God Class Awakening: Ascension of the Demon Hunter-Chapter 45: Mana Mutant.

With great difficulty, he pulled himself and sat up next to the rubble. The beetle creature was lying on the sand, dead. Although luck played a major role, it didn’t change the fact that he had killed an epic-ranked demon.

Normally, an average person would need to have maxed out common demon points to handle an epic-ranked demon with ease.

He hadn’t, but he was also not the average person.

Looking at the system notification, a sense of pride welled up in his chest. With the warm energy flowing into him, his strength gradually returned and he pushed himself to his feet. It was also then that he remembered something and turned to Roxy, "You saved me back there?"

She rolled her eyes and nodded at him.

"Oh, thanks. But how...I mean what—"

"Let’s get going, your fight might have attracted the nearby sand worms. I’ll explain along the way."

She was indeed right. If they didn’t leave now they might end up in some serious trouble; so even though Vale was curious about her ability, now wasn’t the time to delay.

He also noticed Rein: her face was pale, as if she had seen a ghost—although one would argue that the beetle monster was scarier than a ghost.

Vale, however, had never been good at comforting others, so in the end he just let her be.

They took the few things they could take and began moving. The sun was now nearing its peak and the air was beginning to lose all its moisture.

Vale and Roxy were more resistant to the forces of nature.

Rein, on the other hand, wasn’t, so she lagged behind quite a bit, but no one complained.

They walked in silence for a while, but Vale soon broke it.

"I think it’s best we learn about our abilities."

His words caught their attention as the two girls raised their brows.

"I’m just saying, if we plan on surviving together, won’t it help to know what we’re individually capable of?"

Vale figured they would be spending quite some time together, so it would prove beneficial if they learned how to complement their abilities.

Roxy frowned; she knew he was looking for an excuse to learn her abilities. But since they were now a group, she figured there was no harm in telling, even though she was normally averse to explaining her prowess.

"Okay, fine. I’ll go first." Roxy said, she had a look on her face that suggested she didn’t like talking about her abilities.

That was to be expected as knowing a person’s abilities usually gave one the upper hand if a fight were to occur. But if she didn’t, trust wouldn’t be able to form within the group.

"As you know I’m not human. I’m a mana mutant. And my ability gives me a hundred percent control of mana."

Vale raised a brow, clearly confused. He had seen a fire mutant before, and heard of an ice mutant. But a mana mutant was unheard of.

She noticed his confusion and continued explaining.

"The moment mana leaves your body a certain percentage of it is lost. Think of it as tax, the universe taking tax from you. My sole ability is to avoid this tax."

She stretched out her open palm, and a spoon gradually manifested above it.

"If another person were to try to manifest objects with their mana, the moment the universe takes its tax, the object would crumble. But my ability lets me avoid that."

She closed her palm and the spoon disappeared with it.

"I call it mana projection, since it lets me create different things." 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Vale had an enlightened look on his face; he was no mana expert but he had indeed experienced the process of mana taxing in his previous life.

Unlike mana which could leave the body, Qi could not leave the body and affect the world like mana, so Qi users didn’t have to worry about getting taxed. The only purpose of Qi was to strengthen the body.

Roxy’s next words, however, were something he couldn’t guess.

"My current body, it’s also a product of my mana projection."

Vale went mute after her words as he tried to fully understand the implications.

"Is that why you grow younger every time you overuse mana?"

She nodded in response to Vale’s question.

"But that’s not all though," she added. "You know what a mana signature is right?"

"Yeah, it’s the unique quality of a person’s mana, or Qi."

"That’s right. I lack a mana signature, meaning my mana is exactly the same as the one in the air—completely neutral and harmless."

Vale frowned; from his experiences, Roxy was anything but harmless.

"So..." he said, prompting her to continue.

"Well to counter that, I created an entirely new type of sorcery." There was a hint of pride in her voice, like a prodigy unable to hide her pride.

Just when Vale was planning to inquire more, the ground beneath their feet began shaking violently.

’Shoot.’

He had gotten so carried away that he forgot he was still in the desert where anything could go wrong at any time. He tried his very best to be as still as possible.

Sweat beads rolled down his forehead as he stood still, petrified in place.

The others also followed suit, with no one making as much as a whimper. The magnitude of the shaking was clearly more than normal, so it was safe to say that whatever was beneath the soil wasn’t the usual sand worm.

The wait stretched unbearably, and although one would argue it happened in less than a minute, to the trio it felt like an eternity.

Thankfully, the undulation of the soil gradually stopped as the creature left.

They stood in place for an extra ten seconds, before Vale finally let out a sigh of relief.

"We need to move fast, we should be reaching the forest of inverted spears soon."

The others nodded at Vale’s words.

If anything, they just wanted to get out of this place as quickly as possible. Vale still had a few more questions for Roxy, but those could wait.

As if their prayers had been heard by a deity, not long after the encounter, they had their first glimpse at the forest of inverted spears: It looked nothing like an actual forest, with the golden pillars shining from afar.

It stretched far and wide, and from this distance, it was hard to fully fathom the size. Judging by sight alone, it would take almost an entire day to get there on foot.

Still, with their goal now in sight, things were very different; unlike before where it seemed they were wandering towards oblivion.