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Chapter 32: Mana Exhaustion II
Chapter 32: Mana Exhaustion II
The battle seemed to be coming to an end as Cerbe shot another round of Fireballs at the mana beast it was currently battling.
Boom! Boom!! Boom!!!
Three explosions rang out one after another and Damien couldn't help but nod in satisfaction. It was true that each fireball rapidly ate at his essence reserves but who cares?
The mana beast had lost one hand and while it was still unable to reach his Three-Headed Hound, it would soon lose another.
The hound wasn't playing. In seconds, Damien could see the battle coming to an end.
He subconsciously called out to his system to check his essence reserves. "Status." He thought, his eyes tracing the panel locate his the place that recorded his total essence reserves.
He quickly saw it and frowned.
«Magic Essence: 557/560(+150 units)»
I'm almost out."
He'd exhausted the units stored in his secondary Essence core and now, he would soon exhaust the essence in his main core.
He observed his Life Force and smiled. There was more than enough. "convert half of my Life Force to Magic Essence." Damien commanded with a satisfied smirk. This had to be his favourite feature in the entire system.
All he had to do was make sure his Life Force was high enough to convert into large units of Magic Essence.
Since he had advanced to Level 22, his total Life Force has also risen by 200.
«Converting 2,100 Life Force to Magic Essence!»
«+21,000 Units of Magic Essence!»
Yup! Once again, he loved this feature to death.
Damien simply watched how the Three-Headed Hound continued to spam fireballs at its opponent, seemingly enjoy the fight as much as he was.
Damien knew why the units of essence taken by each fireball always rounded at (300) and it was simply because the system had placed a restriction on his essence output. Whatever he did, he couldn't use more than three hundred units per second with the only exception being the act of summoning a new beast.
That was an exception because the system itself was responsible for the summon.
Bringing his thoughts together and concentrating on the battle in front of him, Damien nodded in satisfaction. "Now, finish it off."
As if hearing it's summoner's order, Cerbe stopped spamming fireballs and instead, attacked. Despite being slightly smaller than its opponent, it managed to knock it down, pushing it so it fell face up.
Cerbe movedcloser, placing its forelegs on its opponent's chest to prevent any movement.
There was a low growl from the beast but neither Damien or his summon cared at this point.
Roaaaar!
Cerbe roared in fury and a moment later, all three of its heads descended upon the mana beast. Sharp fangs dug into the mana beast's scales and when Cerbe pulled back, both scale and flesh was torn off.
Rooooar!!
The wounded mana beast roared in pain, its body convulsing under the intense torture.
"Be fast about it." Damien ordered but the Three-Headed Hound seemed to be deaf. It swallowed the flesh and scales it had bitten off and then dug right into the beast again, repeating the process all over.
"Oh!" Damien immediately understood. This was the hound's first battle with a mana beast of the same rank as it and Damien knew what it meant. It was feasting, devouring the beast to become even stronger.
It was similar to how he now only absorbed Grade Six cores. The Grade Seven ones did little to increase his essence now.
"Let's see… I don't think I'll be taking that core." Damien finally stood up from the floor, dusting the dirt off his body. He was in a sorry state with his broken bones still throbbing painfully.
They would take a while to recover so Damien would have to wait. Full recovery meant his Life Force had to rise back to its fullest and right now, it was nowhere near there.
"The Grade Seven cores don't increase my essence reserves but at least, they do recover my Life Force reserves." This was the exact reason why he kept saving Grade Seven cores.
Damien looked around, his eyes ultimately landing back on Cerbe. "Enjoy your feast. You've earned it."
He turned to another location and smiled. It was time to make use of the Grade Seven essence cores in his possession and the only way to do that was to summon his personal storage space. "Summon Luton." Damien said as he prepared to regain all his lost life essence in minutes.
~~~~~
Two hours had passed and Damien had fully recovered his Life Force and even better than that?
Boom!
Boom!
Roaaaar!!
He was back to his hunting business. Hed learnt something during the last hour. The stronger his summons became, the less they would rely on his own essence reserves.
The system had revealed that to him. They were only using his essence at the moment because despite being high ranked beasts, they lacked the required mana to fuel their own skills. After all, these skills were only supposed to activate when they attained a higher ranking.
With this understanding, Damien had a new goal. He would have to push them higher and the best way to do that?
Hunting without restrictions!
Boom!
Boom!!
Damien watched Fenrir and Cerbe let loose around the forest. Right now, both summons were engaged with two mana beasts of the same grade as them, Grade Five Mana beasts. Around them were the corpses of three others, previous targets taken down by both Fenrir and Cerbe.
While Fenrir seemed to be toying with its target, Cerbe was hellbent on killing its own. The first meal was sumptuous and it wanted another taste of that feeling.
Damien however, kept a close watch on his essence reserves.
«-300 units»
«-300 units»
«-300 units»
Every few seconds, Damien received small panels like this that made him frown. Despite his seemingly large essence reserves at the moment after having converted most of his Life Force for Magic Essence once again, these beasts were eating at it faster than he could recover.
"This time, I'll truly be stricken with mana exhaustion, wouldn't I?" Damien asked himself.
Anymore conversion of his life force and he might faint. And worse, he was out of Grade Seven essence cores!