Mission : Search For Harald

Life force.

A similar concept to mana pool. 

It is the bridge connecting the physical body to one's consciousness.

Once it gets depleted, the soul (consciousness) leaves the body. And we call it death.

There are many ways to do that. Like physical, psychological, or any type of injury fatal enough to deteriorate the life force completely. 

But there is another method in which pain is unbearable as it would feel like every internal organ is bursting and the skin is being scorched out. That is sucking out mana from the mana pool completely along with the life force.

Basically, when one's mana is completely used, for the sake of maintaining a balance, some amount of his/her life force flows towards the mana pool to keep it in equilibrium.

However, since its a typical weak to strong novel, initially, the side characters are given huge amount of base stats with the exception of the main lead, who would grow stronger and surpass them.

That's why I can't really believe what the heck this goddam bastard system is spouting.

Harald's life force is getting sucked out? Are you kidding me? He would probably have had the second highest amount of mana stats in our year only after Scott. 

Anyway, that doesn't matter right now. I was planning on taking a rest for the night but seems like I would have to search for Harald immediately.

Informing Cecille about this would not be effective as I have to explain from where I got this information. So, I think its better to head out without waking her up.

With that being the case, I picked up the stuff she had prepared for me beforehand, put it in my bag and went out into the forest in search for Harald Peterson.

***

I already had experience in travelling at night around this place, so it was relatively easy this time.

Although the forest is outside the city demographically, in a geographic sense it was inside the Royal Capital as it was inside the boundary. The forest was in southward direction to the capital and Cecille's house was straight north to the forest just inside the active area of the capital.

From the outskirts of the forest, I didn't realize the depth of it and the amount of time it would take to reach at deep forest.

Well, why am I walking into the deep forest when I don't know his location? That's because, a panel showing his location was lit up from the beginning on my left hand. 

However, the closer I get to the pointed location, the farther it gets away from me. It seems like Harald is no where close to my location.

I walked with a fireball on my left hand, took some rest, then walked again. Repeating this process several times I realized that it was already dawn and the sun was rising in the east which put on a reddish veil on the forest.

[Remaining time : 42hrs 02mins 48s]

It means 6 hours is already over since I started walking. With that came the realization that this forest is too large that I still am in the outskirts of it. That's because I haven't had an encounter with any beasts.

This fact was both assuring and worrisome. 

Moreover, Cecille had prepared many bottles of potions that I don't think I would run out of them anytime soon.

Despite being the fact that this is a forest and I am on a search mission, things have gone smoothly so far.

***

After around 12 hours of walking, I witnessed some bizarre creatures, probably mana beasts. 

Some had the size of an elephant with 4-5 horns, some had the body of a snake with 3 heads, and some were the size of a buffalo with spine like thorns all over their body.

However, they wouldn't attack me at all. In fact, they all ignored me as if I was a pebble on the roadside.

And the reason was this pendant which Cecille had given to me. 

Mana beasts' eyes are not like us. They don't detect their surroundings by actually seeing the objects, but they use all their senses to detect the flow of mana from any object and create a picture of it.

That means they can't differentiate between a tree and a human if they emit same amount and same characteristics mana.

This pendant helps me to blend into background by imitating the mana flow of a tree, by suppressing my innate mana flow.

I am grateful towards her for helping me in many ways.

Despite meeting her for the first time, I feel a strange sense of familiarity when I am with her.

Maybe it was due to her charm, but I am not the type to be swayed away by any beautiful face. 

I will think about it later. There are still a lot many things I don't know.

By the way, about Harald, I have simply stopped thinking any hypothesis about what would have happened to him because there are simply too many possibilities. I would like to avoid any fighting as, even if I have trained my mana using abilities a little bit, there's no guarantee that I would be able to come back alive if someone of higher rank than me shows up.

Therefore, I am just going with the flow avoiding as many troubles as possible.

In the meantime, this day was almost over when I saw the sun setting in the west.

[Remaining time : 30hrs 17mins 09s]

***

So far, there haven't been any difficulties.

The terrain ahead is surely difficult to walk and the night is too cold, but apart from that I have avoided being noticed by the mana beasts.

Come to think of it, even if its a fictional world, there was no mention of the description of all the mana beasts.

In my previous world, the life history was explained by concepts like chemical and biological evolution. I am sure that must be the case here too.

Such differing biodiversity might have been due to the influence from mana particles.

Moreover, I think the 4 major races have a common ancestor from which they inherited their intelligence and self consciousness properties.

Just as I was wondering about this world's diverse flora and fauna, I heard a creature approaching me. It was nearly the size of a leopard and had similar morphological features.

This creature was not a passerby, rather it was directly looking towards me and was gradually closing the distance. Then, suddenly it jumped up aiming at me as I recalled a conversation with Cecille.

"Although its too rare, but there are some mana beasts who can distinguish between humans and other objects, even if their mana is too low. This pendant can suppress most of your mana, but if you meet such a creature it would be able to recognize you. In that situation what would you do?"

"Hmm? I can use fire and dagger which are considered standard weapons for hunters, right?"

"Yeah, at least you would be able to fight them with those weapons. So, are you confident that you would win?"

"....Nah, I would run."

"Wha-?"

"HaHa, do you expect me to fight? Me, who has no experience in fighting? I am not even sure that I would be able to run away from such a creature."

Fighting without training is not bravery, its foolishness.

In this world, where strong devours the weak, there are only two options available for the weak, either fight back or run away.

"And I choose the second option!!!!!!!!!"

With that scream I ran as fast as I could. 

I don't know what would happen next if I turn back to see that beast.

But, what I know is what I have to do.

Because this situation is totally under my control now.