The Reverse Mana System

The dagger stopped just millimeters away from Alex's forehead. Alex had known all along that this dagger was never meant to impale him, and he wasn't too interested in playing along with this person.

"Why didn't you dodge?" The obscure silhouette asked in a voice that couldn't be differentiated as male voice or female voice.

Alex didn't answer, instead he asked a question of his own.

"I thought that you were supposed to only keep an eye on me from a distance. Since that is the case, I don't think you'd be willing to show up for no reason at all. So let's get to the point directly. What is it?"

Alex couldn't see the expression on the person's face, but he was sure that they were shocked by the few seconds long silence that followed his question.

"Ahem. My master has ordered me to tell you that killing believers of Lord God won't be tolerated for a second time. Since Lord God gave my Master the responsibility to moni.... whatever, since my master is responsible for monitoring you, he has changed the logs of the city gates so that there is no concrete evidence against you. But, my master said that something like this shouldn't happen for the second time. We have already helped you as a sign of goodwill, but if you repeat what has happened today, you will have to bear the consequences. We won't be going out of our way to help you for the second time." The silhouette replied in a grave tone.

" Alright, thank your master for me." Alex said in a disinterested tone and went back to reading the book about inscriptions.

He knew that as long as he remained here, Avelan would have to help him with such matters in order to maintain peace with the supposed god, but he wasn't going to say it out loud.

The silhouette stared at Alex blankly for a few seconds before leaving through the same window. Alex got up, closed the window and smiled.

He returned to reading the book in his hands.

After spending some more time reading the book, Alex decided that it was time for him to start practicing the real deal.

Alex opened the weapons store on the system interface and began crafting the basic mana swords.

The room surrounding Alex disappeared and was replaced by a workshop. Looking around, Alex could remember all the things placed in it. This was the same room which he had entered when he had first crafted the basic mana sword.

A small piece of enhanced moon steel was cut from the large clump and began floating midair before Alex's head. Alex cast a fireball and dense flames began covering the entirety of the small piece of metal.

After some time, the metal metal piece had already started melting. The molten metal was gathered in a mold that was shaped like a sword with a circular elevated area near the handle of the sword.

Alex put a goblin core in this elevated part and watched as the metal slowly accumulated around the mana core. Finally, after nearly fifteen minutes, the half of the work was finished as a blunt piece of metal that was shaped like a mana sword with a goblin core attached near the hilt took shape.

Now, it was time for the part that he had been practicing for, inscriptions. Alex picked up a container that was filled with blood of mana beasts that he had collected from system dungeons. This blood was infused with his mana and the rusty colour of the blood slowly began shining with a tint of bluish light.

When Alex had exhausted three hundred MP, the blood had already transformed into a bluish liquid with a sticky texture.

Alex picked up a brush like object with metallic bristles and poured down the liquid in its body which was shaped like a fountain pen.

Alex quickly moved his hand while maintaining a constant mana flow throughout his entire body. The mana flowed through the bristles of the brush and two circles were drawn around the core. The space between the two circles were used to inscribe spells and symbols, whereas lines were drawn, connecting the circles with the core.

The words written in the space between the two circles were the translation of the binding spell.

When the sixteen symmetrical lines joining the two circles to the mana core were completed, Alex passed a small amount of mana into the mana core.

Clank!

A flash of bright light was radiated and the sound of two metal pieces interlocking arrived in Alex's ears and the mana core was embedded into the blade of the mana sword as if it always was a part of the blade.

Alex breathed out and his eyes showed a deep resolve. Now it was time for the true challenge.

Beyond this, he wouldn't be able to check the working of his inscriptions until the mana gathering formation was completed, which happened to be the last component that was to be inscribed. This meant that Alex would have to draw every inscription precisely and there was no room for errors.

Alex drew all the mana veins and connected them to the mana core. Spell circles were drawn at the free ends of mana veins.

First was the inscription for sharpening the blade, followed by inscription for additional durability and flexibility.

Finally, Alex drew the mana gathering formation around all the other inscriptions and connected it to the mana core.

After this was done, Alex immediately cast an appraisal on the sword.

[Basic mana sword]

[Quality : average]

.....

.....

.....

Alex was ecstatic. He had succeeded on his very first attempt. This basic mana sword lacked a bit in comparison to the ones that were completely manufactured by the system, but it was the best start that someone like him, who was doing this for the first time could possibly hope for.

Alex swung the sword around, trying the flexibility and endurance of the blade, at the same time looking for any problems that could affect this sword.

Alex couldn't find any problems, so he put the sword away and started repeating the process.

This time though, there was a slight error in the sharpening inscription and the blade was blunt. Alex had already expected this, but he still was a bit disappointed. He convinced himself that this was only normal for someone who had just learnt making mana swords and picked up another set of material.

Failure!

Failure!

Success!

Failure!

...

...

...

Alex continued crafting basic mana swords until his MP was dried up.

Alex got up and looked around. Ten mana swords were lying on the floor near him. Out of these, four were usable, whereas the remaining six had some errors in their inscriptions and couldn't be used in combat.

Out of his four successful swords, one was good quality and remaining three were average quality.

Due to concentrating so much for an extended period of time and draining all his mana, Alex was very tired and immediately hopped into his bed.

He would take care of the mess he had created in the room the next day..

Next morning, Alex was woken up by the sound of continuous knocking on his door.

"Alex, it is already time. Get ready as quickly as possible or we will be late on our first day after joining the guild." Lucas said in an excited voice.

"I don't think that the guilds have any fixed reporting time. Anyway, wait here I will get ready soon." Alex replied in a sluggish tone and shut the door behind him.

Alex quickly got ready and left the inn along with Sheri and Lucas.

The three of them had joined a small guild located towards the end of the city. While most of the people joined the association because of guaranteed pay and stronger backing, Alex didn't want to join the association because his movements, missions and dungeon entries would be strictly monitored.

Alex didn't want to restrict his freedom, especially when he already had system dungeons for gathering material and cores, so he chose to join a small guild where he would only have to choose a mission and report its completion. All other formalities and paperwork would be completed by the guild and he could decide whether to keep his loots or sell them to the guild.

Finally, their carriage arrived in front of the guild building. The building wasn't any smaller than a mansion and was shared by two different guilds.

Alex, Lucas and Sheri walked towards the entrance of the guild. There were a few more people walking in and out of the guild building, most of them being between tier 3 and tier 6.

Lucas pushed open the door and the three of them entered the guild hall. They walked to the reception desk.

"Welcome to the Crimson Flames guild. Are you here for posting a mission or for registration?" A woman in her mid-twenties asked the three of them in a sweet voice.

"Registration. " Alex replied as he pulled out his adventurer license and the guild registration documents.

The woman kept her professional smile and started verification of the documents. Soon, they were registered and it was time to choose a mission or dungeon.

Alex moved towards a large notice board at the centre and began searching for a mission. Needless to say, the first thing that he checked were the dungeons and portals registered under the guild, but all the available portals were those of Silver rank and above, so he had to search for missions that he could do.

While Alex was browsing through the missions, Lucas called him out from the back. Alex turned around to see Lucas and Sheri talking with a girl in the receptionist uniform and talking about something.

Alex immediately knew that those two must have been tricked into accepting some mission, but it was too late now.. He shook his head and approached them.