Chapter 21 - Mana
Jasmine is a very diligent worker. Truth is, she deeply admires her boss Samuel so she always tries her best. Of course, it only reaches the level of deep admiration since she has already lost the battle. Samuel is a married man.
Still, she is not so willing to move on. She has decided to simply support him from behind the scenes.
Jasmine knocked on Samuel’s door as she usually does. Samuel could always recognize when Jasmine was at the door, her knock had become a secret code at that point.
“Come in” Said the voice of the person she so deeply admires.
But work comes first, she immediately started her report upon entering.
“Sir, I have made the arrangements for the clear”
Samuel nodded.
“Good, who did you arrange? Any B-class adventurers?” Jasmine had done her work well just as he had expected.
“I managed to hire an experienced C-class party. They are already sworn to secrecy and ready to set out. We also got a reply from headquarters for the B-class adventurer.”
“Great, what was their response?” Samuel’s mood was visibly improved.
“They are willing to send Felix the flame prodigy” Jasmine quickly replied.
Samuel was visibly confused.
“Flame prodigy? How come I haven’t heard of him?”
“He is a talented individual that rose to prominence recently. Headquarters probably thinks this is a good opportunity for him to gain experience.”
Samuel pondered for a second before replying.
“If he is as talented as they say he is then there should be no problems. When does he get here?”
“He should get here by tomorrow and should be ready to set off the day after.”
“Thank you very much, Jasmine. if you want you can take the rest of the day off, you’ve worked hard.”
Jasmine was overjoyed by the praise, of course, she dared not show it.
“I wouldn’t dare leave all the work to you Sir.”
Samuel let out a hearty laugh followed by an amicable smile.
“This is why I am glad you are my secretary”
Jasmine seemed a bit embarrassed and she quickly bowed and left the room.
***
Ed increased all of his other skills while waiting for his assimilation skill to get off cooldown.
‘Status!’
[Name: Ed$#&!]
Type: Skeleton
Health: 300/300
Strength: 2
Agility: 1
Constitution: 2
Dexterity: 2
~Skills:~
[Adept Throwing lvl. 4] -Show info-
[Swordsmanship lvl. -1] -Show info-
[Hoarding lvl. 6] -Show info-
[Mental Fortitude lvl. 2] -Show info-
[Transmission Lvl. 1] -Show info-
[Minor Explosion Resistance lvl. 0] -Show info-
[Deduction lvl. 7] -Show info-
[Assimilation lvl. 1] -Show info-
[Thought Manifestation lvl. 0] -show info-
~Achievements~
[First Kill] -Show info-
Ed subconsciously nodded at his progress. It was realistically slow for a person with a system such as himself but if he were to compare himself to the other mobs he was definitely a cheat.
‘The skill should come off cooldown around this time’
He closely inspected the compass-like item in his hand. It definitely had an air of fantasy.
‘I am curious, what does this do?’ ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
Since he was going to assimilate it and the device seemed pretty basic he didn’t pay too much attention to it.
He was near the dungeon gate again since he would soon assimilate the magic device. Oddly enough the compass was pointing towards the gate.
‘What does this do?’
Ed pressed a button that he found on the side of the device. The button caused the needle to spin for a few seconds before it started pointing in what was essentially the opposite direction of the gate.
‘Does this perhaps point towards the next or previous floor?’
It did seem to be the case. It would also explain why the magician seemed to know where to go and thus decided to act recklessly.
‘Will this really give me mana?’
The device was definitely magical in nature since no ordinary compass would point to the next floor. Unless… Ed quickly shook his head. He wasn’t going to try to explain the science of a magical dungeon.
[Assimilation is off cooldown]
‘The moment of truth.’ Ed gritted his teeth and activated the assimilation skill.
[Champion does not have a base mana attribute.]
[Creating mana attribute… mana core created]
[Mana +0]
Ed was really worried when he received the first message. Luckily the system didn’t disappoint. Ed could heave a sigh of relief as he did receive mana.
‘More importantly…’
Ed looked down at his chest area where he felt an unfamiliar sensation. He removed his stylish black robe and tried to catch a glimpse of what might have happened. He saw a transparent glass ball inside his rib cage.
‘A mana core…’
For some reason, the first thing he wondered was if he would drop it upon death.
‘Why is it seemingly empty?’
For some reason, the system was in the mood for explanations.
[Champion has the smallest possible amount of mana]
He now understood why the final message had a +0 instead of 1 or 2.
‘The lich said that as long as I had mana he would teach me’
That being the case the amount shouldn’t matter. Plus, looking at the bright side his mana would almost instantly replenish.
‘Yes the bright side’
The skeletons who were near the fort were giving him odd looks as Ed punched a wall only to hold his hand afterward. Ed simply put his robe back on and acted like nothing happened as he headed for the gate.
As soon as Ed opened the doors the room brightened.
“You really came back in 12 hours huh?” Oddly enough, the lich sounded like he had given up.
Ed neared the lich and stood before him. Ignoring the confused lich, Ed dramatically removed his robe.
“What are yo-” The lich stopped mid-sentence as he was quite shocked.
‘I got mana now, teach me magic’ Ed wanted to claim his prize.
“How can it be??? Your amount of mana is so small that I can’t sense it all” The lich was extremely confused. Ed accomplished two impossibilities.
He somehow acquired a mana core which wouldn’t be possible through normal methods. And he also had a pitifully small amount of mana, it was so little that he may as well have none!
“I am impressed but your amount of mana is so small that you wouldn’t be able to cast the most basic of spells.”
That was definitely a bad thing! But Ed didn’t panic.
‘You let me worry about that’ He planned to simply assimilate more magic devices later. He didn’t finish looking through all of the lich’s possessions after all.
The lich let out a defeated sigh as he did indeed say he would teach him magic if he had mana. But who thought Ed would actually succeed!
If the lich was a human he wouldn’t mind passing down his magic. However, a lich is an immortal existence! It didn’t need to pass down its knowledge. You could say that a lich’s existence is entirely dependant on that fact. Liches are usually magicians who sought immortality in hopes of continuing their magic research for eternity. Although this lich was spawned by the dungeon he was still a part of the norm.
“Since you are so eager you can start by reading this book”
As the lich’s words reverberated throughout the room, a hand shot out of the ground in front of Ed. The skeletal hand was holding a beginner book on magic.
‘Ummm… How do I tell him I can’t read…’ He wasn’t sure how the lich would react if he told him he only knew one letter of the common language.
Ed grabbed the book and used his deduction skill.
[Magic book]
A beginner book on the basic handling of mana. There are illustrations inside. The book is in another language.
Ed had no choice but to tell the Lich he didn’t know how to read.
‘I can’t read’
The lich who wanted to kick Ed out after giving him the book suddenly stopped moving as he processed what he just heard.
“You wanted to learn magic when you don’t even know how to read?” The lich’s hoarse and intimidating voice was audibly irritated.
‘If you teach me I don’t need to know how to read’ Ed defiantly declared.
The lich now had to decide which of the two tasks was easier; teaching Ed to read or teaching him the magic himself.
“…Come. I will teach you how to read.”
And that was how the immortal existence with powers over death known as a lich ended up teaching someone how to read.