Manaless Mage

Chapter 170  Strange Girl

   Due to this, the two small horns in the mana beast's head stopped glowing completely, and the black bear's power weakened seriously.

  The bear's body remained frozen on the ground, with its mouth opening softly, letting out low whimpers of pain.

    Harry's eyes widened when he noticed this, but he didn't let himself get too distracted, knowing things might become even more troublesome if the mana beast managed to get back to its full strength.

'Wind Needles.' He mumbled inwardly, stretching one of his hand towards the head of the bear.

   Immediately, three wind needles formed in front of his palms, before shooting towards the bear's head at astonishing speed.

Swoosh!!    They flew through the air, colliding against the bear's head within a second. The needles pierced through the mana beast's head, finally ending its life.

    Since the mana in the black bear's body suddenly froze, its body unsurprisingly became weaker, as there was no mana strengthening it.

   This was why the wind needles were able to pierce through its head so easily, despite not being reinforced by that much energy.

   Apart from that, the bear's health had also dropped considerably, due to the numerous attacks Harry had been launching on it, so it was no longer in its peak condition to begin with.

  If not for that, the bear wouldn't have died from Harry's last attack.

[+25400EXP]

   A system notification immediately appeared in front of Harry's eyes, confirming the black bear's death.

   A wide smile appeared on Harry's face when he saw the number of EXP that he had gotten from killing the bear alone.

He stopped channeling his energy to his eyes, causing the dim blue glow that was in it to vanish, and then also deactivated [Accelerate], returning to his base agility stat.

'So much EXP… as expected, stage three mana beasts are on a different league from stage two mana beasts.' He thought. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

   The dire wolf pack he faced earlier were one of the strongest stage two mana beast in the beast forest, and yet, they couldn't even give him up to 15000EXP each.

   However, remembering what happened with his energy when he hit the bear on its chest, Harry's expression immediately switched to a serious one.

   Back then, he felt it. He definitely felt a little bit of the energy that was on his arm leave his body and hit the stage three mana beast.

It felt like a splash… as if the energy just somehow 'splashed' unto the mana beast with force, pushing it away.

   In fact, it was the extra force from that energy that doubled the power behind the punch. Harry doubted his base strength or the strength of [Rock Fists] was high enough to send the mana beast flying.

   Nonetheless, the most shocking thing was what it did to the beast's mana. It 'froze' it, causing the beast's strength to weaken greatly, and giving him a huge edge in the fight!

   Now that he thought about it, his energy was something that only he had, because he was manaless.

   According to the system, and from what he had personally discovered, it was a lot more powerful than mana, and the difference between them was so much, that they couldn't even compare.

   With what just happened… was it safe to say that his energy was capable of canceling out mana? Due to the huge power difference between them?

'That is the only thing that makes sense to me… my energy can somehow cancel out mana. Or render it inefficient…' Harry thought, still staring at his palms in awe.

   Even the absurdity of it all didn't make any sense to him, but with everything he had experienced ever since he gained the system, he couldn't say it was that surprising at the same time.

   But still, an energy that could cancel out mana… just what kind of energy would that be? Harry wondered, with a slight frown on his face.

The system only showed it as "energy" on his stats, and even the other voice always referred to it as "energy" also.

   According to the academy instructors and the history of the world, mana was an energy, that could be wielded by only those with a mana core.

   Since mana was a kind of energy, and yet it was totally different from his own energy… could that mean there were actually different kinds of energy out there in the universe?

  After thinking about it all for a few seconds, Harry simply brushed the thought off his mind.

   He noticed he was already getting an headache from thinking about it too much, so he simply added it to his list of "mysteries" that he planned to uncover in the future.

    It didn't matter what kind of energy it was, all that mattered was that he had it, and that it was very useful for him.

[What you're thinking is true. Your energy can indeed cancel out mana.]

   The other voice suddenly spoke up, causing his eyes to widen slightly in surprise.

[Why do you think you're somehow able to convert mana to EXP?]

'Can cancel mana huh?' Harry thought, his lips slowly curling into a slight smile. He couldn't imagine all the things he could do with it, how much more powerful he could become, with such a powerful energy.

   But then the other voice second sentence resounded in his mind, and Harry's brows furrowed a little.

   True to its words, he can indeed absorb mana and convert it into EXP, however, he had already thought that was just due to the system.

   But from how the other voice put it, it seemed like it also had something to do with his energy.

  'So then this means my energy can't cancel out mana alone… but it can also devour it.' Harry thought, and immediately, the smile on his face only got wider.

   It made sense if that was how it was, him being able to absorb mana and convert it into EXP, and him being able to freeze the stage three bear's mana. It all made sense, and that only meant his energy was a lot more powerful than he gave it credit for!

   Clenching his fists tightly, Harry made up his mind, he would get stronger, level up, and also develop his energy. With all these, nothing should stop him from becoming the most powerful.

   Harnessing his energy, Harry moved some of it to his hands. He noticed that the movement of his energy was a lot more fluid, and channeling it became twice easier for him.

   He could even coat his arms with a layer of energy now, which was proof of how much he had improved.

   Redirecting some of his energy to his palm, Harry pushed his palm forward, while also trying to shoot a little of his energy outside his body.

   But unfortunately, he didn't get it. The aura of energy covering his arm extended forward a little, but that was it, it didn't shoot out, or rather, splash out like it before.

   During that time, he had only done it subconsciously. It seemed like he still needed some more training on his energy to finally master it.

   With that, comprehending the fire element should also become faster. The way he saw things, he should he able to comprehend it within a month at most.

'This energy… just never ceases to amaze me.' Harry thought, with a wide smile on his face.

    It was then that he remembered the body of the bear that was still lying on the ground.

   At first, he wanted to absorb it, but after giving more thought to it, he decided against it.

   Since the bear used its trait continuously during their fight, it wouldn't have that much mana in its body. While he would gain some EXP from absorbing it, it wouldn't be that much, and the body would only be wasted.

   The best thing to do would be to sell both the body and beast core of the stage three beast, and then use the money to get a better pair of daggers, hopefully a rank three weapon.

   He then tried to dig out the beast core using one of the daggers with him, but just like he had expected, it couldn't pierce the beast thick skin.

   He was forced to use [Wind Blade], and slash through the beast forehead, before taking out the beast core.

   In a hurry, he stashed the beast core and the massive black bear into his storage device.

   Fortunately, he had acquired a new, storage device in advance for today, one that could hold something as large as the bear, knowing he might encounter bigger mana beasts.

   Though this cost him a small fortune, it was worth it, because he was sure to earn it back after selling the bear and its core.

   Just as he was walking away, his perception suddenly picked up another presence behind him, and he immediately snapped his head to where he felt that presence.

   However, even after looking around, he couldn't find anybody, so he simply shrugged and then turned around, thinking what he felt was just him being paranoid.

   Unbeknownst to him, crouching behind one of the trees, was a black haired girl with bright green eyes, and her eyes were following him as he walked away.

   She had a hand on her chest, and tiny white particles were sparkling around her fingers.

'Who is he… how is he so strong…' She wondered, her green eyes widened slightly in shock.

'And did he somehow sense me… or I was just the one hallucinating?' She thought, finally removing her hand from her chest, with a puzzled expression in her eyes.

   The sparkling white particles that were around her fingers vanished, and she slowly came out from where she was hiding when she saw that Harry was no longer in sight.

    "I would like to say he didn't sense me… but he did… it was clear with how he was looking around, that he sensed someone staring at him." She mumbled to herself.

***