I Never Run Out of Mana - Chapter 176

Chapter 176

176 . Gera’s Ability

A middle aged drunkard kicked the door and came in .

He was so drunk that he didn’t seem aware of how hard he kicked the door open .

Waving a loaf of bread in his hand, he spoke .

“Oho . Karupedan is here too? You’ve grown up a lot since I’ve last seen you . ”

“……”

“What reason have you come… . ”

“What reason! I’m here to claim payment for the very same bread that child is eating . ”

“Karupedan, you’re done eating, right? Can you go to your room for a bit?”

“Yep . ”

“Heh heh! Sure . Hurry up and grow up lots . Only then can you also… . . ”

“Sir . Over there……”

“Sure, sure . ”

With the appearance of this man, Gera’s expression soured .

It didn’t seem as if this was the first time for Karupedan, who put the small amount of leftovers in her mouth and walked towards her room .

It was merely a piece of bread .

It wasn’t enough for one to eat their fill, and it wasn’t anything tasty with flavor .

It was just a fist sized plain bread .

Even if they were orphans, this food could be purchased with not even a half a day’s work .

However, for these siblings, who were denied all help, it had become something they could only obtain by paying a steep price .

Gera stopped the man from speaking of foul subjects and guided him to her bed .

Karupedan, who had been playing in the mountains all day, fell asleep near instantly in her room .

After all, she was too young to understand what was going on .

She must’ve thought that Gera-unni had obtained the bread through work .

She must’ve thought that it was her share of the bread that’s left for her on the table as usual .

There was no way that she would’ve known that no one gives work or money to the children of traitors .

Because of that, she didn’t learn the weight behind the bread that she ate for years .

Karupedan’s rage and desperation began not when she had become an orphan, but when she became old enough to understand what Gera was going through .

****

Gera’s robe fluttered as if a strong gust of wind was blowing over it .

Both of her hands were raised towards me, and a red mist rose from them .

I had already swallowed a King’s Marble, and also had many more filling my mouth from cheek to cheek, so I didn’t feel that threatened .

‘Feel free to attack as much as you want . You won’t be able to touch a hair on me . ’

I didn’t have anything against Gera, but this was an opponent that I had to defeat in order to progress .

To achieve the new goal I had, I needed to defeat her .

Ignoring the pose she took to attack, I casted a Meteor infused with mana and magical energy .

As expected, I felt that the strength behind this attack was something difficult to handle as of yet .

After all, at the same time as I cast the spell and thought so, the Meteor had already struck my enemy .

Despite being a God of Death, it seemed that she couldn’t stop this attack .

Similar to bullets ripping through a piece of paper, Gera’s robe was ripped apart . Her body that had been completely hidden now was in plain view .

Her skin was pale without any complexion, and she was thin enough to be mistaken for a mummy .

It was enough for me to mistake her hand and feet as roots of a tree .

If how the gods appeared was the same appearance of their forgotten memories… . .

She must’ve gone through an unbelievable amount of pain .

However, the problem wasn’t her form .

It didn’t matter if she took on the form of a tree or flower .

Gera knew that she could not avoid my attacks .

She also knew of the abilities of the Awakened, since she was the one to have given them out in the first place .

Instead of avoiding my attack, she had chosen to attack, keeping both of her hands that were letting off steam up .

She kept her hands up even until my attack struck her .

However, strangely, I didn’t see any effects from her attack .

Her hands just kept on letting off steam .

I knew that dragging on this fight will cause Gera to suffer more .

I thought that the least I could do for her was to finish her off in a single hit, so I can at least reduce the amount of pain she would feel .

After all, it was a situation where I was 100% sure of my victory .

Looking at Gera, I suppressed the frustration I felt and casted Meteor again .

Nine orbs appeared in the sky, then all came crashing down at once .

However .

“Urgh! What is this… . . ”

I felt that my life was threatened without reason and swallowed a King’s Marble .

A minute hadn’t passed yet, but my body had moved reflexively to try to survive .

On top of that, I cast Mana Shield, which was something that I hadn’t done in awhile due to using the marbles recently .

The entire area was covered in flames .

I was standing amongst the intense flames that had enough power to turn anything into ash .

That’s right . Instead of striking down Gera, the Meteor struck me instead .

Was it because my control over my power was lacking?

No . That wasn’t the case .

Until now, no matter how critical the situation was, I didn’t fail to cast my spells properly .

Despite using powers somewhat beyond my control, I believed that this didn’t occur because of me .

Thankfully, I didn’t receive 100% of the damage .

It was quite a shock, but the damage I received was light . I could easily recover with some healing spells .

I could taste salty blood in mouth .

At the same time, I felt uneasy .

I wasn’t sure what injured my invulnerable body . I also was concerned about how my attack came back towards me .

I believed that the answers to these questions laid with Gera .

I asked her, who stayed still with her hands still raised .

“I guess this is what you meant? The power that I’ll need to face the gods I’ll be facing after you . ”

“……”

Gera didn’t answer .

A confirming silence .

To better understand the current situation, I stopped my attack .

If this is Gera’s true power, then any further attacks were rash .

It wasn’t just my attack being reflected back at me, but rather the target of the attack I used being changed to me, so it was that much more dangerous .

Also, when I was talking to her, I saw her form and couldn’t hide my surprise once more .

Only her robe was torn away, while the rest of her body didn’t have a single wound .

Was there an exception to the power of the Piece of Time and Space?

Was it possible for her to break the rules the Unrivaled God set .

‘Was it an illusion or some kind of hypnosis? However, I had my Titan Boots . These boots should block all status effects . I don’t like it, but recovery comes first . The plan to take down Gera follows after . ’

Staring at Gera, I casted Mega Cure .

[Target cannot be treated . ]

[Target cannot be treated . ]

“Damn it… . . What is this bullshit!”

Gera didn’t take any damage . Compared to that, not only did I take a small amount of damage, but the effect from the Piece of Time and Space that denied healing was applied on me .

It was hard to believe this situation .

I felt as though I’ve fallen into a perfectly orchestrated trap .

Gera remained still even now, and didn’t attack me at all .

It seemed that she wanted me to continue attacking until I would collapse from exhaustion .

Calming myself down from the encroaching suffocating anxiety, I reorganized my thoughts .

The biggest issue was the attack that came at me .

However, trying to understand this part was a contradiction in its own .

I could only assume that this was Gera’s ability .

I didn’t know if she was controlling me or the attack projectiles .

If it was the first, then I couldn’t guarantee victory .

However, if she really was controlling me, then I would be still casting spells on myself .

If it was the latter? I would have a chance if I tweak my attack pattern even a little bit .

Second issue was that Gera did not take any damage .

She had received my skill with a 100% attack success rate directly .

She didn’t dodge or defend at all, and I had confirmed landing my spell directly on her with my own two eyes .

However, instead of receiving any damage, only a bit of her robe was torn .

It didn’t make any sense .

Was it because fire type attacks like Meteor didn’t work on her?

This theory also didn’t make sense .

The Piece of Time and Space allowed me to completely ignore resistances of my enemy .

Taking that into account, what type of attack I sent out didn’t matter .

The inside of my head had gotten complicated enough to give me a headache .

Continuing to ponder, I had arrived at a point where I could not even believe in her existence .

No matter how I looked at it, I couldn’t come up with an answer .

Was there a secret to the area surrounding us, similar to how it was for Hai Yanta and Lai Yanta?

Was it possible that the Gera was facing was just an illusion?

I had to find a clue .

I carefully cast Frost Orb .

It was a pure Frost Orb that wasn’t mixed with mana or magical energy .

It was because I had come to the realization that my attacks could return back to me .

“……”

The Frost Orb flew towards exactly where I had aimed for .

She was able to reflect Meteor, but not Frost Orb?

I tried to think of the difference between the two skills .

First, I knew that the type didn’t matter, so I put that out of the equation .

The skill’s level . It could also be that one was transcended, while the other wasn’t .

Also, Meteor Call was an area of effect spell, but Frost Orb was a single target spell .

“Ah, whatever!”

Risking the damage being returned to me, I cast Meteor .

I couldn’t find a clear answer, and there really wasn’t any other method .

However, the result was quite satisfying .

The attack that I had thought would strike me smashed into the pool of lava instead, where no one was .

This made me remember a monster back in the level 34 dungeon .

An elongated circle shaped monster that looked similar to a mirror hung up on a wall of a room .

That monster perfectly reflected the attack I casted .

This situation was very similar to how that creature reflected both the skill’s amount and type down to the dot .

It was only a theory, but it was also true that it had weight to it .

It seemed that Gera had the ability to completely reflect the attack that she received towards the attacker .

The unsolved mystery was on how she didn’t receive any damage doing so .

It wouldn’t be too late to figure out that part after I proved this theory .

‘I don’t know what type of shield she’s using, but I will penetrate it eventually . I cannot use the same attack two times in a row . I have to do only one at a time . ’

Before attacking, I looked through my skill list .

The amount of skills that filled the list made me wonder just when I learned so many of them .

If my calculations were correct, each skill could be divided into four levels of power .

The power of a regular Awakened . Empowered by mana . Covered in magical energy . And finally, both infused with mana and magical energy .

And even excluding the attack skills on the list, I could conjure up at least 200 different methods of attacks with my mastery over mana and magical energy .

Gera didn’t attack anyways .

Instead, she merely waited for me to .

Near her, I began to conjure Mana Towers .

One only from mana, and another mixed in with mana and magical energy .

“It would be great if I made the right guess… . . ”

“……”