The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss-Chapter 562: Mana Parasite

"Ow, ow, ow! I lost!! Okay, you win!! Let me go!! Damn, this position hurts!" I say to Azraelith, who’s got me pinned in a VERY bizarre way. Because of my insane flexibility, completely immobilizing my body is really tough.

But it seems Azraelith discovered the perfect way to restrain me, and unfortunately, I also found out the hard way that she has some kind of passive ability that amplifies pain. That’s why everything she does hurts, even if it shouldn’t.

"I’m not really in the mood to let you go. You’re so weak right now, it’s actually ridiculous," she says in that arrogant tone. I use Dematerialization, sinking through the floor and escaping, quickly twisting my body as I emerge from the ground.

"Tsk."

"Your training time is up, Azraelith!" Unfortunately, I can’t say I’ve learned much during these days of training. Sure, the reaction practice was good, and now both of us react to attacks almost instantly, while also being able to ignore most feints.

But that alone isn’t enough, because neither of us is leveling up, and that’s frustrating as hell for me.

"Azraelith, how did you get to level 100 billion the first time?"

"...It was our mother. She did something, but she erased my memories of it. Still, my body shudders whenever I think about it, so I figure I almost died and barely survived, since my body doesn’t like the subject."

"And...considering how disappointed Mama was with me back then, I wouldn’t put it past her to do something dangerous to me without caring if I lived or died..."

’Hmmmm...’

"What are you doing, Pandora?" Azraelith asks as I sit on the ground and start to float with my eyes closed in a meditation pose.

"Testing a theory..." I release my mana, spreading it beyond the castle, going far, far out, covering a gigantic area larger than a planet. Within this area, I see everything.

"Azraelith, when monsters die, they release their mana into the environment, right? It happens with most beings, but with monsters, it’s especially strong."

"Well, yeah, that’s obvious."

"..."

’I see...amazing...’

"Azraelith, what fuels a person’s ’level’?"

"..."

"I don’t know. Actually, I never really stopped to think about it. If it works, there’s no reason to question it, right?" She says something pretty foolish. Just because something works doesn’t mean you shouldn’t question it; it’s precisely because it works that you have to ask why, to figure out how it’s done or how to improve it.

It’s a question I’ve always ignored myself. Like, why would I need to know what fuels the level? But there’s something strange about it, isn’t there? The level increases by killing monsters, but my Adaptation also increases my level.

And Shogo can increase her level through women’s fluids. What do all these things have in common? It’s simply the fact that the System never mentions ’XP’ as the fuel for the level.

At no point does the System tell you that you gained ’XP’ for killing a monster or anything like that. I’ve never seen anyone use that term, not even my mother mentioned anything about XP, and there was no knowledge about XP in the Fundamentals of Creation.

’Could it be that what fuels the level in the System is actually Mana?’ It would make sense. If you kill a monster, its Mana is literally released into the environment, and your body will inevitably absorb a part of it. This would also explain why, the higher the level, the stronger the monster needs to be for you to raise your own level.

’Total Power... maybe that’s it?’ In the System, all stats are calculated into something called Total Power. Maybe this Total Power measurement is also used to calculate how much Level you can give to someone who kills you.

It wouldn’t necessarily give all your Total Power, but at least a percentage. And if I’m right, this would imply that the residual Mana left in the environment contains the ’fuel’ for the Level.

’If that’s true, then using ambient Mana could serve to forcibly fuel the level. And since ambient Mana is highly variable, it would be unstable, possibly leading to death...’ I think I’ve found the solution.

"Big Sister, I think I know how our mother got you those levels, and it’s actually genius, despite being simple." I try to do the same, though on a more ’stable’ scale. Our mother must have tried to give an immense amount of that Mana to Azraelith.

Me, I’ll take it little by little, but continuously, without stopping. Since we’re in the area around Mother’s castle, there’s a lot of ambient Mana here from various monsters.

"Oh, really?..." Azraelith’s voice drips with poorly concealed jealousy and distaste. It’s obvious she’s not proud of my discovery, which seems to be correct.

’I’ll only see results over time, but for now, let’s keep this up.’ I keep my mana released, ’devouring’ all the monster mana I can find around.

"Your jealousy is cute," I say, approaching her and giving her a hug.

"I’m not jealous."

"Oh, really? Okay then." I wrap my legs around her waist, my tail around her leg, and my arms around her neck.

"What are you doing?"

"I’m going to stay glued to you for a while." I need time to see if I’ll gain levels the way I’m thinking I will. And since Azraelith’s training time is up, it’s my turn now, and I can do whatever I want.

"Hey! You damned brat!! Stop eating my Mana!" She puts her hands on my face and pushes me down, trying to get me off. But like a parasite, I cling to her, devouring her Mana to speed up my test.

"M-MY LEVEL IS DROPPING!!" When she says that, I let go in surprise.

"Wait, what—" She punches me in the face, breaking my nose. She looks furious as I fall to the ground. I touch my face, seeing how hard she hit me; she almost caved in my skull.

"Status?"

Level = 5,000,000,000 / 100,000,000,000

Power = 4,999,990,625 / 4,999,990,625

Life = 4,999,990,625 / 4,999,990,625

Stamina = 4,999,990,625 / 4,999,990,625

Resistance = 4,999,990,625 / 4,999,990,625

Magic = 4,999,990,625 / 4,999,990,625

Total = 24,999,953,125 / 24,999,953,125

’What?! It went up 3 billion in a few seconds?...Oh, shit.’

"Big Sister, I’m sorry, I didn’t think that—"

"YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!" She grabs me by the throat. I understand her anger. Despite her reduced power because she’s still recovering, she has level 100 billion.

If she lost levels, getting them back is going to be incredibly hard. And 3 billion levels actually makes a difference.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t know the level could be stolen." This... is actually kind of interesting, isn’t it? I already knew it was possible to ’confiscate’ levels because the System threatened me with it when I made Elena evolve. The System said it could take my levels and I’d have to start leveling up all over again from scratch.

But I never imagined I could steal levels from others. Of course, this is probably something only a goddess can do, because it seems the System assimilated Azraelith’s status numbers into mine, which requires System Authority. This also means I can confiscate levels from other beings if I get close enough and have the time.

"3 billion vanished from my status... do you know how hard it is to get 3 billion levels when you’re above level 90 billion?! Even if I can currently only use 50 billion levels’ worth of power and it doesn’t make a difference, when I fully recover, this will make a huge difference!!"

’I can’t give it back...’ I feel bad now. I never thought that if I started eating the natural ambient Mana released from her body—which I deduced was part of the level—she would lose that level.

"You’re a goddamn parasite!! Why do you always have to take everything from me?" She pushes me away, and for the first time, I see her really cry. Her tears flow freely, without any filter or attempt to hold them back.

"..." My Mana is still released, so I can see our mother. She has a smile on her face. It seems she noticed this commotion, and instead of being angry with me, she’s smiling.

’This... is so unfair to her...’ I stare at Azraelith, realizing that even if I stole all her levels, our mother would just smile, satisfied with it, without even scolding me.

[New Title Unlocked:

Mana Parasite: A Mana Parasite that feeds on the Mana of other living beings to amplify its own Level]

’Now it makes sense how Shogo grows...’ Sexual fluids and milk also carry Mana. Shogo probably doesn’t steal levels because it’s natural Mana that has already left the body, unlike me, who was devouring the Mana directly from Azraelith’s Mana pathways.

"...Sister, wait." She tries to leave, but I grab her hand.

"What do you want from me? Want to steal more of my levels? They’re mine, you parasite!!" The hatred in her voice is almost palpable. But there’s no way to give her levels back. And it’s true, I did it on purpose. I didn’t expect her to lose the levels; at most, I thought she’d get a little dizzy from lack of Mana.

But normal Mana and the Mana passively released by the body turned out to be different things. I screwed up badly by taking the Mana released by her body.

’I think the Mana released by the body is the excess Mana that doesn’t get turned into fuel for the level, so it needs to leave the body, or it might collapse...’

"No, I won’t steal anything else from you, Big Sister... I’m going to give you something." I pull her by the waist and kiss her, determined to offer compensation. Maybe nothing I give can make up for such a huge loss of levels, but still, I really didn’t do it with the intention of hurting her this much.

’What can I give her? Maybe I can bless her with a boon? Or maybe grant her authority over the Doom Element, allowing her to use it...’ I wonder, holding her tightly in my arms despite her obvious disgust with the situation.