The Reverse Mana System

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TN: This chapter is just an introduction to the world background of the story. You can skip it if you want. I'll be releasing the next chapter along with this one, so you can directly read that if you like.

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In the night time, a carriage streaked past the forest with an orange light pulling it. Upon closer inspection, one could see a Flame winged horse carrying a carriage which was completely ignored by mana beasts and other regular creatures, as if it didn't exist.

Alex, who was steering the carriage, had a frown on his face. The pain from his hand and ribs was killing him, but he knew that he couldn't stop right now. They were still not far enough for that.

He looked back at the unconscious Sheri and Lucas who was still trying to hold his tears back and sighed. Those two had lost almost everything they had and were now reliant on him in the future while he himself had no idea about what he should do now..

Suddenly, the carriage took a sharp turn and Alex was nearly thrown off.

The sudden movement also hurt his already broken bones.

'F*ck! Alex cried under his breath.

"Hey Alex, let me take over the reins. Your injuries would only get worse if you continue." Lucas said as he approached Alex.

"Will you try to steer us back to the village? If so, I can't hand over the reins to you. Blacaw has paid me quite some money and also sacrificed his life just so I can take you two away, so I'm sorry, but I can't hand over the reins to you if you plan to drag me to death with you." Alex said.

"I-I . ...won't!" Lucas said with his head lowered.

Alex finally handed the reins to Lucas and went in the carriage. He supported his back against one of the sides and opened the system interface.

[Emergency Mission : Retreat completed.]

[Mission Rewards : +200000 exp, +5 skill points,

+2 skill upgrade cards.]

[Optional Mission : Slaughter and rescue

completed.]

[Mission rewards : installable weapon store port,

+1 blueprint upgrade card, +613780 exp.]

[Base rewards have been claimed.]

Alex quickly claimed the rewards of the two missions. He immediately spent 1 skill point to learn a healing spell.

He immediately cast the healing spell on his broken ribs and it began boosting the healing speed of Aronith's constitution.

After healing himself for half an hour, Alex proceeded to heal Lucas who only had light injuries and Sheri who also had only a few injuries. Then, he continued to heal himself.

Alex then took out the World energy container and put it in his hands. Immediately, a series of notifications appeared in front of him.

[10 units of World energy have been absorbed.]

[10 units of World energy have been absorbed.]

[10 units of World energy have been absorbed.]

....

....

....

Alex felt a feeling of comfort wash over him as the blue light surrounding the bracelet faded away. Alex unknowingly drifted off to sleep.

When Alex woke up, it was already past noon the next day and the carriage had stopped. He looked around, Sheri was still unconscious while Lucas was most probably outside.

He came out of the carriage and looked around.

It was a clearcut logging in the forest and the Flame winged horse was grazing on some plants and grass which were rich in mana. Lucas was also standing there, blankly staring ahead.

Lucas turned around to face him.

"Hey Alex, this is the first time that I and Miss Sheri have come out of the village. I always wanted to visit the cities that Chief Blacaw mentioned in his stories, but who would have thought....." streams of tears began oozing out of his eyes, but he quickly wiped them away and he regained his composure.

"Could you please take me and Miss Sheri with you wherever you are going? And if that is inconvenient, you can just take us to the nearest city and help us settle down. I will find some work to do and ....."

"I don't belong to the godly domain. My home is in the human territories, so I am heading there. Would you still be willing to accompany me?" Alex asked.

"What exactly is the godly domain and human territories?" Lucas questioned.

This took Alex by surprise.

"You don't know anything about the world outside of the village, do you?" Alex asked.

"I- I don't. " Lucas replied, feeling a bit embarrassed.

" The world as we know of, is divided into the territories of four races. This forest and your village are a part of the godly domain which is ruled by all those different gods. Most likely, this forest is ruled by the God that the people of your village worship. Similarly, there are many cities and landmasses that are ruled by the gods and collectively they are called godly domains.

Similar to the godly domain, there are territories ruled by the demons called demonic empire. Then, there are places ruled by humans who do not worship any of these minor gods that are called human territories. All the remaining areas and the ocean which are free from the control of the gods, demons or humans are the areas where mana beasts roam freely and the stronger mana beasts rule these parts of the world."

"So, I belong to the human territories, where humans rule,"Alex said.

"So, is everyone in the human territories atheist?"

Alex nearly choked at Lucas's question.

"No, the gods that rule the godly domain are all minor gods and their strength is something that humans can also achieve. The major gods are too powerful and aren't allowed to live in this world, they either live in their domains which are the same as the miniature of this world where they rule supreme, or they gather in other places. And then, finally there is the creator. He is said to have made the entire world and also humans, gods and demons, all are his creations.

The creator is the God worshipped by both humans and other gods. The creator and some ancient major gods who were present before humans came into existence are the only ones that are worshipped in human territories."

Alex finished his explanation and Lucas finally understood what was going on.

"Errr... I am willing to follow you to the human territories, but I can't possibly leave Miss Sheri on her own." Lucas said in a conflicted tone.

"Don't worry. She will be following me to the human territories." Alex replied without hesitation.

"How are you so sure?" Lucas was dumbfounded by Alex's confidence.

"Because unlike you, she doesn't have any other choice than to follow me. Blacaw handed her over to me and I intend to fulfill my promise of keeping her by my side until I deem her fit to be able to live all by herself." Alex replied.

Lucas was happy and relieved at the same time to see that Alex wasn't going to abandon them after reaching the city. Although he had said that he would just settle in the city, he was still very nervous. He had no knowledge about the general life of the city for one, and he would have had to find a job, a house and many other things on top of that. He wasn't sure that he could achieve even one of those.

Alex gave some more explanation about general life outside the village to Lucas, who like a little kid was amazed even at the most common of things.

" But, what will we say to Miss Sheri once she wakes up? What if she insists on going back? And how exactly are we supposed to tell her about Chief Blacaw?" Lucas asked the question that he was most bothered about.

"I prefer that we tell her the truth as soon as possible, no, tell her the truth without any delay. She already knows it, but is still trying to refuse it subconsciously. The longer we don't tell her, the longer she would be tormented by this fact without letting it out and the harder it will hit her when she is finally told about it." Alex replied.

" But...."

" Just leave it to me. You don't have to do anything except agreeing to whatever I say." Alex patted Lucas's shoulder and went on towards the flame winged horse which was grazing the grass rich in mana.

Alex touched its head, but the horse only looked at him before continuing to eat. The master-pet seal that Blacaw had placed on it had already disappeared, thus confirming his death, but this horse still continued serving them.

[Do you want to form a master- pet contract with the Flame winged horse?]

[Yes/No]

Alex gave it a thought before pressing yes.

Instantly, a blinding light emerged from Alex's forehead and merged with the horse's forehead.

An imprint had appeared on Alex's forehead which was the source of this light.

[Error: Master- pet contract failed due to the mana beast already having a contract.]

[Error: Master- pet contract failed due to the mana beast already having a contract.]

.....

.....

Alex was a bit confused. He could tell that the contract was complete as he could sense what the flame winged horse was feeling. This was the sign of the contract being completed, but why did the system mention that the contract had failed?

At this instant, another system notification appeared.

[Scanning complete.]

[The host is already in a master- pet contract with the mana beast.]

These words took Alex by surprise. So, it wasn't the system that helped him make this contract.

He touched his forehead and was immediately reminded of the imprint that Verenia had given him.

Somehow, his system could not find any information about Verenia or her imprint, at the same time, Verenia was also oblivious or at least acted as if she didn't know about the existence of the system.

Alex had no information about this imprint, but it hadn't proved to be harmful in any way till now.

Anyway, he now had three underlings to help him.

Alex went back into the carriage to check on all the things that they had so that he could plan the future course of action for them.

There was enough food to last them for a week, money, other random materials and all of Sheri's stuff was also packed by Blacaw. Alex didn't touch both Sheri's or Lucas's stuff and only focused on the assets that he had.

He was halfway through his counting, when he heard a weak voice. He turned around to see two beautiful bright yellow coloured eyes staring back at him. Sheri was finally awake.