The Reverse Mana System

After collecting both the mana cores and checking the cave and its surroundings to make sure that there wasn't any other wood golem hiding nearby, Alex Sheri and Lucas returned back to the village.

" Hey Alex, that last attack of yours was so cool. Will you teach it to me? I'll do everything you tell me to do if you agree to teach me." Lucas said while moving close to Alex.

"Me too... I also want to learn it." Sheri said with an excited voice.

Alex turned to look at Lucas who was staring at him with expectant looks and Sheri whose eyes were shining while thinking about that last spell of Alex.

The magnificent display was truly embedded in their hearts.

" First of all, you are an augmenter and to top it up, you do not have any affinity with lightning, so I don't think that you will be able to use it even if you learn the spell and it's incantation." Alex replied to Lucas.

"Sheri, you are compatible with the spell, but I think that you should first work on stabilizing your combat power. You are at tier 4, but due to your lack of experience in proper combat, you will be struggling against opponents of mid level Tier 3 who have some battle experience. And also, didn't you tell me that you like using spears, then why would you want a spell that is used by mages?" Alex added in a jovial tone.

"I...That's different. You also use a sword, don't you?" Sheri replied while pouting.

"Alright you two, stop making that sulking face. I will teach you after you properly master all the other level 2 spells that you have so that you can cast them without incantation and we will buy some new skills and spells for Lucas after we return." Alex said as he walked forward.

Alex, Sheri and Lucas were brought to the village chief's office which was just a room beside his house.

" Thank you for taking care of those monstrosities for us. On behalf of the entire village, I would like to offer our sincerest thanks. This is the letter of completion signed by me, and these are some rations that we have gathered, it will be helpful on the roads." Th village chief said as he pointed towards the letter kept on the table and a sack of fruits kept behind them.

While Alex turned around, his eyes fell on something else entirely. There was something like a painting hanging on the wall against which the sack was kept.

This painting was shining in a blue light, but Alex was sure that only he could see this blue light, as the others ignored it like it was just another piece of paper. A system notification appeared in front of Alex.

[Compulsory Chain Mission : System Upgradation activated.]

[Rewards : System level up, System Upgradation.]

[Failure consequences : System disintegration. ]

[First mission : Memorize the second half of the map leading to the Celestial Palace.]

[Mission rewards : +2,000 exp.]

Alex was stunned. This was the first ever compulsory mission that he had received and was about system upgradation.

The luminous painting was most likely the trigger to this mission, so Alex got up and began scrutinizing it. It really was something like a map, but it was a bit complicated. But for Alex, whose mental capacity was higher than most people his age and with a relatively high intelligence stat for his Tier, it wasn't all that difficult.

"Ah! That's our clan heirloom. I don't exactly know what this is ment for, but it has been with us from centuries ago and is also the symbol of our glorious past." The village chief said in a sad tone.

He had seen Alex was a bit interested in the map, but he had no plans of selling or gifting it away.

Alex also understood it and didn't try to ask for it.

[ First part of Chain mission 'System Upgradation' completed.]

[Mission Reward : + 2000 exp.]

Alex could feel that this map was embedded in his memory to the extent that it was the clearest memory he had and he had memorized it to the smallest of details.

Somehow, the system seemed to be desperate whenever it came to missions related to system leveling up or upgrading, but Alex decided to ignore it for now.

"Heirloom?" Alex asked.

"Yes", the village chief replied. "You may be wondering why our village isn't under the protection of any God, right?"

Without giving Alex any chance to speak, the village chief continued, " That's because we are the descendants of an Oracle."

Alex was a bit stunned. When the minor gods broke through to Tier 11, they became major gods and were teleported out of the world to the place that was called Heavenly domains. The gods took most of their apostles and some followers with them during their ascension; these apostles were given the title of Oracles. At the same time, some of them were left in the world to look after the remaining believers of the God.

But he had a hard time believing it because of the condition of these villagers. They were neither strong, nor wealthy like what one should expect the descendants of an Oracle to be.

"But, our ancestor was ambushed and killed by demons about four hundred years ago. At that time, all the believers were poached by other gods and our clan ended up being marginalized and slowly degraded to what you see now. This strange picture is said to be the map to the treasury that Lord God left to our ancestor at the time of his ascension, but no one has ever been able to understand it, so we can only keep it as a family heirloom. It is prophesied that one of our descendants will one day be able to understand this map and lead us back to glory." The village chief said in a sentimental tone.

After leaving the village, Alex immediately returned back to Lightwell city.

It was already evening and the three of them were tired of the long journey, so they returned and decided to submit their mission to the guild the next day.

Alex locked his door and began practicing inscriptions. His entire concentration was on the inscriptions and he lost the track of time in his practice.

"Alex, it's already time to leave for the guild." Lucas's voice followed by the knocks on the door woke him up from his trance.

Alex looked around. There were dozens of mana swords piling up near him and most of them were usable, but he had already run out of enhanced moon steel, not that it was useful to him in any way now.

Alex decided to sell the usable mana swords and put them all in his storage as he left the room.

"Here are your rewards for the completion of the mission." The same receptionist who had given them the mission said while handing the rewards to Alex.

"Also, thank you for accepting the mission that I forced upon you. I have already checked the available missions for you. There are two missions that reward the material that you require and are bronze ranked." The girl said while handing a paper to Alex. Her disposition seemed completely different from the last time when she had asked them for help. Somehow, her voice seemed more confident and she was able to speak without stuttering.

Alex didn't mind though. He had known from the start that it was but a method to gain pity and coerce them into accepting the mission.

Alex was very experienced in dealing with such people and could tell that it was just her first time trying this. How could a guild hire someone with low social skills as a receptionist?

But as long as she kept her end of the deal, which she did, Alex didn't mind.

Alex looked at the missions and nodded.

Alex's next few days were spent doing the bronze rank missions for the guild. Theirs was the only party that accepted the bronze rank missions, so things went smooth sailing for one week. Alex had also gathered all the material for his weapon over this one week, but he had been holding back on crafting it as he still had to master the inscriptions.

Alex entered the guild building. He had already talked with Sheri and Lucas and decided to rest for some days to focus on crafting his weapon, today would be their last mission before the break.

Lucas and Sheri also had to practice the new skills and spells that they had bought recently, so they didn't mind.

The guild building was more crowded than usual and there were many new faces that Alex had not seen previously. Most of them were making casual talk, while some of them had expressions of dejection or exhaustion.

Alex and Sheri immediately became the center of attention. Not minding the curious looks directed at them, Alex walked past the hallway to the reception and looked through the missions.

Alex browsed through the available bronze rank missions and immediately something caught his attention. Just like the map in the village chief's office, a mission posted in the free tier section was covered in blue light.

[Compulsory Chain Mission : System Upgradation activated.]

[Rewards : System level up, System Upgradation.]

[Failure consequences : System disintegration. ]

[Second mission : Accept the mission for exploration of the Serpent's Valley and obtain the first half of the map to Celestial Palace.]

[Mission rewards : +2500 exp.]

The chain mission that was grayed out on the system interface for the last seven days immediately became active once again.