The Reverse Mana System - Chapter 8

Alex was pulled directly into the village by the person.

“You don’t have to worry about food or residence for the time being. You can live in my house, but you’ll have to help us with the preparations for welcoming the Apostles of God.”

Alex didn’t want to come in direct contact with Gods or apostles, but making these preparations for welcome was acceptable.

Alex was surprised to see that most of the residents were mostly tier 1. And the highest power level was a measly level 50 which was lower tier 2. How could they survive in this forest full of powerful mana beasts?

Though he hadn’t made direct contact with them, Alex had seen a large number of tier three and one tier four mana beast while he was walking with Verenia. Moreover, those were just the ones he found walking in a straight line, how many more would there be in the entire forest.

As if seeing through Alex’s confusion, the boy replied, ” I assume that you are not a member of the twenty tribes that inhabit this forest, so you are confused about how we can live here. To tell you the truth, it is because of Lord God that we are living peacefully here..”

” The lord God has inscribed defense spells at the centre of each tribe, and he has also subdued the beast king of this forest. Legends say that he defeated the beast king who had been ruling this forest for thousands of years just by raising a finger of his….” this guy just continued babbling about how strong, kind and so on their God was.

Alex could only bear with it while this person seemed to go on and on without stopping.

“Hey! where are we going?” Alex cut him in his speech, afraid that he wouldn’t stop if no one stopped him.

“Oh did I not tell you my name? How forgetful of me!” The boy said, looking at Alex’s face.

“You can call me Lucas.”

“I am Alex.”

“Nice to meet you Alex. Let me take you for a tour of our village first so that you don’t…”

” What is the work that I’ll have to do?” Alex cut him short again.

“Alright, let me take you there.” Lucas began leading the way while Alex began to follow him while silently observing his surroundings.

After leading Alex to one of the corners of the village where a few people were already doing things like carpentry, metal work ,etc, Lucas stopped.

“You can either work here and do odd jobs and chores or you can choose to go out with the hunting party to gather mana beast flesh or some herbs from the forest.” Lucas said. “But I’d rather that you do these odd jobs, I have heard that there are some high level tier 1 beasts who have recently begun to appear in the area near the village.”

“Then I’ll have to trouble you introduce me to the hunting party.” Alex replied nonchalantly.

“Huh..! you want to join the hunting party despite knowing that there are mana beasts gathering at the boundaries of the protected area? And you don’t seem to be very strong either. You shouldn’t..”

“I don’t think that I am very skilled with this kind of work, but I can be of help in fighting against those mana beasts.” Alex didn’t intend to let Lucas continue and cut him short once again.

” At least let me finish first, you can decide it later.

You don’t have to risk your life. Even if you don’t know much about these jobs, you can still help with other things in the village.” Lucas truly sounded worried about Alex, but Alex still insisted.

In the end, Lucas had to give up and he brought Alex to a different place.

A group of seven people were standing there and talking loudly. Just by their mannerism and looks alone, Alex could tell that these people were the hunting team.

There were six men with ripping muscles who were talking and laughing loudly and a girl standing a few steps away from them, carrying a spear.

All these men were either tier 2 or upper tier 1 and all of these belonged to the warrior classes.

Warrior classes used mana to strengthen their bodies and were only able to cast weak enhancement spells.

On reaching higher tiers, they were able to conjure spells with explosive powers and use them for melee attacks. They were usually close quarter fighters who required zero casting time.

On the other hand, the girl appeared to be a caster who used magic spells instead of skills. These could be compared to the mages from the games that Alex played in his previous life. Also, the strangest thing was that despite being the same age group as Alex, she was already tier 4 at level 130. She also had the strongest physical capabilities in that group.

Alex cast his appraisal on her and something immediately caught his attention.

[Name : Sheri]

[Race : Human]

[Level : 130]

[Constitution : triple spirit affinity with lightning, water and fire spirits.]

[Mana Core : Silver (78)]

[Stats:]

[Strength : 1510]

[Agility : 1640]

[Endurance : 1004]

[Intelligence : 1900]

[Charisma : 1990]

[Perception : 1680]

[HP : 18, 900]

[MP : 40,000]

Alex noted that this time, the system did not show him the skills and spells at the girl’s disposal like it showed of the mana beasts.

‘ Is this because of her high level or can I see the skills or mana beasts only? But this girl sure is a talent, but it’s a pity that she will most likely stay in this village till the end of her life and waste her talents.’ Alex thought to himself.

“Hey guys! This is Alex. He was lost in the forest and incidentally stumbled upon our village. I took him in so that he can help us in welcoming the Apostles. He will be joining you people in the hunting party tomorrow. ” Lucas said, pointing at Alex.

“Nice to meet you.” Alex said courteously.

Those men looked at Alex and nodded slightly, only the girl looked at him with some interest. She scanned Alex from top to bottom before signaling him to step forward.

[New mission : Test of strength]

[Description: The hunting party wants to test your compatibility with their tasks.0

[ Prove your strength by lasting upto 2 minutes against their leader.]

[Mission rewards : +3600 exp, entry in the hunting party.]

A system notification appeared in front of Alex.

‘ System, add all the exp in leveling up. ‘ Alex said under his breath.’

Level up!

Level up!

Level up!

[+15 all attributes, +30 free attribute points,

+150 HP, +225(150) MP, +6 Skill points.]

[Combat mode initiated. ]

[All spells have been placed on quick cast mode.]

As soon as Alex moved a few steps towards the girl, she suddenly strode forward for what was supposed to be a surprise attack. Due to the system’s warning, Alex was already prepared for this and quickly dodged her.

The girl was a bit surprised, but she immediately recollected herself. Another punch came towards Alex’s face. Alex used speed enhancement and immediately his speed doubled. He was able to narrowly escape the attack. Seeing that the physical attacks were not working, the girl began to cast a spell.

Alex’s eyes shone brightly. This was his chance, all spells needed time to build up, but he could cast any spell immediately with the help of the system. He immediately dashed towards where the girl was standing and cast a fireball. A dazzling fireball was immediately launched at the girl. Alex had leveled up the fire stream spell and also his proficiency was also highest for this spell.

Alex knew that he would only be able to buy some time for himself so he immediately retreated back to maintain some distance.

Even if the girl was holding back considerably, her perception was already on the level of 130.

Alex knew that he had lost the element of surprise and his attacks were only meant to buy him some time.

As soon as the fire vanished, the girl charged at Alex. She had tried to cast one of the spells which required some time for casting in order to finish the duel in one move.

This time, she charged at Alex while she cast level 2 water bullets. This was the spell that she was most proficient in, and was quickly cast. A series of water bullets were shot at Alex who was already busy retreating.

Whizzz!

two water bullets whizzed past Alex, leaving two small cuts on his right cheek.

The girl was in front of Alex the next moment.

Alex once again cast his fireball and immediately followed through with a shadow movement.

The long shadow caused by the brightness of the fireball was sufficient for Alex to escape to a safe distance.

“Do you only know how to run away?” The girl said, trying to provoke Alex.

‘ Ho-Ho.. so provoking is allowed. I can also do it.’ Alex thought with a smile on his face.

“You are much stronger than me, yet are unable to even tap me and now you are blaming me for dodging. That’s quite an effective fighting style..”

Sheri knew that Alex was provoking her back, but there was something about his words or the tone in which it was said that ticked her off. Despite trying her best to calm down, she immediately started to attack more fiercely. She raised her strength from upper level tier 1 to peak tier one. She immediately dashed at Alex,

“Do you have anything to say now?” she smirked at Alex when she was just half a meter away from him.

“You waste too much time talking.” Alex said as he thrust his hand forward, a wind blade immediately materialized . Sheri immediately stepped back and began attacking in much more rage. After this, it was only Alex getting a one sided beating, though the attacks were nothing fatal, the speed was considerably higher.

Somehow, Alex was able to last 2 minutes even though he was beaten up.

“You are not bad. Even though you may be the weakest among us, you can still hold your own against a mid tier 1 mana beast. You can join us, but try not to slow us down.” Sheri said, looking at Alex.

“Hey, can I get any weapon over here? I think that I can do better with a weapon in my hand.” Alex expressed his honest opinion.

“Come with me.” Sheri said after some thinking, as she began leading the way.

Although she had won, she was very impressed with Alex. This was the first time that she had seen someone as proficient in battle despite his low level.

She took Alex to the local blacksmiths shop.

Alex was a bit upset though.

“Hey! Why are you making that long face? Do you honestly think that you had a chance to win?” Sheri said in an irritated tone as she looked at Alex’s expression.

“Oh, it’s nothing like that. I just remembered something sad. That’s all.” Alex said looking forward.

There on his system screen, he could still see the weapons section of the shop grayed out. This was the real reason for his long face. The weapons in the shop should be much better than those made by some blacksmith, but he couldn’t get them.

There was also the notification of Sheri’s mana analysis. Due to the huge difference in level, the system had only been able to analyze 3 percent of her mana till now, but the process was continued even after exiting the combat mode.

As Alex neared the blacksmith’s, he decided to close the interface when suddenly a notification rang out in his head.

[ Store dungeon has been detected.]

[Weapons store has been activated.]

[Collect material from the dungeon to forge the weapon of your choice in the store.]

Alex was surprised by this new notification, but he saw Sheri staring at him from the side due to his abrupt change in expression. He decided to look at this later and closed the interface.

But he could still feel his heart racing in excitement.