Silently, the dragon watched Evan’s sudden release of mana and smiled slightly to itself. It had been searching for new wither mana users, as the ability was extremely rare among the living races. In fact, it could count the number of users on one of its taloned feet. Another reason so few possessed it was that those who failed to complete the challenges the dragon set before them were killed. However, the vast majority succumbed to the mana itself, unable to properly control it. That was what made wither mana so difficult to wield, as it actively fought against its user’s control, seeking to drain them as well.
There were only two ways to properly command it, as far as the dragon knew. The first was to possess an extreme natural affinity for it, and the second was to have the willpower necessary to rein it in. The boy clearly met the first requirement but lacked the strength of will to truly master it. As the dragon observed Evan charging straight toward the goblins surrounding his companions, it could not help but wonder whether he would be able to handle the excess energy. Wither mana functioned as a double-edged sword. If he drained too much life force, his body would be unable to manage it. His cells would rapidly mutate, spreading cancerous growths throughout his body. His death would be gruesome, leaving his corpse an unrecognizable mass of twisted flesh and organs.
The dragon also noted that Evan’s mana reserves were depleting. His initial burst of flames had consumed far too much mana in a wasteful manner. Wither mana worked best when combined with flame spells, as it could sustain itself and spread by consuming the energy it drained. There were a few other powerful combinations, such as pairing it with acid or life mana. When mixed with life mana, it caused rapid mutations in the target, similar to the effect suffered by a wielder who absorbed too much energy. This was one of the dragon’s favorite applications, as few enemies had any defense against life mana, given that it was typically used in healing spells. Their bodies accepted it naturally, only to be undone from within.
As these thoughts passed through the dragon’s mind, it realized a minute had passed, and the goblins had been completely eradicated. The shaman, unprepared for the hobgoblin’s failure, was swiftly overwhelmed by the two human mages. It had relied on the brute’s strength to provide a distraction, allowing it to cast spells freely without needing to defend itself. As the last few goblins fell, the dragon watched Evan collapse, his mana nearly drained. His tattoos still glowed faintly, and any small wounds inflicted by the goblins in their last moments healed before the group's eyes. No longer interested in the battle, the dragon took flight and dropped its invisibility as it disappeared into the sky.
Evan stumbled as his mana reserves neared depletion, a pounding headache setting in. The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was a large black form that he could have sworn was a dragon vanishing into the distance.
The group finished off the last few goblins just as Evan collapsed and rushed over to check for injuries. Strangely, he bore no physical wounds, and his body radiated vitality. They had far too many questions for him when he woke up. There was no way someone at his level should have been able to seriously injure a hobgoblin, let alone kill one without significant assistance. Once they confirmed that his condition was due to mana exhaustion rather than any hidden injuries, they turned their attention to treating their own wounds.
With their injuries tended to, they set up camp, retrieved the horses, and pitched their tents. As they settled in, a discussion quickly followed. Why had the goblin tribe been so much stronger than expected? Given the village’s proximity to the road, the goblins should have been dealt with long before their numbers reached such a dangerous level. The only theory with any merit was interference by a third party, but the group had no clue who would have the power to transport that many goblins or why someone so powerful would even bother interfering with them in the first place. Their discussion tapered off as they noticed Evan slowly regaining consciousness. Once Evan realized where he was, he jumped to his feet looking around for enemies. The group rushed over calming him down explaining that all the goblins had been killed, and he had passed out right as the battle was dying down.
Taking a deep breath Evan slowly relaxed his posture and looked at his notifications which had been silenced during battle.
Congratulations you have participated in killing 83 Goblins level 3-4.
Level up 1-7.
Congratulations you killed Hobgoblin level 16.
Level up 7-9
Congraturlations, you have learned skill (Mana Manipulation lv1)
He looked at his spreadsheet and saw he had 18 free points to add. Looking up, he asked where he should spend them. Jack and Sarah suggested all physical stats while Ana and Charlie wanted him to put them all into wisdom and intelligence. While they bickered over the importance of the different stats, he decided to do a mix with five going into constitution, 3 going into agility, 3 going into strength and one into endurance. The final 6 he spread evenly into intelligence and wisdom. With that his status looked like this:
Satisfied with the huge amount of change in his stats Evan closed his status and the upgraded stats started to take effect. However, instead of a small change he felt his entire body changing rapidly with muscles growing and shrinking while his skin tightened and felt denser. He felt a burning sensation all over his body as it changed rapidly and instantly cried out in pain. The others looked at him with a sense of sympathy. Once a few seconds passed the pain lessoned as he became accustomed to his new body. Jack explained that they were about to warn him that a sudden and significant increase could be extremely pain and to slowly add stats instead of dumping his free points into them at once. Rising to his feet he could instantly feel the change as his actions felt sharped and less effort was required to push himself off the ground.
Trying to take a step he immediately fell over as he was unused to his sudden surge of speed. It took a few tries before he became familiar with his increased speed and strength. Jack then told him to practice the drills taught to him the other day as his form and stance would need to be readjusted to compensate for the increase as well as warning him once he received his class his level would progress much slower.
Gripping his sword, he began going through the motions beginning to regain his lost confidence. Jack moved over and began sparring with him, taking it slow at first and gradually ramping up the pace until Evan began to sweat. As the tempo and strength behind each strike increased Evan began to feel pressured unable to keep up with the flow of battle while Jack meticulously tore his defense apart occasionally striking him with the flat side of the blade. This went on until Evan was grasping for air and his lungs ached with every breath, he drew in, yet the tempo only increased further as even Jack began sweating lightly. Once Evan was to collapse Jack stepped back and motioned that they were finished. Hands on his knees Evan could barely speak as Jack seemed lost in thought until he finally asked about the magic Evan had used at the end. “How were you able to defeat the hobgoblin? When I was at your level despite being trained since I was a kid with the sword, I wouldn’t have done anything more than slightly injuring it, maybe crippling an arm if I got lucky with a strike.” Before Evan could find the air to answer Jack continued. “Your magic seemed to sustain itself off the lifeforce of your enemy while empowering and healing your body, so I know it is not a simple affinity and most likely considered high tier and very difficult to use. I would recommend not showing it at the academy as there are many old wizards there who would gladly lock you away to further study your magic. Because of this I will have Ana teach you more rudimentary fire magic which is what you should primarily display.”
Evan considered the complications of this as the mere thought of being locked away like some animal to be researched frightened him, especially given his newfound freedom in this life promised by the potential strength he could gain. He resolved himself to train it in secret because judging by Jack and the rest of the group’s reaction his mana seemed to be incredibly powerful, which was only confirmed by the warning.
The sun began to set as they walked back to the camp and the smell of food hung fresh in the air. As everyone settled around the fire and waited for the meal to finish cooking Ana and Charlie told Evan that they would help teach him some rudimentary magic after dinner. As bowls were passed out everyone sat in silence considering how badly their fight could have ended despite the large power gap between them and their foes. Everyone was lost in their own minds thinking what they could have done differently and occasionally some somber thoughts surfaced as they considered how close they had been to someone dying.
When everyone finished the meal, and the bowls were cleaned Ana, Charlie, and Evan walked into the clearing everyone had been using to practice earlier. Sitting down they began to explain basic mana theory to Evan, teaching him that every single thing possessed mana and through the skill Mana Sight a mage could view the world and see the various aspects that surrounded everything. They went on to explain that all mana had strengths and weaknesses along with mana types that directly countered it or were extremely weak against it. As they explained this, he asked about high tier mana types as Jack seemed to think his was one. Before explaining the two looked at each other as if hesitant to share this information with him. After the brief pause, they explained that his was almost definitely considered a high tier although without knowing much about it they couldn’t tell him exactly how powerful it was. They also explained the risk that came with using stronger affinities since their uses were generally much more volatile and had a chance of rebelling against its user potentially harming or killing them in the process.
Evan was taken aback at this since he was unsure if it was even safe to use his mana without knowing exactly its behavior or if it was indeed strong enough to turn against him. Thankfully the Ana spoke up reassuring him that if it would have harmed him it would have already but to be careful with it since the concepts embodied within high tier mana became more complex and either had a very broad scope of abilities or a very narrow focus. The example she used was the storm magic Evan saw when he first arrived in Verelia. Storm mana was primarily a mix of wind, lighting, and water mana that was one of the broader affinities as it had some manner of influence over all of its components. Her next example was space mana, which had a very narrow set of abilities but was considered extremely powerful. Charlie guessed since his blessing was from Xaros that his affinity naturally appeared in the underworld and was extremely uncommon on the mortal plane of existence.
Once all of this was explained the two had him test small amounts of his mana on different objects to see how it would react and try to gauge its potential weaknesses and strengths. On plant life it seemed especially potent and had the bonus side effect of providing some manner of healing to him. When they tested it on rocks the flame did not spread the same way it would on plant life which was theorized to be because of the small fire aspect he used to project his mana. They did find that after some exposure the rocks would become brittle, however, that process took far too long for it to be used effectively as Evan also had to be constantly feeding the flame mana. The same thing was true for the small piece of metal they held in his flame but to a much greater extent. The dried meat was somewhat of a mix between the two as the flames spread but did not affect the material as much as it did for plants.
After some consideration and lots of magical jargon that Evan couldn’t even begin to decipher Ana and Charlie proposed a theory that it would be stronger on living life forms and while it had some effect on non-biological objects, they were still considered a weakness. They also stated that while the base effect of it draining the life force of objects and causing them to wither would remain with any spell, he used the mana would behave differently when not combined with fire mana. They prefaced all of this by claiming that their assessment could be completely inaccurate as they had yet to see him use the mana by itself and could not determine how it would behave by itself.
This whole process took around an hour with the majority of it being taken up by magical theory. Ana and Charlie told Evan they would teach him some spells the next day, then went to bed as everyone else was already asleep.
Evan sat there for time lost in thought with all that had happened over the past few days racing through his mind. He had almost died he realized and wasn’t sure why it did not bother him at all. He had even killed for the first time in his life and not just once but so many he couldn’t have kept track if it wasn’t for the system telling him. He pondered whether he was adjusting to this new life, with its sense of danger and adventure. He considered these questions before falling asleep with them still unresolved.
