The Reverse Mana System - Chapter 5

Alex had been following the mysterious woman for only a few minutes when suddenly he heard a mechanical voice in his head.

‘Huh..’ Alex was surprised by this sudden voice in his head.

“What happened?” The woman asked, turning back and looking at Alex’s surprised face.

“No… nothing.”

Alex replied. The woman turned around and continued moving forward..

[World energy required for completion has been absorbed.]

[The system will restart after 10 hours. ]

[System Level 1 reached.]

[All the features have been unlocked.]

[All information has been updated.]

.

.

.

.

A series of notifications arrived in front of Alex.

The oldest one of these was from 22 hours ago while the newest ones were from 2 hours ago .

All in all, these messages described how the system had reached Level 1 by absorbing the required amount of World energy and some new features that were unlocked.

There were also continuous pop-ups about 1 unit of World energy being absorbed from time to time.

Alex opened his system interface and was surprised to see the effects of the updates.

All the information was now collected under their respective headers like System info, stats, skills and abilities, host’s info, announcements and features and finally there were three new features namely Missions, stimulation practice and store. There was also a list of the reverse mana which had only one entry at present. This was

[Mana source: Wind wolf ( tier 1 mana beast)]

[Mana type: elemental (wind) + piercing]

[Reverse Mana: 40% effect.]

This complete version of the system also had one added feature which was audio.

He could choose whether he wanted a notification screen or an announcement in his mind.

Alex was grateful for this feature because it would be very difficult if these notifications covered his entire view. Alex was tempted to check it out, but a new notification arrived.

[The system’s appraisal function has been activated. Adding appraisal ability to the host’s pupil.]

[Please wait….]

Suddenly a burning sensation invaded his mind and Alex stopped moving. He closed his eyes, but the pain only got worse. Tears began rolling out of his eyes. Suddenly, he felt something touch his eyelids and a cool sensation began to envelope his eyes. The pain and burning sensation immediately subsided.

Alex opened his eyes to see the woman looking at him with a smiling expression.

“Your abilities choose quite weird times to awaken.”

Alex could only laugh dryly. What could he say to this?

He looked at a notification that had appeared beside her.

[Name:????]

[Race:?????]

[level:?????]

….

…

All information about her was filled with question marks.

‘ My present level is too low to access her information. ‘ Alex sighed.

He looked back at her. He could only describe her by the word perfect. Her body was very well proportioned and gave the feeling of elegance rather than being seductive. Though her chest was on the flatter side, it only increased the desirability somehow. And also there was this aura around her that gave one the feeling of motherly affection, her pure and noble aura only deepened this perception.

Also her nature was pretty good except for when she had forcefully read his memories. Alex also found a sense of intimacy whenever he looked at her. In the beginning, he found it somewhat dubious but after careful thinking Alex found that he was overthinking.

What joke was this. The one in front of him was most definitely at a level where she could just end him with a thought if she wished to do so. There was no need for any pretenses. Even without any reference just the fact that she could sense a human settlement which was a few days journey away from them was a feat that anyone Alex had met before now could only dream of accomplishing.

It was getting awkward, so Alex decided to break the silence.

” Senior, what are you doing in this forest?” This question of Alex was asked not for the sake of getting an answer, but rather he was interested in finding out how much leverage he had in their party of two.

” I came here to visit someone whom I met many years ago. He can be called an acquaintance, but he is too old and will be dying soon. So, I am here to visit him. And also stop calling me senior. I am called that all the time. Honestly speaking, it’s quite irritating. ”

“Since you look only a year or two older than me, how about I call you elder sister or something?” Alex was fully prepared to get rejected. This was his second test, a test to find out how close could act to her.

“You can call me Verenia. That’s my name.”

She replied with a smile on her face

That was out of Alex’s calculations.

He never expected her to be so frank and outgoing. Especially someone of her power.

The environment only got lighter after this.

They grew more and more familiar with each other on their journey. Although Verenia didn’t talk much about herself, Alex found out that she was some very respectable figure with incredible powers.

Whenever they had to take a rest or eat something, Verenia just had to casually wave her hand and trees with all kinds of fruits would grow out from the ground. So the first day of their journey went uneventfully.

When Alex woke up the next morning, he was still sleeping on a bed made of grass, but he couldn’t find Verenia anywhere.

Alex didn’t think much about it and decided to look around, but as soon as he got out of the region created by Verenia he wished that he hadn’t.

In front of him, there was a pack of about thirty creatures which looked like dogs, but were surrounded by a creepy aura.

[Mana Beast: Poison fang Hyena ]

[Level: 15]

[HP: 2048/2500]

MP: 1890/2400]

[Skills : poison fangs, poison scratch, howl of death, corrosive spikes. ]

[strength:107 ] [ agility: 120 ]

[endurance: 90 ] [ intelligence:105]

[Mana beast : Poison fang Hyena ]

[Level : 18]

[HP : 2700/2900]

[MP : 2400/2700]

…..

…..

There were 32 hyenas with levels ranging between 12 to 20 in this group.

The attributes of all the Poison fang Hyenas were shown to Alex. One look and Alex could tell that they were here with no good intentions. The corpses of all the other peaceful creatures that had gathered in the sanctuary created by Verenia’s arrival were littered on the ground as a proof to that.

[Hostile intentions detected.]

Combat mode initiated.]

New mission: Resisting Onslaught ]

Description: survive the attacks of the hostile mana beasts. ]

[Rewards: +43,000 exp, low level antidote ×10,

3 new spell learning cards, 1 skill upgrade card, exp equal to twice the cumulative damage dealt.]

“System use all the available exp for leveling up.” Alex said in a low voice.

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[+30 all attributes, +60 free attributes, +300 HP,

+300 MP, +12 skill points.]

‘Since the mission is about survival rather than fighting, it should be alright if I don’t confront them directly. The optimal strategy should be running away, but I am sure that I won’t be able to outrun all of them.’ Alex glanced at all the hyenas that had gathered around him.

” System increase the agility to 85 and add remaining points to endurance.” Alex said as he started retreating back into the forest while maintaining his vigilance.

The hyenas mostly had close range abilities except for the corrosive spikes, so it was better to keep a safe distance away from them.

After retreating back a few meters Alex turned away and started to run at his full speed. He climbed up a dense tree to hide.

From his gaming experience, he knew that his strength was too low for a direct confrontation, so he could only rely on ambush and trying to avoid those Hyenas as much as possible.

At this moment, a system notification was heard in his brain.

[Mana Analysis complete.]

[Mana type: poison + corrosive]

[Effects: corrosion, poisoning.]

So does that mean that I can use the reverse mana once I know the mana flow in those hyenas’ body? Alex asked the system in his mind.

The answer he got was a yes.

After this, all that remained was for him to convert all the available potential to actual combat prowess.

Alex quickly opened the system store and learned some new spells and skills which could help him in the present condition.

The pain generated in his head as he learned those new skills was quite unbearable and nearly caused him to fall down, but Alex managed to get through it by gritting his teeth.

After some time, the first hyena arrived at where Alex was by smelling his trail. This was one of the weaker ones and was also moderately injured.

Alex jumped down from where he was hiding and arrived right in front of the hyena. This caught the hyena by surprise and Alex launched a fireball at it.

The power of his fireball had increased when Alex leveled up and coupled with the very small distance between them, the effects were also magnified.

But it was not enough to severely hurt the Hyena. Although a considerable amount of HP of the Hyena was lowered, it was still not enough to put the Hyena in danger.

Alex had already expected this outcome, so he did not wait to see the effects of his attack and used another spell to get away before the Hyena had a chance to attack.

[Spell name: Speed enhancement (basic)]

[effect: Increases the speed by 50% for about 5 sec.]

[Mana usage: 5 per second.]

[Cost: 1 skill point.]

The hyena howled loudly and started to look for Alex in a rage.

All the nearby hyenas also started gathering near it.

Once again, they began to chase Alex.