Chương 118: 117 - Mana Explosion

Alexandra held her breath as she crouched on a wet stone ledge overlooking the creek. The monsters she'd come to hunt quietly hovered over the water, the buzzing sound of their mana meeting the wind of the sea. They really looked like jellyfish, except they were flying and much bigger than the ones Alexandra knew from Earth. They all carried different shades of blue, from pale Iron rank to the deep blue Silver that was further off the coast.

She played with the cork of the potion on her left hand, holding her spear tight in the other. Jellyfish Creek, as it was aptly named by the locals, was well known in and around Kator for being a place to avoid. There was little value in hunting the jellyfish. Their parts were not usable in crafts. Their heavy mana was dangerous to contend against. For that reason, Alexandra was alone and expected things to stay this way. There was, of course, a good reason for her to come here.

One that, she hoped, would quickstart the recovery of her core. She kept her eyes on the closest Iron rank jellyfish. It was flying over a low section of the rocky cliff. Even with its low level, it was producing more mana than she could at her peak, to the point that the jellyfish couldn't use all of it. The excess mana saturated the air of the creek. Unfortunately for the beasts, their abundant mana made them snacks of choice for the various creatures living in the ocean.

They gathered in packs like this one, protected by their Silver rank and the shallow waters not allowing deep-sea monsters to reach them. Alexandra wasn't here to eat them. She uncorked the vial and downed the potion. A small amount of mana trickled into her core. Just enough to form one thread. She sent it toward the Iron rank jellyfish. Sewing was already showing its worth, working together with Mana Manipulation to improve her control.

She was feeling a strain from controlling a thread in such a mana-dense environment. It was threatening to fizzle out, or drown in the sea of mana. She held on, and her thread reached the jellyfish. Drain Life. Alexandra felt a small, almost negligible trickle of lifeforce flow from the jellyfish into her. Before the rank and species difference made it all for naught, she downed a second potion. Aggressive Assimilation. Keeping Drain Life active, she closed her eyes and let herself feel her body. Her core.

She hoped that, like troll lifeforce had been converted into regeneration, the jellyfish lifeforce could be converted into mana regeneration. Her senses focused on her core. She watched as the thread that connected her to the jellyfish… existed? Her core wasn't filling up, but as time passed, the thread that should have vanished wasn't dissipating either. She waited until the jellyfish's lifeforce dwindled, and the beast crashed on the rocks below. The thread snapped and soon fizzled out. Alexandra opened her eyes.

The rest of the jellyfish had noticed their kin's death and started huddling together, around the Silver rank. She moved back a little, hiding higher on the hills that surrounded the creek. The jellyfish were not individually strong, but there were a lot of them, and the amount of mana that they created was dangerous on its own. Such a concentration was highly volatile. They couldn't control it with finesse. But sometimes, you didn't need finesse to make everything explode.

Still, her first experiment was half a success. Aggressive Assimilation hadn't restarted her core's regeneration, but it had done something to her mana. Now she needed to try again on a Bronze and see if it would produce better results. Below her, the school of translucent shapes swarmed in a tight, protective radius around the shimmering Silver. The pale blue luminescence of the Iron ranks had begun to blend into a single glow, their long tentacles twitching through the dark water.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. She watched the perimeter of the pack. A larger beast drifted near the eastern rock face, its bell-shaped body carrying the heavier blue tint of the Bronze tier. It pulsed with a steady rhythm, occasionally dipping low to skim the surface of the black pool before rising back into the air. Alexandra reached into her pouch and pulled out two more vials. Her fingers were cold, but her grip on the glass was steady.

She popped the first cork with her teeth, swallowing the bitter fluid to force another spark of mana into her empty core. The single thread materialized in her mind, thin and fragile against the heavy static of the creek. She didn't let it linger. Working the strand with the precise, rhythmic focus she had honed with Sewing, she drove it straight through the dense ambient pressure toward the Bronze jellyfish. Drain Life. The resistance was immediate. Unlike the Iron rank, the Bronze beast didn't immediately give.

Its heavy mana surged back along the link, threatening to burn through her control. Alexandra downed the second potion, Aggressive Assimilation taking over the lifeforce she was managing to steal. She closed her eyes, blocking out the sound of the crashing surf and the low hum of the creek. Inside her hollow core, the automated warmth of her Solar Core continued its passive absorption, but her mana core was changing. A drop. Almost nothing, but it was there. Mana.

She watched as it almost formed into a thread, threatening to leak out of her core the moment it had appeared. Alexandra activated Mana Concentration, making sure to trap the mana inside. The jellyfish shrieked. An invisible, concussive wave of mana rippled across the water, sending the rest of the pack into panic. Alexandra held her breath, tightening her fingers around the shaft of her spear.

The beast pulsed erratically, its deep blue coloration fading into a dull, milky gray as the essence of its life was stolen. With a final, sluggish tremor, the jellyfish collapsed into the shallow water below, its translucent form dissolving into salt and foam. She checked her core. Regeneration still hadn't kicked in, but it wasn't empty anymore. She was even able to reel in the thread she'd used to cast Drain Life.

At the center of the creek, the Silver flared violently, its translucent bell expanding as it emitted a sharp, resonant wail. The surrounding Iron ranks broke their slow drift, churning the shallow water into foam as they clustered tight around their leader. The air grew instantly thick, prickled with static. Alexandra didn't retreat this time. She could feel the newly harvested mana inside her core. It was her moment. She targeted the glowing mass of the Silver.

With a sharp twist of her intent, she cast out her thread, weaving it through the heavy, pressurized wall of ambient magic. Drain Life. The moment the link snapped into place, a tidal wave of foreign, heavy lifeforce surged up the connection. It wasn't the slow trickle of the Iron rank or the stubborn resistance of the Bronze, but a roaring torrent that threatened to tear her thread to shreds. She popped the cork of her last potion with her teeth and swallowed the bitter liquid. Aggressive Assimilation.

Below her, the school was throwing itself into a frenzy. The surrounding Iron ranks began to pop and dissolve into raw light, not from her drain, but because the Silver was forcefully condensing all the excess magic in the area into a single, localized explosion to wipe out the threat. Alexandra saw it, but didn't move. She waited. So close. Then the dam broke, and a cool, steady current of her own magic began to well up from the bottom of her hollow core. She didn't stay to finish the kill.

The Silver jellyfish was glowing like a miniature sun, the unstable mana expanding outward in a fracturing sphere of volatile energy and threatening to blow up the entire creek. Alexandra severed the link, letting the thread snap back into her core. She turned on her heel and lunged up the ridge. She leaped over the crumbling crest of the hill just as a deafening explosion rocked the creek behind her. A massive wall of white foam, shattered rocks, and raw mana roared into the sky, tearing the creek to pieces.

She looked back. The Silver wasn't dead. For a moment, she debated going back. That was until she saw another flash of mana, a sign of the beast preparing another blast. She ran. Only when the walls of Kator appeared on the horizon did she allow herself to breathe. The sun was setting. Her core was back to its original state, slowly filling up with mana. Tomorrow, she'd be able to restart her grind. Speaking of which, she took out her journal.

Drain Life Training Quest Completed -> 400 contribution points Drain Life 4 -> 5 Aggressive Assimilation Training Quest Completed -> 300 contribution points Aggressive Assimilation 3 -> 4 Mana Concentration 1 -> 2 She sighed. With her new perk, leveling her skills came with a downside. Every level meant she was getting closer to the limit of the skill, and the end of her contribution points source. But it wasn't like she could stop the natural leveling process of her skills.

It was her first time draining from a Silver, and from a new species too. The result was to be expected. She dispelled her journal and climbed the stairs back to the Iron Library. Tomorrow, she was going back to the Troll Cave to grind. She couldn't wait to buy her first skill from the shop.