The Reverse Mana System

By the time Alex opened his eyes again after mental simulations, they had already entered the outskirts of the village. The carriage halted at the centre of the village.

This village was eerily silent and there were only a few people in the streets. A few men could be seen near the southern part of the village perimeters that were fortified by wooden barriers.

This village wasn't located in the centre of a forest like the one Sheri and Lucas hailed from and was rather well connected to Lightwell city. There wasn't any barrier erected by a God, but the barrier made of autumn spirit wood was enough to withstand the attacks from tier 3 mana beasts and below.

Alex walked towards this group of people to gather further information about the Wood golems.

When he reached near them, Alex could see that most of them had light injuries like cuts or bruises on their body, most likely caused by the mana beasts.

"Oh! You people must be the adventurers sent by the guild, right?" A middle aged man walked towards the three of them on seeing them.

"Yes!" Alex replied briefly.

"Good. Please take care of those two ugly monsters for us." The middle aged man said while nodding.

"We will, but first we need more information about them. Once we have all the necessary information, we can move out at once." Alex replied.

"Uncle Cryth, who are these people?" A teenager who happened to be passing by, carrying some light refreshments for the people standing near the barrier asked while glancing at the three new people who had arrived there.

"These are the adventurers sent by the guild to take care of those monsters. Say hello to them Keith." The man replied to the question while also gesturing to the fourteen years old boy to greet them.

The three of them were taken to the village chief's house and treated in the most hospitable way that the villagers could afford before the village chief came to meet them.

A man in his twenties entered the room and immediately the entire room fell silent. This was the newly appointed village chief. After formally introducing each other, Alex was given all the details regarding the two wood golem that suddenly appeared in the outskirts of the village and randomly began attacking the villagers who passed by.

After confirming all the rewards were already submitted to the guild, Alex and his two companions were taken to the cave where the two golems were present. The villagers watched from far away and didn't dare to step near the cave. The last time they had gathered some of the most able fighters to chase away those monsters, nearly all of them were injured.

This village wasn't under the protection of any gods and the resources were even scarcer than Sheri's village, so even the strongest amongst their ranks were only high level tier 2, but due to lack of spells or skills, they couldn't even rival the mid level tier 2 wooden golem with their self taught techniques.

Alex , Sheri and Lucas walked near the entrance of the cave.

'Tap. Tap. Tap...'

The sounds of wood colliding against something solid were followed by a groan which sounded like angry snorting of some old man.

All the villagers hastily retreated tens of meters back.

With a slight rumbling noise, a four meters high giant whose complete body was made of wood emerged from the cave.

This wooden monster didn't have anything above its shoulders and it's face was located at the centre of its belly. The complete body of this golem was made of dried wood while grasses and algae grew on some parts of its body.

Before Alex could say anything, Sheri immediately charged forward towards the wooden golem with her spear in hand.

In order to properly test her new spear wielding techniques, Sheri was restricting her powers to the same level as her adversary. Alex had observed that Sheri liked to restrict her level to the same as her opponent whenever she entered combat. She had a very great drive to learn things to perfection and win using them rather than overpowering her opponents. Alex truly admired this part of her nature.

Sheri was easily able to dominate the wood golem with her techniques, but the golem had only used physical attacks till now and refrained from using mana.

Rumble. Rumble. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Another sound came out of the cave as the second wood golem stepped out. Alex signaled Lucas to follow him and charged towards the second wood golem.

He had observed Lucas in combat a few times and came to a conclusion that Lucas's understanding and awareness of battle situations was beyond salvaging, so the only way that Lucas could be useful to them in combat was by acting as a support, so Alex wanted to train him for the role.

Alex headed towards the wood golem and cast a barrage of wind blades, but they hovered around him instead of attacking the mana beast.

"Hey Lucas! Since we will be fighting together in the future, don't you think that we should practice some coordination and teamwork?" Alex asked Lucas.

Totally unaware of what Alex was thinking, Lucas answered affirmatively.

"Alright then, follow my lead and do what I tell you. Remember I am entrusting you with my safety, so don't fall behind." Alex said and sent a wind blade at the wood golem.

The level 2 wind blade didn't cause much damage to the wood golem, but it did work to enrage it. In its fury, the wood golem immediately dashed to attack Alex, but Alex was easily able to dodge due to the golem being comparatively less agile.

Alex signaled Lucas to attack the golem while he increased the distance from it. Lucas immediately began attacking it and slashed his sword at its knee.

A small chunk of wood was chipped away from the knee of the golem.

The golem was enraged and immediately switched its targets.

"What are you waiting for? Get away from it!" Alex told Lucas who was still attacking the golem.

Lucas didn't understand why Alex was telling him to retreat when he had barely landed a hit, but he retreated immediately. Tens of roots grew out from the ground where Lucas was standing a few moments ago.

Lucas heaved a sigh. He would definitely have gotten trapped in those roots if he hadn't listened to Alex.

Alex immediately charged in from behind the golem with five wind blades hovering beside him. The wind blades hit the back and all four limbs of the golem, while a deep slash was left near its waist by Alex's sword.

Rawwwwwrrrr!

The wood golem let out a roar and attacked Alex frantically with both physical attacks and mana attacks.

Alex didn't need the system to analyze the mana or generate reverse mana to land a critical damage on the golem, all he required was a fireball. The wood golem was resistant to natural fire, but fire created by spells was a different matter entirely, and also its nemesis. This inherent weakness against fire was one of the reasons that this was a bronze ranked mission.

But using a fireball would defeat the purpose for which he was fighting while pairing with Lucas.

Right now, Lucas only had a basic fortification skill and a basic strength boosting skill. In absence of any supporting skills, Alex could only slowly teach Lucas how team battles worked and help him develop battle awareness about various situations in team combat.

Alex and Lucas continued attacking the wood golem in turns, slowly developing a sense of teamwork. Although there were some times when their coordination was completely off, they were able to rectify them.

Booommmm!

Alex looked around and saw that the wood golem that Sheri was fighting was tripped and fell on the ground. Sheri immediately charged at it, but the wood golem let out a roar and many javelins made of wood and pointed tips were immediately launched at Sheri from the ground.

The hail of sharp wooden javelins surrounded Sheri and cut off her movements in any direction. Sheri had to use her spear to block the onslaught which lasted for nearly half a minute.

A large pile of wooden poles was gathered all around Sheri and root like structures began to emerge randomly from between them.

Sheri dodged the roots and once again dashed towards the wood golem. This time, before the golem could react, a spear was already piercing its face which happened to be located at the centre of it's stomach. Sheri cast a level 2 fire spell in the duration between the golem's angry roar and hit it at the face once again.

The body of the golem rapidly caught fire and it began to run away while shrieking in fear, but Sheri tripped it with her spear and pinned it down to the ground by chipping off its joints.

After some time, only the charred remains of a tree was left of what used to be a tier 2 mana beast.

Alex thought that he should also finish his part and signaled Lucas to attack the wood golem and keep it busy.

Alex waved his hand and all the wind blades that were hovering beside him simultaneously attacked the knee of the wood golem. It would take some time before the golem recovered, especially when it was being distracted by Lucas.

Alex began casting his new spell, Thunder sprites.

Being in combat mode, he didn't need the ten seconds long incantation and immediately the sky darkened. Three balls of lightning began hovering in the air with the golem as the center of their triangular formation.

Alex counted down in his mind.

As soon as his countdown reached ten, he immediately ordered Lucas to back away without looking back. Hearing Alex's serious tone, Lucas didn't dare to think anything else and began retreating with all he'd got. He even used his muscle strengthening skill to increase his speed.

Just as Lucas reached Alex, three dazzling lights descended from the sky which was followed by a shockwave and a booming sound.

Lucas turned around to see the dazzling display of orange and blue flames created by small pieces of charcoal flying in the air.

Both Sheri and Lucas stared at the scene with widened eyes. Alex looked at their reactions and sighed. It truly felt good to get such reactions after showing off. Despite preferring practicality, even he sometimes had the urge to show off, especially something as dazzling and amazing as this.

They collected the mana cores which took some time due to the mana core of the second wood golem being blasted away in the explosion, and returned back to the village to confirm the completion of their mission after thoroughly checking the cave and the surroundings just to be on the safer side.