Red-back Hyena

Mana core storage: the ability of a mage to store mana inside their body. Light-mages had the lowest mana core storage; hence, they depended on orbs for storing their mana.

The third was mana auto-regeneration. This was the ability to regenerate mana after depleting the mana in your core. This attribute depended on mana affinity for the rate of regeneration. Mana auto regeneration totally depended on the open-mindedness of a mage's mana core. The open-mindedness of a core had to be unlocked by its owner.

The fourth one was the mana core. Every mage must have one. Light-mages have two because their orbs are considered cores. The mana core was the central unit that helped a mage control and harness mana. Innate mages were born with mana cores in their bodies.

Zheng knew that he had low mana core storage and low mana affinity; hence, he would have suffered the normal backlash from mana overload. His father, the emperor, had high mana core storage like the Dream bison.

The cow began crying, regretting why she had accepted the advances of the dream bison. This was because the Dream bison was powerfully dipping its cookie into her honey jar. Lots of fluid was dripping and being clattered out from the cow's jar from the pounding, which made Zheng feel like puking. He looked away and focused on the shrubs. He said to himself,

'I have to cultivate mana.'

He became pensive, remembering that if he was unlucky enough to eat a fruit that had a mana volume richer than his mana storage, he would suffer backlash. Another shrub caught his attention, and he walked towards it. The shrub's fruits were smaller than the previous one he visited. The fruit was the size of a ten year-old boy's fist.

The dream bison's vision was pleasurably dazed by the accumulating thrusting sensation. Despite that, it saw the prince walk to another shrub. It mocked him in its mind, saying,

'He is going to realise that all these fruits have a high mana concentration that is bigger than his mana core storage.'

The cow moaned loudly in pleasure. It had reached its climax. Unfortunately, the Dream bison wasn't half way there and was still thrusting. However, the cow didn't cry as the thrusting continued. The daze of pleasure clouded its mind.

The cow's unexpected moan irked Zheng. He wanted to turn and stop the mating beasts, but sound reason got the better of him. The beasts were much stronger than him.

Zheng walked to a shrub that had fruits that weren't as colourful as the others. He plucked a fruit, but he was hesitant to eat it. He looked at the Dream Bison for validation, but the bovine didn't look his way. He gave up and stared at the fruit in his hand.

'Surely, it won't be as bad as the bison's. The fruit's colour is muted compared to the other fruits.'

He took two quick, successive bites and swallowed. He did so with a face that expected the fruit to have a bitter taste, but it didn't. It had a sweet mango taste. When he began to appreciate the taste of the fruit, he was struck by the backlash for mana overload. He fell on his back, sprawled on the ground as he shrieked and writhed in extreme pain. A brilliant yellow light erupted from all his orifices.

The Dream bison laughed with a bellow.

At that moment, another mystical beast entered the clearing. This beast was called the Red-back hyena. It laughed the characteristic laugh of hyenas as it inspected the shrubs to find a fruit it would eat. From the Red-back hyena's gait, it could be discerned that it was familiar with this part of the forest. It didn't spend much time looking at the shrubs. It casually made its way to the shrub that Prince Zheng had just plucked a fruit from.

When the hyena was at a small distance from Kyle, it yelped. It wasn't because of the human who was writhing in pain on the ground. Rather, it was because someone had plucked one of the fruits from the shrub that was ahead of the human. The hyena's face became angry. It was strange because traditional hyenas couldn't look angry, but the Red-back hyena could.

Had Zheng been a bit smarter, he would have interpreted the foul scent around the shrub he harvested as a mark of territory. The hyena was now glaring at him because it was evident that he was the culprit. The evidence was the bitten fruit beside him.

Zheng didn't notice the hyena beside him. Pain got the best of him. He couldn't even help himself to save himself from the wrath of the mana overload. His whole body—his bones, muscles, nerves, and organs—were arrested by the wild flow of mana in his body. The only thought that he could muster was that he would die from the mana electrocution.

The Dream bison didn't seem to care about what was happening to the prince. It was happily enjoying playing with the cow's jar. The bovine turned its head to catch a glimpse of the prince but was surprised to see a hyena had entered the clearing. The bovine noticed that the hyena seemed aggressive.

The Dream bison wondered, 'Surely that dumb kid didn't eat from the dog's plant, right?'

'Of course, he did. Why would the dog have an aggressive body language?'

'Oh my!' The Dream bison moaned. 'I'm not done with this exercise. Let me increase my speed so that I can finish and help that dumb kid.'

The Dream bison increased its speed, and the cow moaned in pleasure. The cow liked the sudden increase in speed.

'Get up!'

'Huh?' Zheng wondered.

He could hear a voice telling him to get up but from where? He wondered how it was possible that he suddenly began to hear sound while he was under intense pain.

'How am I able to think?' Zheng thought.

'Get up!'

'Huh? That doesn't sound like the bison.' Zheng mused

'Get the hell up!'

On closer inspection of the voice, Zheng discovered that the voice telling him to get up sounded like his voice.