Manaless Mage

The other ABO officer simply nodded his head as they left with one thought on their minds. 'Who or what killed the mana beast?'

***

For a few seconds, Harry's mouth remained open. "I would even unlock an affinity… earth affinity." He muttered.

To say he wasn't shocked by the optional quest from the system would be a lie.

Back then, when he held the beast core, although, for a moment, the thought to absorb it did pop in his mind.

"Ye—" He was about to say yes when he suddenly paused. He took his eyes away from the system and focused on his surroundings.

His eyelids flickered strangely as he observed his empty room. He looked at his scrawny body and the small old closet at the edge of his room.

'Would absorbing it be the best choice…?' He thought. Although he was eager to absorb the beast core, he wasn't sure if it was the best choice, especially with his current living condition.

"Or would it be better if I… sell the beast core. Just like the white-haired man advised me to." Harry muttered. If he sold the beast core, he could use the money gotten from it to set up himself and improve his living condition. He could finally leave his parent's house and become independent…

As the earth developed in magic and technology over the years, the legal adult age was brought down from eighteen to sixteen. Harry was seventeen, so he was legally allowed to get a house and live on his own as he was already a young adult.

'Ah… I'm so confused right now.' No matter how he weighed his options, he only came to one conclusion, 'selling the beast core was a better choice for the current him'.

However, he still had one problem—where and how would he sell the beast core?

The government did their best to monopolize the trade and circulation of beast cores. This was due to the high crime rate and commotion caused by beast cores, since beast cores were very valuable, everyone wanted to get their hands on them, no matter the method.

Not just anyone could sell beast cores, there were only two ways to sell or buy beast cores, the first was through a certain set of people called 'beast core dealers'. Beast core dealers were either adventurers or Elementalists licensed to trade beast cores.

While the second was through the AMO themselves—although this option was only available for adventurers.

Harry had no access to any of them, he didn't know any adventurers or beast core dealers. So he basically had no way of selling the beast core. 𝙛𝐫e𝚎wℯ𝗯𝒏𝗼ѵ𝙚l.𝒄o𝚖

'I'll just keep it… I still need some time to think about this.' Harry thought. He regretted not asking the white-haired man to give him the compensation in monetary form instead. He furrowed his brows slightly as he suddenly realized something.

"System, is there a way to hide this beast core?" Harry asked. He didn't want to take any risk, since the beast core was filled with mana, it could be sensed by anyone using mana sense.

His father was a stage four Elementalist while his mother was a stage three Elementalist, they would definitely be able to sense the beast core if they tried checking his room using mana sense—although it was unlikely, he didn't want to take any risk, especially when it involved his parents or Trent.

[You could try using your skill 'mana conceal'. It might help you in preventing anyone from sensing the beast core's mana.]

"Huh?" Harry said In surprise. He was surprised by the system. For some reason, the system sounded very different. Anytime he conversed with the system, it had always replied in a robotic and emotionless voice, except this time it sounded more… human. It didn't even address him by the usual term 'Host'.

However, he didn't put much thought into it, he never understood the system, to begin with. It was still a mystery to him, one he hoped to understand sometime in the future… For now, he would just focus on levelling up and getting more powerful.

"Skill?" Harry muttered. 'Yeah… there were about three other skills apart from the Lightning skills.' A wry smile appeared on his face as he realized he only skipped to the Lightning skills without bothering to check the ones above it.

'Skills and abilities.' He said inwardly.

—

[Skills and Abilities]

[Skill Points: 1]

>>Accelerate (level 1)

>>Healing and low-level regeneration (level 1)

>>Mana steal (level 1)

>>Mana conceal (level 1)

>>Mana core illusion (level MAX)

[Affinity Skills and Abilities]

>>Lightning Strike (level 1)

>>Lightning Whip (level 1)

>>Lightning dash (level 1)

>>Lightning ball (level 1)

—

'Yeah… I truly didn't check the other skills…' Harry said inwardly.

'Accelerate, healing… and regeneration… mana steal, mana core illusion and mana conceal…' Harry thought. He didn't need to check the description of some of them before understanding their use, and to say he was shocked would be an understatement.

He took a deep breath and then checked the description of mana conceal, mainly because that was the one he currently needed the most.

—

>>Mana Conceal

—Level 1

Conceals mana. The amount of concealed mana and ability of concealment depends on the skill level and the Host's energy pool.

—

Harry's brows twitched slightly when he saw the system's vague explanation of the skill. 'Conceal mana? That means it… in a way, it hides mana and prevents it from being sensed or seen… right system?' Harry asked the system, just to be sure.

[Yes Host. That is the use of mana conceal]

Harry slowly nodded his head after hearing the system's reply, he noticed the system's voice was back to its former robotic and emotionless tone.

"Energy pool… my energy points are pitiful. Would it really be enough to hide the mana in a peak stage four beast core?" Harry muttered. Since the skill level and his energy points were very low… He wasn't sure if the skill would be able to hide the enormous mana in the small, shiny brownstone. But he still had to try…

He held the small shiny brownstone and then closed his eyes. For some reason, he felt like the activation of this skill would be more complex than that of all the Lightning skills put together.

"Mana conceal..." He muttered, he imagined using the skill to conceal the mana in the stage four beast core.

[Skill can't be activated. The skill level is too low to conceal that amount of mana. Host should try concealing it after leveling up the skill.]

"Shit…" Harry muttered as he opened his eyes. His gaze turned to the shiny brown stone resting on his palm as a sigh left his lips. "Well, this isn't too surprising. It's a peak stage four beast core after all."

[Aren't you forgetting something?]

The system asked, except this time, it was in the more human voice, or rather in its other voice…

*****

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