398: Mana-Eater

Mana-Eater

"Well, that is all," Ryan said and then turned around just when they were about to reach their hideout.1

"Wait, you need a place to rest, don't you?" Haruna said. "You can stay with us since fighting at night is too dangerous. If we give us some time, we can recover and organize our forces and fight together, you are planning to clear the dungeons, right? You certainly will need our help."

"I don't think so, you neither have the strength or the spirit to be of any help," Ryan said. "You already know that."

 Haruna couldn't say anything to contest Ryan, while fortunately, Ryan healed the boy's arm that struggled against the survivors that joined the monster's side. She still was agonizing over the fact that she chose to watch and wait for a better chance to rescue her allies. While she chose the majority's safety over the life one, she still couldn't forgive herself for that. In the end, she just watched Ryan leave on Furball's back.

"While also agreeing that you did the right thing in choosing not to fight with those who are weak and have weak spirits, I must say that you might be trying to bite more than you can chew," Femradiel said. "The whole situation is on another level if compared to everything you faced until now."

"As long as we proceed carefully, everything will work out in the end," Ryan said. "While we are in a race against time, there is only so much that can be done on Earth. It is annoying to admit that, but Earth is doomed, the dungeon masters will eventually arrive and I can't prevent that, but I can prepare for it."

"How so?" Femradiel asked.

"By getting stronger like there is no tomorrow," Ryan replied, and as far as I am concerned, this is the perfect place for that."

"So, you are really planning to kill all the bosses?" Femradiel asked. "Even though the humans can cause dungeon breaks as much as they want?"

"I don't think that is true, if the humans on their side could cause as much dungeon breaks as they want, their level would be much higher, possibly, the dungeon would have reached the max level a long time ago."

 Femradiel realized that was true… possibly, the dungeons could only grow so much in a short amount of time. Or maybe there could only exist a certain number of bosses at the same time, even though they were all copies from one original. Regardless, she realized that considering the monsters' strength, Ryan wouldn't have much use of Active Spiritual Recovery. So, for a while, she won't receive that much mana.

"I won't be able to recover much mana while you fight, so I would like to level up some of your skills and learn others to compensate for that during the times you will be resting between fights," Femradiel said. "Can I level up your Passive Recovery?"

"You can make my skills level up as well with the mana you receive?" Ryan frowned. "Wait, isn't that counterproductive for you?"

"Yes, I can." Femradiel replied. "And no, even in the short term I will recover the mana invested pretty fast. There are other skills that you might learn to increase your mana regeneration, but knowing you, you won't accept learning them. Unless, you decided to learn Hydromancy and Cryomancy later."

"There is that option as well, huh," Ryan rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

 Ryan considered his options carefully. Given the set of skills he obtained lately, he didn't have much use for magic aside from defending. Besides, the cost in the mana of his most powerful crossbows was pretty high. If he decides to use magic and his bolts and arrows to attack at the same time, he won't be able to level up as fast as he wants his archer-related classes. It was high time for Ryan to confirm the path he wanted to choose…

"All right, let's learn the skills that you recommend," Ryan said.

 Femradiel was surprised by Ryan's decision. While he let her help more than a few times as of late, this time, he took a step forward to balance the status of their cooperation. Since they had the contract, strictly speaking, Femradiel didn't need all that much mana anymore. In fact, she was already receiving more mana now than when she had a body.

"… All right," Femradiel said. "I am going to pass the knowledge directly to your mind. There are some skills that will be really useful later on, but let's start with the basics."

 Ryan's head began to hurt a little since the knowledge of that skill was quite dense and complicated. Still, once he understood the memories where Femradiel used the skill, he got how useful that skill would be, and that was one of the basic skills from Femradiel's perspective.

Congratulations! You learned the skill Mana-Eater.

Effects: it grants you the power to consume the mana inside inorganic things. You can consume ten points of mana per level.

Cost: 10 mana

You obtained 01 status points.

Congratulations! The skill Passive Recovery has leveled up.

Congratulations! The skill Passive Recovery has leveled up.

…

Congratulations! The skill Passive Recovery reached the max level.

You obtained 30 status points.

"What? Max level already?" Ryan frowned. "Femradiel… you didn't say the skill would reach the max level."

"That surprised me as well…" Femradiel said. "I didn't think humans could only level up some skills up to one hundred. How weird… if I use the monster's way to level up skills, that shouldn't be a problem."

"I am asking why you made the skill level up so many times…" Ryan said and then sighed. "Whatever… This is an unexpected limitation. Why can some skills only reach one hundred and others don't have the same limit?"

 Even after thinking for a while, not even Ryan or Femradiel managed to think of a proper explanation. He even managed to forget about Mana-Eater for a while due to it… in any case, while that skill wasn't that useful at level one, once it leveled up, Femradiel managed to obtain a lot of mana from the magic items Ryan made.

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