The Reverse Mana System

After finally reaching the shore of the river, Alex breathed in relief. 

'Though I always dreamt of adventures, this was a bit too heavy for my taste.' Alex said under his breath. 

'Well now that there is no immediate threat, it's time to check the most important thing.' Alex thought to himself as excitement was evident in his eyes.

'System, open !' He whispered. 

Immediately, a light blue screen opened up in front of him.

[Reverse Mana System.]

[Status: activated].

[System level: 0 ( premature awakening)]

[Host name: Alex Vermillion ]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 1]

[Status: severe exhaustion ]

[Stats:]

[Strength: 10]

[Agility: 12]

[Endurance: 10]

[Intelligence: 10]

[Charisma: 40(15)]

[Perception: 10]

[HP:36/100]

[MP:0]

[Spells learned: none]

[Abilities: none]

[Skills:]

[Level 1 Water movement]

[Special skill: Aronith's constitution (Body alteration) ]

[added effect: +25 Charisma ]

[Free attribute points: 10]

[Skill points: 1]

'Seems pretty simple to me.' Alex thought.

After closing the system screen, Alex finally had time to check his body condition. 

His clothes were tattered with holes all over and a specially conspicuous hole on his chest.

Though his skin had no signs of injury due to the newly acquired constitution, but there was still pain felt from the previous cuts all over his body, not to mention that save for his vitals, all the remaining internal organs were also injured.

And all this was when the system had been miraculously healing his injuries for an unknown period of time. 

Finally, another window appeared before Alex.

[System installation mission complete:100%] [Integration with the host achieved.]

[Mission rewards: 0 exp, basic mana core (white) formation, basic mana circuit establishment.] 

[Do you want to receive the rewards?]

[Yes/No]

[Emergency mission survival complete: host's contribution 0.2%]

[Mission rewards: 1000/200,000 exp (remaining exp will be stored in the system), 3 skill points, 15 free attribute points, 1× spell learning card (basic elemental), 1 upgrade point for existing skills/abilities/spells.]

[Do you want to receive the rewards?]

[Yes/No.]

[Notice: The system has exhausted 30 points of World energy for healing the host and using the skill water movement in the absence of mana.

The stored exp will be transformed to 0.199 points of world energy.]

[System shuts down in 50 seconds. ]

[49 seconds...]

Alex immediately pressed on yes for both the mission rewards in a hurry.

Immediately, an intense pain spread throughout his entire body.

'Sh*t! I dropped my guard down. This system literally forced me into undergoing the core implantation out here in the unknown place without knowing what dangers there might be.'

This realization came a second too late as Alex collapsed under the intense pain coming from all parts of his body.

No matter how hard he tried to stay conscious, Alex could feel waves of drowsiness hit him, and he finally fell unconscious after only a few seconds while his entire body was still aching all over.

After some hours, Alex woke up again.

'Well, I suppose that I am quite lucky considering that I didn't end up as some beast's snack despite lying unconscious over here for all this time.' He thought to himself. 

He got up and scanned his surroundings and finally found out the reason for his well-being. 

There were no signs of life anywhere near him. An area of width of about 2 miles along the river shore was essentially barren and uninhibited. 

There were no signs of plants, animals or any other lifeforms in this zone.

After scanning the area around himself, he felt an itching sensation all over his body. A smile crept on his face on feeling this.

He was absorbing mana from his surroundings!

This was a source of unprecedented joy for Alex.

Finally! He could finally absorb mana in his body. He had gotten a mana core.

Alex opened the system interface once again.

Everything was the same, only this time, there was a new section 

[Mana core (upgradable): white (40)]

[Mana: 90/100]

The word upgradable was something Alex had not expected. According to the various manuals and books that he had read, the mana core was divided by colours and was something a person was born with. There was not a single case in the recorded history where someone's mana core was upgraded.

' What can one say... perks of having a system I guess.'

Alex got ready to move in order to find food or water when suddenly an idea hit him.

When he didn't have a mana core, he had never been able to use what he had read in all those manuals. 

What if he tried those techniques right now?

It should work now, right?

After these thoughts came to his mind, Alex immediately tried to remember some of the spells he had read.

He tried the basic fireball spell. After reciting the incantation a few times in his mind, he tried to channel his mana while reciting the spell out aloud. 

After waiting for a few minutes, nothing happened. All the excitement vanished from Alex's face.

At this time, a notification from the system appeared 

[Incomplete incantation detected ]

[Level 1 basic fireball.] 

[Would you like to use 800 exp to complete the spell and learn it?]

[Yes/No]

Alex was surprised. He had not expected the system to be able to complete these spells.

'It does cost exp though.'

After some contemplation, Alex decided not to complete it. Like any other teenager in his previous life, Alex was also interested in all sorts of games. He was well versed on the use of exp and its significance. 

Learning a spell sounded interesting, but he could just learn a spell from the system which he had received as a mission completion reward.

'Let's try this then.'

Alex opened his system panel and scrolled down to the rewards section. After activating the spell learning card, a list of five spells appeared before Alex.

[1. Wind blades: Gathers the air fortified by mana to form a blade which can be used as both melee weapon and for ranged attacks. ]

[Mana usage: 5]

[effects: +1agility, +1 intelligence. ]

[2. Water bullet: Gathers water to form a small bullet which can be used for ranged attacks. Multiple bullets can be cast by one spell depending on the user's choice.]

[Mana usage: 2]

[effects: +2 endurance]

[3.Boulder: melee attack used by creating overlapping layers of rock on different parts of the body.]

[Mana usage: 5 per layer]

[effects: strength +2/layer, agility -1/layer]

[4. Fire stream: attack that uses a medium connecting the user and the target. The flames will gather on the medium after casting this spell which inflicts burns damage.]

[Mana usage: 5]

[effects:+1 strength, formation of fireball if the medium is air.]

[5. Lightning: gathers lightning which can be used as a ranged projectile. Can also be used by layering on the surface of weapons.]

[Mana usage : 5]

[effects : +2 agility]

Alex had thought that it would be easy for him to select any one from these spells, but now he was struck in a delima.

'Wind blade is the most useful in combat due to both melee and ranged usage.

Water bullet has lowest mana usage and can also be spammed, but has the weakest attack power.

Boulder gives an increase in strength and defense and can be very useful in hand to hand combat by adding a layer before hitting or getting hit.But it is the only spell which increases the attributes while using the spell only, whereas others give permanent increase in attributes.

Fire stream may have status effects and explosive power, but I don't carry any weapons with me, in that case I will only be struck with fireball.

Lightning is also useful in combat , but can't be fully utilized without a weapon.'

Alex understood that right now, his only goal was to stay alive. He was at the absolute bottom of the strength chart of mana users. That being the case even if he chose the strongest spell available to him, he'd only end up dead. So he had to choose a spell that gave him the best chance of survival rather than combat prowess.

"Alright, I choose you."

Alex pressed on one of the spells and immediately a large amount of data entered his head.

The host has learned the spell Air blade (level 1).

Spell can be cast based on created memory without incantation.

Agility has been increased by 1.

Intelligence has been increased by 1.

Mission Completed: Learn one basic spell.

Mission rewards: 500 exp.

Do you want to collect the mission rewards?

Yes/No

'Huh! there was a mission like that? Why didn't I get any notification about it?' Alex was surprised.

"System, show me the available missions."

Error: due to premature awakening, the system is unable to operate 30% of it's functions. Please try again when the required amount of World energy is absorbed.

World energy required: 100 units.

absorption rate:1 unit in two days.

"What the.."

Finally Alex understood why he couldn't see mission information. The system was still incomplete. It had only awakened in order to save his life.

But it will take about 200 days to completely absorb the required amount of World energy.

'That's too long. I can only depend on myself to survive in these 200 days.'

Alex got up from the ground that was completely devoid of any form of life and started looking around.

'Not even grass is growing over here, let alone trees or plants. This 2 mile area is too well defined. I can clearly see dense forest just at the end of this zone. Is this because of the strange river?' Alex turned around to see the black river still flowing along.

After gaining some basic information about the strange zone, Alex decided to continue his journey towards the forest.

This is the direction where the system found the nearest terrestrial lifeforms. Hope I can find something to eat in the forest.

Alex started making his way into the forest.

After walking about six hundred meters inside the forest, Alex found a group of rabbit-like creatures eating fruits growing on some bushes.

'These rabbits look like they are regular creatures. That's a relief.' Alex immediately hid his presence and slowly approached the rabbits while hiding.

Later in the evening, Alex returned back to the deserted zone with a dozen blue coloured fruits and two rabbits that he had hunted.

I should be safe here.

Alex spent 800 exp to complete the basic fireball spell that was a part of his memory. But to his surprise, the spell turned out to be Fire stream.

'So the spell that people use is incomplete and can only produce a fireball, whereas the complete spell is fire stream.' Alex thought while looking at the spell which was a modified version of the fireball spell he had learned in the books.

After eating the tasteless meat and fruits to stay hydrated, Alex began observing his surroundings.

As it was already late in the evening, Alex decided to stay the night on the shore and start his journey to find a settlement from the next day.

Despite assuring himself that no danger will come his way, Alex was still unable to sleep at night.

Just as it was half past midnight, Alex heard a screech in the nearby forest. The voice seemed to be hoarse and a bit painful.

He got up and slowly approached the direction of the sound.

He finally saw the source of the sound. It was an injured wind wolf cub about 200 meters into the forest.

Suddenly, an idea flashed in Alex's mind.