This Damned System!

The Hideous Goat was not going to wait for him to prepare though. It charged at Finn again, this time using its claw to attack. 

Finn jumped out of the way, back stepping, to dodge, but the Goat charge covered more range compared to earlier.

Finn made weird noises that translated to: "Bastard, you're supposed to wait!"

The Goat didn't relent as it kept using a combination of its Barrier push, charge and claw attacks.

Finn just kept jumping, back stepping and sidestepping. After recognizing him as an equal in strength, the Hideous Ghost consumed more Mana to activate its skills to take him down.

At some point, the goat added mid-air charge, making Finn think if he should give up on his practice. 

'I'm tired of this!'

Fed up, Finn released a Disruptive Howl on the creature that was 'running' mid-air, making it fall to the ground.

He then went on the attack with an ordinary mana cloaked claw using it to ravage the Goat.

To block him, a barrier was set up but Finn broke it due to his crazy onslaught.

The brown mana that fin struggled to bring to him was already sipping into his claws. Based on prior experiences - media back in his previous world and the crabs - Finn guessed this to be the element, Earth.

It gave his claw a harder texture, retained the claws' pointy edges and gave it more weight.

In the midst of his onslaught, not leaving any room for the Hideous Goat a chance to attack, Finn had a voice in his head.

[Secondary Skill, "Mana Veil", can be acquired]

[Acquire Skill?]

[Yes/No]

Without hesitation, Finn replied, 'Yes.'

The pressure on the Hideous Goat only became worse, all opportunities it had to counter were erased.

Finn moved like a true beast. All his movements felt fluid and natural. 

Mana shrouding his claws felt natural, he concentrated mainly on the Earth attribute he gathered.

Before the Hideous Goat felt like it was on equal footing with the White Fenri, but now it didn't. Its instincts told it that it was now a prey.

Fearing it looming death, it created a barrier, another behind it, and about 3 more. It wanted to run.

Finn noticed its actions, raised his two front paws up and brought them down, his claws slicing the air.

10 mana arcs of different length formed as Finn brought his claws down. They broke through the Barriers leaving the Hideous Goat's back wide open.

Tensing his hind legs, Finn made a leap and covered a huge distance, appearing right behind the Goat.

In the last moments of its life, the Hideous Goat saw the White Fenrir's blue eyes that thirsted for blood, its mouth wide open revealing two rows of canine teeth that hungered for flesh.

Right when he was about to make contact with the Goat's skin, Finn couldn't help but comment, 'Shred and die.'

Another 10 mana arcs formed, cutting through the Goat like knife through butter, reaping the life of the creature.

Once again, Finn has shown qualities of a Predator.

As the shredded body of the Goat fell, Finn collapsed to the ground. 

'Damn, I actually lost myself a bit there. Am I truly becoming a monster? This is just my second battle…'

Every battle -both literally and metaphorically - Finn looks back at it, trying to draw lessons. That was the best way he had learnt to grow.

'I'll have to pay more attention next time. That aside, it actually worked! The colored mana are truly elements! A fruitful battle indeed. I also managed to get the hang of strengthening my claws with mana.'

Feeling grateful that he's making progress, Finn moved onto cultivating the mana the goat corpse was exuding.

It took me not so long this time as he was already getting used to the process. Since cultivating the Mana of the Crabs and Deer-bird, he had also tried cultivating the atmosphere's mana, once in a while.

Compared to Mana from a corpse, that was harder and more consuming.

Haven concluded his cultivation, Finn couldn't help but laugh inwardly. This was a coping mechanism because something saddening happened.

'Why this? No, someone tell me, why this! When I set out to increase my core's capacity limit, it happened to be reduced instead?!'

During his cultivation, while using the mana to increase his core size, Finn realized that his core which could grow to slightly surpass the Fenrir's core could only grow to a size comparable to the Fenrir's now.

Not only that, but his current core size had slightly reduced too.

'How though? Why was it reduced…' Finn questioned himself. This matter was troubling, Mana quantity was important.

He tried thinking back to what had occurred between his last Mana Cultivation and now, thinking of something that could have caused this. Only one thing could come to mind.

'I got a new skill.'

He was moving without really thinking much during that fight, partly because he wanted to try and win with his strength alone - he didn't know if he'll meet a creature that'll make his intelligence useless - and also because he lost himself to the flow of the fight, like a Monster.

He had obtained a new skill that was now residing within himself like an imprint on his core.

'Is this how skills work? It seemed like a part of my core was used to create it. I guess the amount of skills I can get isn't unlimited after all.'

Finn chose to view his status. Maybe the skill was actually worth the sacrifice. Skills reduced the amount of Mana used and made it easier to carry out actions, so it was also beneficial…

But if he knew this was the cost Finn would have rather learnt the Mana Veiling without needing to obtain the skill. 

As his status panel appeared, Finn went through the new screen first.

[Secondary skill "Mana Veil" - Successfully acquired]

["Mana Veil" can absorb "Mana Slash"]

[Absorb Skill "Mana Slash"?]

[Yes/No]

'Will this give me a new skill? Hmm… I don't think it'll affect my core, plus I might be able to make mana slash my own. Let's go with yes!'

[Absorbing…]

Finn felt the bridge connection between his core and the Fenrir's strengthen as his core tried to absorb the imprint on the Fenrir's.

But ultimately…

[Absorbing failed.]

'That's what I thought.' Finn shrugged, but he wasn't down… because, 'This damned system! It still tried to use my core to merg- absorb, whatever! 

'Tell me, do you want me to be stuck with a small core at the end of the day!'

Self-deprecatingly, Finn sighed, 'Now I'm fighting with a system… I need to talk to someone…'

Giving up on that, Finn proceeded to read the information of his new skill.