The Reverse Mana System

Alex was a bit surprised.

He had thought that the system dungeons would be like those repeatable dungeons from the games that he had played, but it was only when he got here, he realized that that was not the case.

He had been transferred in front of a goblin village, but this wasn't the same one that he had previously cleared.

This was a cave in which many room-like structures had been dug out. Alex cast area scan and was able to locate more than thirty goblins that were between level 12 to level 18 just like the previous dungeon.

Alex calculated that the number of lower level goblins was more, so essentially the difficulty of this dungeon was the same as the previous one..

Inside the cave where shadows were present everywhere, Alex had an insurmountable advantage.

He cast shadow movement and entered one of the room- like structures where a goblin was sleeping.

Alex immediately slit its throat with the basic mana sword that he had forged last time and collected the blood in a vial. The vial immediately disappeared and a new notification arrived before Alex.

[Goblin blood ×1 has been added to the system storage.]

Alex didn't have anything on him except the clothes that Verenia had given him when they first met, so the system had never notified him about the system storage.

It wasn't until he collected the mana core and blood of the first goblin he killed in the previous dungeon that he was made aware of it.

But this wasn't without faults. Alex could only store the material that he got from the system dungeons or any animated objects that he bought from the store in it.

Also, except the weapons that he crafted, nothing could be taken to the real world from the storage and also, no external objects could be brought into the system storage.

After killing his first target, Alex cast another area scan and disappeared in the shadows.

A goblin was patrolling the outer perimeter of the cave near the entrance. There were no other goblins around it because no creature ever entered this cave. While patrolling, it heard a faint sound of breathing behind it and immediately turned back, but it was already too late by then.

Slasshhhh!

Before the goblin could even turn completely, it was already cut in half by a sword covered in a blackish hue.

Alex was thrilled by the result of his new experiment. He had tried casting the melee version of wind blade by chanelling mana through the mana sword, and the result was the formation of a cyan layer around the sword. This layer turned black under the influence of reverse mana, and the results were outstanding.

He had split a level 17 goblin into two without even using his full power.

Another goblin was stabbed in its throat followed by one of it's companions being beheaded.

Alex had launched a slaughter on the goblins and their numbers had already been halved in a matter of two minutes.

After hunting down this group of two, Alex once again disappeared in the shadows.

At a different location, a goblin was patrolling when it suddenly stumbled upon the body of a dead goblin.

" Grunn..." before it could complete its grunt and warn the others, a blade covered in a blackish flame pierced its mouth and it was struck hanging to the wall of the cave.

Alex immediately withdrew his sword and moved away. After killing a few more goblins, Alex had already cleared the entire cave of goblins. Now, there were only six goblins left including the dungeon boss, all of which were gathered in the central cave.

Alex looked at his status. More than 70 percent of his MP had been used up. Alex had gotten carried away by how cool his assassinations looked and ended up overdoing things.

Alex decided to take it easy on spending mana from now.

Alex entered the central cave and cast an area scan. He immediately located all the goblins. The five goblins were constantly patrolling the room inside which the boss was sleeping. They were so close that it was impossible to find a loop in their patrolling and ambush them one by one.

It didn't matter much to Alex though. He strode forward and arrived in front of the goblin gatekeepers. He immediately cast a speed enhancement and stabbed a goblin in the heart.

The goblin tried to move, but fell down on the floor and it's brown coloured blood began spilling. Alex immediately retreated without casting speed enhancement as he was already faster than all these goblins.

The other four goblins watched their companion get stabbed in the heart and die. And before they could react, the perpetrator had already created a safe distance between them and himself.

" Growwlll!"

"Grunnntt!"

The goblins made different noises as they charged at Alex.

Four spears were thrust towards Alex's chest from different angles. Alex stepped back. The goblins followed, but Alex was able to create distance and immediately cast wind blade projectiles.

The strengthened wind blades along with Alex's higher level were able to threaten the goblins into breaking their formation.

Alex immediately arrived in front of the goblin nearest to him and swung his sword at it. The goblin used its spear to block the sword, but it felt a stabbing pain in it's chest. It glanced down at its chest. A wind blade was piercing its chest.

Alex kicked the goblin away and moved towards the second one.

Alex slashed his sword at this goblin, but this goblin was too guarded against the wind blade that never came. Although it was able to block the attack, the sword still scratched its body and exactly at this moment, a black coloured flame covered the entire sword and spread to the goblin's body. A series of debuffs appeared on it and it stumbled back while trying to evade the fire, but before it could regain it's balance, a sword had already cut it into two.

The other two goblins immediately gathered together and thrust their spears at Alex, but it was nowhere as effective as when they were four.

A thought came to Alex's head and he picked up the spear of the goblin he had just killed. While he had already decided not to opt spear after his spar with Sheri, it never hurt to double check his decision.

While Alex was picking up the spear, the two goblins saw the opportunity and charged at Alex, only to be scared away by a fireball.

Alex took his stance and waited for the goblins to attack. One of the goblins thrust its spear at Alex, while the other tried to swing its spear and slit Alex's throat. Alex easily dodged the first attack and blocked the second one with his spear.

Their battle lasted a few minutes before one of the goblins collapsed due to accumulated injuries and poisoning from the wounds.

"Well, you goblins truly like to apply poison on your weapons huh." Alex said in a mocking tone.

The second goblin was scared and immediately turned around to flee, but Alex's spear pierced its head and it fell limply on the ground.

Alex took in a deep breath and proceeded to push open the door that the goblins were guarding.

It was time for the boss fight.

Alex opened the stone door, the only one in the cave. The screeching sound made by the door woke up the sleeping goblin.

Alex cast appraisal for the first time in the dungeon.

[Name : ??????]

[Race : Goblin ( Shaman )]

[Level : 27]

[HP : 3000 (1500)]

[MP : 6000 ( 4000)]

[Skills : Shadow daggers, fireball, shadow paralysis, shadow clone.]

[Abilities : shadow control, dungeon lord ( increases MP and HP)]

[Strength : 180 agility : 260]

[Endurance : 160 Intelligence : 520]

The goblin Shaman raised a staff from its bed and casually waved it in Alex's direction after some time.

' Finally a mage that uses staff.' Alex joked to himself as he dodged the incoming fireball.

[Mana analysis complete.]

[Reverse mana generated.]

The system notification appeared in front of Alex and he tightened his grip on his sword.

This goblin shaman was in essence a goblin, but it was inherently different to a goblin.

While most of the goblins used mana for physical strengthening and increasing the physical impact behind their attacks, Shamans were more like mages with affiliation to elements or other types of magic.

Alex charged forward at the shaman. The shaman began building up its spell and didn't move. Alex could also see the flow of mana in its body and immediately cast a windblade at it. The shaman was hit by the windblade and its mana flow was disrupted. Alex also closed in on it and immediately stabbed the poisoned spear in its gut. The shaman was scratched and a status of poisoned appeared in its description on the system interface.

It immediately grunted in a mixture of pain and anger and ran back to create distance between Alex and itself, but Alex continued to stubbornly follow it while thrusting the spear in its direction.

The enraged shaman grunted in rage and pulled out a black dagger from the shadow on the wall nearby.

The dagger collided with the tip of the spear and the latter was destroyed. The shaman also used this chance to immediately create distance between Alex and itself. Before Alex could give chase, the shadow below the shaman's legs expanded and merged with Alex's shadow. Alex immediately felt as if his legs were chained to the ground and couldn't move a single inch.

'Shadow paralysis.' Alex read from the interface.

The shaman smirked at Alex and began casting another spell. Out of the shadows, a black silhouette emerged and stood beside the shaman. The shaman touched a shadow on the ground and drew out a shadow dagger. It put the dagger in its clone's hand and grunted at different frequencies a few times.

The shadow clone clenched the dagger and began moving in Alex's direction.

Alex's expression paled at the sight of this. The shaman began laughing hysterically while looking at Alex's face.

Just as the clone was close enough to stab Alex, he immediately disappeared from where he was paralyzed by the shaman.

Due to its affinity with shadows, the shaman could feel a strange fluctuation in the shadows.

Immediately, a feeling of intense danger enveloped its senses, but before it could even move, it's head was sent flying and Alex appeared behind it with a sword in his hand which was covered in blackish mana with occasional wisps of white.

Alex calmly collected the mana core and blood from the shaman. Expectedly, this time the core wasn't an evolved one. After searching for enhanced moon steel, Alex immediately left the dungeon.

He had completed this dungeon much faster than the previous time. Alex was etching to try another dungeon, but just one look at his MP and all his excitement vanished.

He took the path back to Lucas's house and began moving.