he was able to hit it was by creating distractions.

Alex once again moved towards the goblin with his new game plan. He charged at the goblin who swung its flail at him. Alex used shadow movement and appeared behind the goblin who immediately turned back to punch Alex, but by the time it turned, Alex was already gone. A black fireball hit the goblin’s jaw from its left.

” Rawrrrr!”

The goblin’s jaw was injured which enraged it and it immediately began to swing its weapon frantically.

At a glance, it seemed like the goblin was enraged and was swinging its weapon without any proper pattern, but Alex was able to see a systematic mana flow in its body which could not be possible if this move was truly made in a rage.

This was the goblin’s skill ‘ whirlwind blow. ‘

Anyone who was not cautious would have taken it as an opportunity and stepped into its trap.

Once the person was in the strike zone of this skill, a blow that was much faster and stronger than all previous attacks would crush them to paste.

Alex knew that this goblin was trying to trick him into charging in, so immediately a plan formed in his mind and he launched two wind blades in the direction of the goblin as if trying to probe the feasibility of attacking.

Just like he thought, the goblin let the wind blades hit him.

Alex immediately cast a fireball followed by a wind blade at the goblin which was waiting for him to charge in.

The goblin was stunned for a moment. This human had not taken the opportunity like he was supposed to and instead decided to keep attacking from a distance. Every opponent that this goblin had faced before had taken the opportunity and charged straight ahead at it.

The goblin used all its power to swing the flail at the fireball and extinguished it, but it’s flail got stuck in the ground due to the impact of the blow.

A windblade immediately followed and hit the goblin. It was followed by many wind blade projectiles in succession.

The goblin knew that it couldn’t leave it’s weapon, but also it couldn’t continue taking those attacks, so it let out a grunt and it’s skin began to turn metallic. This was it’s defensive ability, steel body.

All the attacks dispersed on touching its body and the damage couldn’t even reach double digits. Alex quickly charged towards the flail head that was struck in the ground.

He was a bit excited as this was the first time he was using fire stream as a complete spell. He touched the flail and immediately black flames erupted from his hand and began moving towards the goblin. Soon, the goblin was covered in black flames and all sorts of debuffs appeared on it, but stubbornly refused to let go of it’s grip. Seeing this, Alex continued using fire stream.

The HP of the goblin kept falling sharply. In the end, it had to finally give up on its weapon and released its grip, but only after violently jerking it.

Alex’s hand was scratched by one of the spikes.

The goblin pulled back and kept staring at Alex from a distance. Suddenly, Alex coughed out blood.

Cough! Cough!

This time, Alex had swallowed back the blood.

As if it was waiting for this moment, the goblin immediately charged in at Alex.

It reached Alex in an instant and raised its fist to deliver a crushing blow to Alex’s head, but as soon as it arrived near Alex, a wind blade was stabbed into its gut. Another wind blade was used to slit its neck, before a fire stream was cast by Alex by touching the body of the goblin.

The goblin looked at Alex in shock as it collapsed on the ground.

“You aren’t the only one in this ruin that uses a poisoned weapon. ” Alex said as he whacked the dying goblin and split open it’s head.

He coughed out some blood once again. He had intentionally let the poison act on his body so that he wasn’t discovered midway like last time. Needless to say, he had also suffered some damage due to this.

Alex looked at his HP which was already below the 50% mark and sighed.

Although this goblin could easily rival high Tier 1 mana beasts due to its skills and increased HP, Alex wasn’t much happy. If the goblin had not made an error in judgment or if Alex had not suspected the steady mana flow of its body, the result would have been disastrous.

After taking some time to rest, Alex dug out the mana core from the dead goblin. He got a pleasant surprise when he used appraisal on it.

This was an evolved mana core with an added effect of poisoning.

After he collected the mana core and enhanced moon steel, Alex was immediately teleported to what looked like a blacksmith’s shop.

For a moment, Alex thought that he was in old man Dreron’s house, but on second thought, this one was much larger and the old man’s house.

Suddenly, a lump of metal appeared in front of Alex. Flames manifested on the metal which immediately began to melt. The molten metal was gathered in a mold. This all went in a fast forward manner until the blade was formed.

This blade had a circular hole near the hilt. A mana core was put in this hole and then, the monster blood was used to draw mana gathering spell inscriptions and other spell inscriptions on the blade. Finally, a basic mana sword was completed.

Alex was a bit confused though. It seemed like the system was trying to teach Alex how to draw spell inscriptions on the blade.

After the tutorial was over, everything disappeared and Alex was left in front of old man Dreron’s house, staring at empty air.

There was no mana sword in his hand. Alex was a bit flustered and opened the system interface. He scrolled to the weapons store in a mixture of nervousness and hurry.