Chapter 33: Sudden Rewards
Tyler groaned, pushing his weight off the damp earth. "Come on, get up." He gripped James's arm, hauling him upright.
James grunted, his boots finding purchase on the uneven ground.
Tyler dragged his hands down his trousers, dislodging clumps of dirt. "This is on me. If that hadn't happened... we wouldn't have been found. And your sword. It’s gone."
James stared at him. "What the hell was that, Tyler? The screaming... you were vomiting. What happened?"
Tyler’s brow creased. "I don't know." A harsh cough rattled in his chest. "The system. It started a scan on its own. It felt like a needle drilling into my skull. I couldn't... I couldn't stop it."
James watched him. *I felt it too, for a split second when I touched him.* "You're saying the system did that to you?"
"Yeah," Tyler said. His voice trembled. He stared at the puddle of black fluid soaking into the forest floor, then dragged the back of his hand across his mouth, wiping a lingering smear from his lips. *I didn't even prompt it to scan me again. We just talked about it, and then it started. I thought it was settled. I thought it recognized I was human.*
"James, I'm sorry—"
"Not now," James interrupted. "We need to move. We don't have weapons, and I'm out of mana."p
"Your mana ran out?" Tyler asked, his eyes widening.
James forced a step forward. Tyler moved to his side, wedging a shoulder under James's arm to bear his weight.
"Yes," James said, his breathing shallow. "I don't know what happened. When I touched you, all the mana left my body. Even my energy is gone."
Tyler stiffened. His mana absorption had activated. He attempted to conjure the status panel. A pale hologram flickered into the air, the text warping into unreadable shapes before shattering into nothingness. *It's unstable. I can't even see my stats.*
"How is that possible?" James asked.
"My mana absorption," Tyler said. "I think that caused it. I think I absorbed all your mana."
James turned his head, staring at Tyler. "What? That shouldn't be possible. You can't force mana out of someone."
Tyler kept his gaze on the path ahead as they walked. "That's what happened. When you touched me, I felt the pull."
James gritted his teeth. *Is that why his skill has a different name? Mana absorption, not mana recovery. He pulls it in.* "Even if you absorbed my mana," James said aloud, his voice strained, "it doesn't make sense how I lost all my physical energy. I can barely walk."
""I don't have an answer for that part," Tyler said. "I only know I absorbed your mana. And dark mana, too."
"Dark mana?" James rasped.
"Yeah." Tyler ducked under a low-hanging tree branch, pulling James down with him. "The system tried to expel it. I think that's why I vomited."
"But—" James clamped his mouth shut. No, Tyler isn't normal. He isn't like us. Recovery draws in normal mana, never dark. If a person takes in dark mana, they lose their sanity. But his body rejected it... He studied the side of Tyler's face. It still doesn't add up. Why now? Why not before, when he unlocked the skill? It's all around us.
Tyler's voice broke the silence. "James, my system is unstable right now, so this is a good time to tell you."
"Tell me what?" James asked.
Tyler stopped, planting his feet in the dirt. "We can't talk about it anymore."
"What do you mean?"
Tyler adjusted his grip on James's shoulder and resumed walking. "The system. It scanned me because we were talking about it. I didn't trigger it. If we bring it up again once it stabilizes... it might happen again. We have to drop it."
James stared at him for a long moment, then gave a stiff nod. "All right. If that's the risk, we drop it." *I can't tell if he's lying since I can't see it,* James thought. *This thing of his is dangerous. It seemed like an advantage, but now it's a double-edged sword. He could have died just now.*
Tyler stared straight ahead into the trees.* The system said it failed to extract the dark mana, but I still vomited. It started merging afterward. Was it merging the dark mana with mine?*
"We're close," James said, his voice cutting through Tyler's circling thoughts.
Tyler looked up. The base sat in the distance, a stark silhouette against the horizon.
"That woman," James said, his eyes fixed forward. "Did you see her level?"
"No. The system didn't show it."
"She must have been a C-rank," James muttered. "I didn't see a badge, but I can tell."
"How?" Tyler asked.
"When another hunter is that much stronger than you, you feel it. Like a knot in the gut."
Tyler’s mind flashed back to a night in Veridia, a woman in a dark cloak passing him in the shadows. This was different. That night, he had felt the cold weight of an inevitable end. He shook the memory away as they crossed the threshold out of the monster zone.
That's why I said it's a 70% chance. Some people don't go mad after eating it. They actually gain a kind of reward. Reward? Teleract. Yeah. They gain a skill. Teleract. Wait. So, are you saying that I might have gotten a skill because of the dark mana? Well, yes that might explain why you reacted that way when people eat the monster meat they go through a very short but painful process some of them get knocked unconscious because of it but if they survive and manage to cling on to their sanity they gain what we'd like to call dark skills these are skills that can be found in monsters But they are like ultimate skills, they are pretty powerful.
you're right everything makes sense now that's why I got such a powerful skill James looked at Tyler his eyes narrowing as they continued to walk dark manna and pure manna don't mix yet yours somehow did. When a person has dark mana, it stays on a specific part of their body, they have to draw it there to actually activate the skill, and yet yours seems to be spread around your entire body, along with your pure mana. They are not separate, they became one.
You're right, Tyler said. He looked at James, how did you know this? James said, I can tell. You radiate a different aura from the people of dark manner. Usually people of dark manner, radiate an obscene aura. Even if you can't see it, you feel it. It makes you get on guard. It makes you feel like you're right next to a monster.
*James lost his coins because of me. Again.*
A dull ache twisted in Tyler's stomach. *Why does it always end like this when I get close to someone?*
They cleared the tree line, circling the perimeter of the hunter base. James glanced sideways, noting Tyler’s hollow expression. *He’s blaming himself. It is his fault, but he’ll beat himself up until there’s nothing left unless I say something.*
"She took the coins, but we still have the slime core," James said. "It’s a mercy she didn't ask for the whole bag."
Tyler blinked, pulling himself back. "I forgot about the core. Can you hand it over?"
"Why?"
"I want to put it in my inventory. Just for a second. If I don't, I don't think the system will register that I finished the quest with you."
James shifted his weight. "Your system accepts quests?"
"Yes. It gives me recipes for items as rewards. It lets me craft better gear."
"Oh. Alright. Here." James reached into his bag and pressed the orb into Tyler’s palm.
The core was light but it filled his hand. James watched as Tyler concentrated. He felt a sudden blockage in his mind, a thick resistance against his thoughts. *Come on. Work.* He pushed his intent harder against the mental wall. The orb vanished. Tyler exhaled a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. He focused again, and the core reappeared in his palm.
"Here," Tyler said.
James took it, tucking it back into his leather bag. "You can let go. I can manage from here. I don't want them to see you."
He nodded, releasing his hold on James as they approached the back exit of the base. He slipped behind a tent, watching as James rounded the corner. James’s footsteps were sluggish, but he forced his spine straight, masking the exhaustion.
Once James was out of sight, Tyler dragged a palm down his face.
*How many coins did he lose? It had to be a lot. The debt is just piling up because of my luck. I have to level up. I have to become a hunter.*
He pressed a hand over his mouth, his eyes narrowing. *But the system... it’s malfunctioning. Storing that core felt like dragging a stone through deep mud. It resisted me.*
"That girl," he muttered. A flare of heat rose in his chest, a mixture of annoyance and sharp anger. *She robbed us.* His fist clenched at his hip. Then, the anger cooled into a bitter realization. *But she saved James. I don't know if I should be thankful or frustrated. She almost took everything. And can we even trust her to stay quiet?*
He sighed, staring into the empty air. He tried to conjure the interface, and a flicker of light manifested.
[SYSTEM REBOOT: 87%]
His breath hitched. *Rebooting.* He remembered the last time it had happened, the fear that it would strip his progress and drop him back to the beginning.
*I can't go back to Level 1. Not after all this work.*
The circular loading bar surged, filling rapidly until it hit the limit.
[SYSTEM REBOOT SUCCESSFUL]
The loading screen dissolved, replaced by the glow of his status panel.
SPECIES: Human
NAME: Tyler Evans
RANK: F
LVL: 14
CLASS: Craftsman
HP: 40/67 MP: 70/70
STR: 50 AGI: 53 +[4]
DEF: 46 +[37] STM: 49
SKILLS: Weapon Craft-Lv1, Weapon Craft-Lv1, Rush-MC20
PASSIVE SKILLS: Weapon Mastery-Lv1, Assimilation
Tyler let out a long breath, the tension leaving his shoulders as he closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them, his gaze locked onto the glowing numbers hovering in the blue hologram.
*Wait.* He stared at the mana value. *Did my mana increase by four points? I'm pretty sure it wasn't seventy.*
He scanned further down the panel, hunting for anything else out of place.
"I even got a new skill," Tyler muttered to the empty air. "But... when? The system didn't even notify me. I'm not even F-Rank plus yet."
Focusing his intent, he mentally pushed the system to expand the description of the new skill.
The translucent panel violently stuttered. The glowing text shattered into a mess of jagged, unreadable fragments.
Tyler’s pulse hammered against his ribs. *Is it malfunctioning again?*
The corrupted text vanished. A new panel snapped into place, displaying a slowly rotating circular loading bar. Glowing letters formed beneath it.
[REVIEWING UNKNOWN SKILL'S INFORMATION...]
*An unknown skill?*Tyler pulled his brows down, staring hard at the panel. *Most of the time, it instantly notifies me of the skill and gives me a tutorial.*
He watched the circular bar. It crawled at an agonizingly slow pace, barely creeping forward. It looked like it was completely stuck.
*It just doesn't make any sense. I didn't even level up.*He rubbed the back of his neck, the skin damp with cold sweat. *But then again, this is a big advantage. Maybe it happened when it was glitching out. It forced every skill I had to activate. It even started crafting on its own. It also said I unlocked an achievement.*
He dragged his hand down his jaw, his eyes narrowing at the spinning circle. *What was it crafting, though?*
Without warning, the loading panel vanished and new pristine screen replaced it.
[Quest Completed]
[Rewards]
1 Extra Stat Point
[Weapon Recipe: Dual Bronze Daggers]
1 Medium Bronze Ore
[Armor Recipe: Gloomfang Coat]
2 D-Rank Gloomfang Hides