Is this really a Game?!

Chapter 13 Mana And A Hidden Quest?!

Everyone stared in awe at Beast. A weapon of C rank was lucky enough, but this guy now had a B rank item as well, the stats it gave were awesome, not to mention the bonus of having a shield, the only problem is that none of them knew how to use mana.

"From now on I propose that Beastie should open every chest and get every item, we might profit from his incredible luck."

Shadow says while not moving his eyes from the armband and its description. Everyone nods immediately except Beast who was panicking a bit with a flushed expression.

"N-no, I was just very lucky these two times, I-I'm sure you guys will also get some great things later, to put me in charge for something like that is-"

"Don't worry about it Beastie, if you get lucky again while opening then it's all good, if not then we will just try again with you before switching, so just relax, no one will blame you if we don't get anything amazing."

Reign pats Beast's shoulder from behind him and says. Everyone nods again in confirmation of his words and Beast calms down immediately.

"Hey Tank, what about that mace that Reign got, how is it compared to this?"

"Ohh, well it's good, but not that good."

Tank holds the mace in front of him and shows its description to everyone.

[ C rank Steel Mace ]

Atk: 35

Def : 15

Strength + 3

Endurance + 2

Description: A steel mace made by a fine smith, the smith hated all weapons that made their users use mana to properly wield them so he made stronger enhancements while using above-average steel for it.

"So it gives more stats and it's stronger than other C rank weapons but no mana-related skill like Beasties bow and armband huh, well I guess that's not so bad, we don't know how to use mana anyway."

"Did you say you don't know how to use mana?"

Jack suddenly shows up near them and asks with a surprised look on his face.

"Yeah, I mean something like that was never here on Earth, so we have no idea what it is or how to use it, we're only familiar with the term because of games and such."

Reign looks at the vice-captain and explains with a calm face, which only makes the vice-captain more confused.

"But you guys are pioneers, you should already have abilities right?"

"Yeah, wait how is that connected?" Asks Shadow

"Simple, just by using those you are already using mana for it, the biggest difference between the abilities you guys have and the ones you can learn is that yours are inherent so they use a lot less mana."

"The system said something about them being already ours before the lottery, but it's still confusing"

Wolf says from the side while looking straight at Jack, in the world of assassins a lack of information will frequently prove to be fatal so for Wolf, not knowing about his ability is incredibly frustrating.

"You'll learn about that with time, what you guys should do is focus, focus every time you use your ability, even those that are more passive can be used to an extent, just do that and you will be able to feel mana, it'll take some time but it will happen, pioneers have a huge head start compared to others because of it, while they need to train for mana first and then learn skills, earn powers or abilities you guys have skipped that and gained one right away."

"So, just focus and that's it?"

Reign asks and immediately uses his lightning, everyone else does the same with their abilities, Wolf summons his flames, Shadow jumps at nearby shadows with his eyes closed, Tank clenches every muscle on his body and tries using his, it works a bit as his skin turns darker by a shade, Beast had it the hardest, his ability only works on beast-like monsters, and there were none around them.

"You said you were a Tamer right?" Jack approaches Beast and asks him.

"Y-Yes, sir!"

"Calm down man, try the corpse, even though you won't be able to tame it, you should be able to at least feel your ability trying to communicate with it, I've seen high-level tamers communicating with the souls of dead beasts before so it should work."

"T-thank you for your help!" Beast bows down and immediately turn to the cockatrice corpse, putting his hand on its head he tries to activate his ability.

"Oh and by the way, each one of you will perceive mana differently, it differs from person to person, it can be similar to your ability, it can be something you have never felt before, it could even be the same as your mothers embrace, so don't waste time asking each other what they felt."

Jack turns around and leaves them, the soldiers around them slowly gather up and start talking to each other.

"Hey, who do you think will do it first?"

"I think the lighting kid, I heard he was a seed of hope."

"Seeds of hope are just seeds, even normal people can sometimes be faster at them before they reach their potential, I think the guy with fire wins, 1000 S Coins, how about it?"

"Count me in, I think the giant will do it first though, he already managed to activate a body activity so quickly, he has potential."

"Nah, the one with shadows."

"You're all morons, everyone knows tamers are more in tune with mana compared to others."

The sounds of the soldiers arguing and betting weren't heard by Reign and the others as they had already come at a trance-like state.

Birds, Reign was hearing the sound of millions of birds chirping around him, when he opened his eyes he was no longer at the castle, what was shown in front of him was a sea of lightning, each of the lightning bolts was huge, kilometers long, the sight of it coupled with the sound was overwhelming but it didn't bother Reign, he felt as if it was welcoming him, like a parent that welcomes his child home.

Thud

Reign walks towards it, each step he takes was as loud as a lightning bolt but he didn't care, he wanted to get in, to join the lightning that was calling him.

Suddenly

A flash of light appears, everything around the lightning was suddenly split in light and dark.

On his right side, Reign saw a brightness above that of a sun, it was blinding, just by looking at it a person would lose his eyesight, but to Reign, nothing happened.

On his left side, an expanse of darkness was shown, like a black hole it swallowed everything, the lightning wasn't spared, each time a bolt came close it disappeared.

In the middle, the light and darkness were touching each other, but never truly connecting.

Looking at this sight in front of him Reign was suddenly lost, the light enticed him to come, sprinkling him with warmth while the darkness was like a whisper, it whispered and tried to entice him to come, to join with it.

Before he could do anything, everything disappeared, he was back at the castle, the others were still deep in thought and not moving.

"What was that?" Reign whispers to himself, he looks at his hand that was clad in lighting and suddenly he realizes.

"I-I feel it again, is this mana?"

The feeling that the sea of lightning gave off was still there, with a thought Reign could switch it off and on, he didn't know what happened when the light and darkness appeared but he knew one thing, he could use mana now.

" Hahahahahaahaha, great, great, just what I expected from a seed of hope, he was first, come on guys, pay up pay up."

Slowly everyone else woke up, by the smile on their faces it seemed like everyone was successful.

Beast focuses and the armband on his hand shines with a gentle green light. A transparent shield was formed around it.

"Wow, it's so beautiful."

Beast exclaims while looking at it, suddenly he feels drowsy stumbles, the shield immediately disappears.

"Hey Beastie, you ok there buddy?"

Tank quickly comes to his side and puts his hand around him, letting him lean on him before he recovers.

"I-I think so, seems like my mana isn't enough to use this properly right now."

"Correct, you also just came from the realm of mana, just that is enough to drain your mana, not to mention you tried to use a skill from that item, you're lucky you didn't pass out boy."

Jack shows up again and berates the tired Beast with a smile, he never thought all of them would be talented enough to feel mana so quickly, a normal person usually needs to practice for months before doing it.

"Now go away you guys, before this thing starts rotting here you should give it to the blacksmith" Jack pushes everyone to the blacksmith, looking at their backs he sighs.

"I needed 1 month and was called a genius, what the hell are these guys then?"

Laments Jack before looking straight at Reigns back.

"That boy, I don't know what it is, but I could swear I felt a danger from him right before he woke up, a seed of hope, is he really only that?"

"I-Impossible!" Eldar exclaims from the tower.

"H-How can he be one of them?" He looks at Reign and asks.

Nobody saw it but him. Right before Reign woke up Eldar felt an inexplicable sense of danger. When he looked outside he saw it. He saw Reign, clad in ethereal lightning with wings on his back. One was pure white, it was brighter than a star, the other black, darker than a black hole. Eldar saw something like that a long time ago, it was a memory he could never erase from his mind.

"I-I'm not wrong, that boy is a part of them, but how, this is supposed to be a newly found planet, for something like this to happen, should I report it?"

"No!" He shakes his head. "Even if I do no one will believe me, not to mention that somebody might already know, if they do I'm as good as dead, I'll just continue as normal and do my job, if that boy makes it till the end, I'll win big," Eldar says with fear and excitement mixing on his face.

"Oh, it's you, boys, again!" The blacksmith exclaims and gets up from his chair. He was big, bigger than Tank even, the muscles on his body were something only seen on professional bodybuilders, his hair was long and grey, falling to his back a bit. He smiles and starts caressing his long grey beard and asks:

"So did you get the fangs, that was faster than I expected."

"We have 26, sir, we came to show you something else though."

Reign respectfully says, even if the old man in front of them was a blacksmith, he could probably beat them all up with one arm and a blindfold, at least that's what he thought.

"Ohh, something else, well go on, let me see it." The old man says with a smile.

"It's this." Wolf moves to the side and shows him the cockatrice.

"An elite monster, hohohohoho, you boys have just made this old man very happy!"

The old man laughs with a thunderous voice and goes to the cockatrice.

"Hmmm, there's a lot of wounds on it, but it seems like you didn't damage its bones that much, the right wing I can salvage a bit of, well, it's usable, even more than it, it's quite good, hohohohoho good job, I'll take it."

[ Quest has changed, a hidden quest initiated.]

[Hidden Quest completed.]

[The blacksmith Adrian wanted fangs from goblins to create some trash weapons to sell, by bringing him a corpse of an elite monster together with some fangs he has decided to create one weapon of good quality for you.]

"So boys, what weapon do you want me to make, don't worry, it's on me." Adrian grins.