The Reverse Mana System - Chapter 3

Alex saw an injured wind wolf cub that was howling in pain, but due to a scary looking wound on it’s neck, the howl was more like a screech.

Seeing this, Alex got a bold idea.

‘After acquiring a system, I have always been wondering how strong I am with my new powers.

This little wolf cub can be the perfect test subject for me.’

Alex had read about Wind wolves. A regular wind wolf was about four times the size of an average dog after awakening.. But before awakening, they were the same size as a German shepherd. They were an upper level tier 1 mana beast after awakening and had a very high affinity with air element.

The one before Alex was an unawakened cub who could at most use physical attacks.

After scouting the surrounding area and making sure that no other mana beast was presented, Alex began to slowly approach the injured cub.

When he was within 5 meters of the cub, a system notification suddenly appeared.

[Do you want to enter combat mode?]

[Yes/No]

Alex had been stalking the wind wolf cub with high concentration, so the sudden pop-up startled him. The keen sense of the wind wolf cub immediately caught the movement behind it and it turned back showing its fangs.

Alex knew that hesitation would only lead to his demise, so he immediately pressed yes.

[Combat mode initiated.]

[All available spells and skills have been put to quick cast mode.]

Alex felt as if the mana inside his body was overflowing from his mana core.

The wind wolf cub immediately pounced on Alex.

It could feel that Alex was not much of a threat, so there was no need to test him.

Alex moved sidewards to avoid the attack, but still the claws scratched past his waist.

Immediately, a cut appeared on his skin with slight bleeding.

Alex took in a mouthful of cold air. That was close.

Had it not been for his quick reflexes, the wound would have been serious.

Before he had time to think properly, the wind wolf cub attacked once again. This time, Alex was already prepared and quickly began casting his wind blades.

As soon as he thought about using windblade, the air around him formed a curved structure and was launched at the wind wolf cub.

This took both Alex and the cub by surprise because they had never expected someone of Alex’s level to be able to cast the wind blade without incantation. It usually required high proficiency and months worth of training for someone to achieve this.

The wind blade hit the cub who was only lightly injured by it.

‘So this is what quick cast mode means.’ Alex was feeling elated, but he knew that now was not the time for this. He quickly cast another windblade. This time, the windblade seemed more solid and was of the shape of a sword.

At the beginning, Alex did not have a mana core, so after arriving in this world he had to learn to use sword for self defense. But he was still stuck at a lower level of sword mastery due to his body being unable to perform some high speed movements in absence of mana.

Alex began engaging the wolf cub in melee battle with occasional use of wind blade projectile or fireball, but he was still struggling against the wolf cub.

In the midst of their heated battle, suddenly the cub’s body began to shine and it swiped its claw in empty air.

Alex, who was caught completely off-guard had no chance of dodging and was hit by the attack.

[Mana analysis complete.]

[Mana type :elemental (wind)]

[effects: elemental damage + sharp piercing effect.]

Right before he was hit, a system notification appeared in front of him.

Alex was pushed back by the impact of the attack and also a wound opened up on his chest.

Alex got up and took a look at his wound. It was not life threatening, but serious nonetheless.

He looked at the cub, but was surprised to see that a network of light green lines spread like veins inside its body. There was also a small stone-like centre of this network which would occasionally send out gusts of greenish lights into the network.

‘So this is the mana core and mana circuit of this wolf cub. But it is incomplete, that’s why it is still a cub and can occasionally cast magic attacks.’

Alex saw that the wolf cub was channelling it’s mana again, so he started to dodge it, but somehow before he could properly get away the attack had reached him. In the spurt of the moment, he released a fireball which was immediately scattered on contact with the wolf cub’s attack. The next second, Alex felt a pain in his core and he could see that the mana flowing inside his body abruptly stop before beginning to move in a completely different pattern than before.

The fireball that had manifested in his hand started to get translucent and whitish.

This new fireball was released and completely obliterated the attack heading for Alex before continuing to move towards the cub.

The translucent fireball hit the cub and caused it to howl in agony. This was Alex’s first attack which caused a significant damage to the cub.

Not wanting to lose the opportunity, Alex cast another fireball and a wind blade. The sword this time was a bit different than previous ones.

The fireball hit the cub and it once again howled, but Alex quickly followed through with a sword attack directed at the injured throat of the wolf cub.

This time, there was no more howling as blood splashed on the ground and the little wind wolf’s corpse fell on ground. A wind blade was still deeply stabbed in its throat.

[You have killed a half mature Wind wolf (level12).]

[damage dealt(32%)]

[+1600 exp]

[bonus multiplier ×3 due to the opponent being more than 10 levels higher than the host.]

[total exp gained: +6400 exp]

[Mission complete : first kill]

[Mission reward: basic mana training method,

+2000 exp.]

[Claim reward?]

[Yes/No]

After claiming his rewards, Alex gave a satisfied smile.

Surprisingly, his injury had healed very quickly by passing some mana in his muscles near the cut and it was not very serious now. If he had to guess, he was sure that it was due to the special constitution that he had gained.

Alex looked at the corpse lying near his foot and ducked down to lift it when he heard a long howl heading towards him. Without hesitation Alex picked up the dead Wind wolf cub and started running towards his ‘safe zone.’ When he was about 50 meters from his destination, Alex saw his pursuer for the first time.

An adult wind wolf was chasing him from at least 50 meters behind and was closing in at a very fast pace.

‘If this goes on, I won’t be able to escape no matter what.’ Alex was drenched in cold sweat.

Suddenly an idea struck him.

“System add 10 free attribute points to agility.”

Alex said out aloud.

Immediately a notification was shown about 10 free attribute points added to his agility and Alex’s speed nearly doubled.

The race continued for two more seconds before Alex was finally 10 meters away from the shore.

Seeing this, the wind wolf let out an angry howl and began to prepare a mana attack.

[Combat mode enabled.]

[All the available spells have been put on quick cast mode.]

Alex knew that leaving his back open to the wind wolf would only spell death, but he had no interest in staying and fighting to death.

Alex turned around to face the wind wolf. He stimulated his mana to create the translucent fireball, but did not release it. He was waiting for the wind wolf’s attack when he finally realized something.

Since the cub had not developed a complete mana circuit, he couldn’t see clearly. But on seeing the mana circulation of the adult, Alex realized that his new fireball was created when the mana of his body circulated in the absolutely reverse manner to that of the wind wolf. But there was still a feeling that something was missing.

Before he could figure out what was missing, the attack of the wind wolf arrived. Alex launched his fire stream just before the attack hit him.

Booom!

A small explosion ensued. Alex quickly used the rebound of the explosion to cover the remaining distance and finally reached the two mile zone.

After dashing in a few meters, Alex finally turned around to see if the adult wind wolf would follow him or not.

His assumption was correct. The wind wolf dared not set even a foot in this zone. Alex finally heaved a sigh of relief and began studying the wolf’s behavior from a distance.

The wolf itself was pretty badly injured. One of its hind legs had a ghastly wound which nearly covered it’s entire leg. There were also wound marks all over his body which were bleeding without stopping.

The wolf was standing there glaring at Alex.

Alex also stared back and could easily feel the hatred in the wolf’s gaze, but what was most evident was the pain in it’s eyes. The sight could easily make one’s heart ache.

Alex was also deeply moved by the melancholy in the wolf’s eyes, but he couldn’t just hand over his life for sympathy.

Alex had a rough idea about what had happened to these wolves, and after an hour, his suspicion was validated when a tiger like creature with a cut mark on both its eyes suddenly appeared from behind the wind wolf.

‘That’s a monolith tiger. A tier three mana beast.’

The wind wolf also saw the tiger approaching.

It gave Alex a gloomy look before looking at the monolith tiger.

What happened next left Alex speechless. As if it had lost all motivation to live, the wolf just stood there casually with a detached look in it’s eyes. Sound of two large rocks clashing was made with the movement of the tiger’s muscles as it immediately pounced forward and smashed the wolf into a meat paste.

The tiger left after killing the wolf without even paying any attention to Alex who was standing there speechlessly.

‘Well I don’t even have the right to be looked at by him.’ Alex gave a dry laugh before turning to what was once an adult wind wolf. He was surprised to see that the mana core of the wind wolf was left on the corpse.

‘Though it may sound hypocritical of me, but I truly sympathize with you. It was unfair to you, but that’s the one word that most closely describes the world ‘unfair…’ After saying that, Alex picked up the mana core of the wolf and went back to where he was standing earlier and picked up the corpse of the cub.

He manifested a wind blade and dug out the core from it’s body.

After he was done, Alex sat down to take a look at the two cores in his hand. A system notification woke him from his trance.

[The mana cores of wind wolves can be absorbed to increase the efficiency of reverse mana against other wind wolves.]

[Proceed with absorbing?]

[Yes/No]