There are two possibilities when something dies; either it goes slack or it doesn’t. Unfortunately for Maxwell, this was one of the situations where the second possibility won over the other. As he stared at the head, he tried to pry open it’s jaw but he was not very successful at it apart from inflicting an immense amount of pain on himself.

  He gave up after a while and checked the others to find a weird scene before him. On one side, things were as expected as Gendor was fighting the leader and a very angry-looking hyena while 2 others were sprawled dead near them. It was Bob who was in an unexpected situation.

  Maxwell watched in surprise as the boy was pummeling two hyenas using an other very desperate-looking hyena. The fact that he was giggling like an idiot didn’t help make the situation look any more acceptable.

  After a moment of deliberation, he decided that the boy was fine by himself and decided to help Gendor. The man looked rather beat up. He had a few claw marks along his body, and he was trying to fight a higher-tiered monster by himself while being outnumbered.

  His latest stunt cost Maxwell about 100 mana as what he did was simple and crude but effective. He just tried to expel his mana violently from his hand at the time in desperation not expecting the devastation it would cause on the hyena.

  He felt the information about the skill flowing in his mind but he would check his notifications after the battle as he didn’t want to be distracted again. He had a little more than a hundred mana left so he needed to be careful after this.

  He created a single bolt and carefully threw it at the angry-looking hyena he identified to be level 16. It apparently didn’t expect someone other to join the battle and it was too late to notice the bolt, allowing it to detonate squarely on it’s head.

  For a second, the creature seemed afraid as it’s head was swallowed by an explosion but it was surprised to feel that the bolt only moderately managed to damage him. There was a limit to how much damage a mana bolt made of 10 mana could cause.

  It quickly reoriented himself and looked around to find the pest he was attacked by. Maxwell didn’t try to hide from the animal. He intended to draw the beast to himself anyway.

  The hyena, now even angrier than before, quickly charged at Maxwell. Maxwell prepared to do something more risky than he had ever done in his two lives, positioning himself in a way that made it look like he was going to punch the hyena.

  Maxwell focused on his arm as the creature ran towards him, which still had a hyena head clamped around it. His plan was based on a single phrase from the skill description of mana infusion.

  Mana Infusion: Infuse mana of compatible affinity to matter using your soul to cause various effects. Skill cannot be used on living beings other than the user himself. Cannot be used without the Soul attribute.

  The skill description clearly stated that Maxwell couldn’t use it on the other living entities, but that also meant that he would be able to use it on himself. He was quiet sure that the ability he used just now wouldn’t be able to kill this other one, but he would add a little oomph to this one.

  He focused and started pulling mana into his arm, trying to keep all this mana in it. He didn’t need them to stay there for a long time, so he was not selective about what type of mana he pulled.

  Time slowed in his perception as he felt mana build up in his arm. They said that imminent death was a great motivator, and he could clearly feel that. Whoever that “they” were, they were probably right.

  The angry hyena was a bit confused when its enemy stood there, seeming to be doing nothing, but it didn’t think too much about it before jumping towards Maxwell’s neck.

  Lets see how this goes then. Maxwell thought before delivering the same fist he used to kill the hyena before into the creatures mouth. This was usually a very bad idea as normally these mouths were filled with things called teeth but Maxwell had a plan.

  He tried not to panic as his hand traveled, and when he felt the beast’s teeth on his forearm, he knew the time had come.

  When he was infusing mana he communicated with it to stay where it was. Now he did the opposite. He concentrated on the mana in his arm and while activating his new skill with his whole remaining mana he told the mana to get the fuck out as fast as possible.

  Maybe the least important and immediate result of this move was the most agreeable disintegration of the hyena head clamped on his arm along with his clothes covering the said limb as mana rushed out.

  The angry hyena meanwhile had eaten something quite more spicy than it would expect. Maxwell heard a dull thump coming from it’s insides. Following the noise Maxwell felt a certain kind of looseness around his hand as the insides of the hyena were pulverized by the violent mana. He was then forced to close his eyes because the hyena's eyes exploded, directly spraying their contents on his face.

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  He stayed still for some time, taking in the situation and trying to get over the rush of adrenaline. He was not sure how much time he stayed like this. His mana pool was completely empty, and he was exhausted. I didn’t pass out this time so I call this a win, he thought.

  He looked at the hyena to see if it was dead but it looked like it had never been alive. It looked weirdly fluid and proceeded to pour down on the floor from his arm with a sickly sound.

  Maxwell looked at the pile of skin filled with sludge on the floor disgustedly. Ok, no close-quarters combat unless I’m really desperate from now on. He thought, fighting the urge to puke as he was faced with a horror that was unfortunately not quite beyond his imagination.

  He tried to distract himself from the liquid hyena by checking on his friends. He was faced with Bob repeatedly punching a dead hyena while laughing as he was kneeling over it. It was pretty important to say that it was apparent that the hyena was dead for quite a while.

  Gendor on the other hand was sitting by the now dead alpha’s carcass leaning on the animal. He too was watching Bob with tired eyes that hinted at the possibility that this had been going on for a while.

  Maxwell looked unbelievingly at the situation before sending a telepathic burst at the psychopathic boy. It was not very strong as he was far from optimal condition himself, but it looked like it did the job as Bob fell silent before falling down on the hyena he was pummeling.

  Maxwell felt anger rising as he heard the boy snooze. He took a deep breath to calm himself before going near Gendor.

  “You okay?” he asked before sitting down near him.

  “Never been better.” the man said in a very tired voice.

  “We should probably leave this place quickly because of the blood smell. Maxwell said, not sounding enthusiastic.

  They then proceeded to sit in silence for a couple of seconds, and Maxwell finally found the time to check his notifications. Since he had so many he fiddled with the system to show them in groups.

  Horned Scrax– Level 10 killed. Experience rewarded.

  Horned Scrax– Level 16 killed. Experience rewarded.

  Level up. Stats distributed(3x)

  Remaining experience pending until class change.

  So, experience only takes effect after the battle is completely over, he theorized. He was still level 7 throughout the fight, so that should be the case.

  Mana Manipulation Leveled Up Lvl-21→32

  Soul Sense Leveled Up Lvl-15→20

  Infused Mana Bolt Leveled Up Lvl- 10→11

  Telepathy Leveled Up Lvl-10→11

  Observation Leveled Up Lvl-6→10

  Mana Infusion Leveled Up Lvl-1→10

  Meditation Leveled Up Lvl-12→20

  Athletics Leveled Up Lvl-1→5

  It was apparent that the system rewards for battles with a high risk of death were bountiful. He felt conflicted about his meditation skill leveling up so much from something it was unintended for, but he would take whatever he could.

  Etherium Soul probably helped him more than he realized at the start, as his skills were leveling up quite fast, even though he didn’t have anyone he could compare them with. He checked the next notification to see what his new skills were.

  Skill “Piercing Damage Resistance” Acquired

  Piercing Damage Resistance(Lvl-1): It’s resistance against piercing damage…

  Whats wrong with this system when it comes to resistance skills? Maxwell though while shaking his head exasperatedly.

  Skill “Mana Burst” Acquired.

  Mana Burst Leveled up Lvl-1→4

  Mana Burst Changes Detected

  Proceed Skill Readjustment?

  Yes / No

  Maxwell quickly chose to proceed with the readjustment as it seemed to do nothing harmful to him from what he understood. The new skill quickly appeared before him.

  Mana Burst(Lvl-5)→ Infused Mana Burst(Lvl-3)

  Infused Mana Burst Leveled Up Lvl-3→6

  Infused Mana Burst: Violently release mana from your body to release a wave of destructive energy. Skill can be charged with environmental mana for increased capabilities. Excessive charging may result in bodily harm.

  Skill Readjustment Complete

  Maxwell was quite conflicted about this new skill. From what he understood from his class, he expected this skill to be quite useless in the future, but the system seemed very flexible in modifying skills, so maybe he could change it to something useful in the future. Right now, he was quiet happy that he had a way to protect himself in close quarters.

  He looked up from his notifications for a second to see Gendor standing. After a couple of minutes of rest, the man seemed better now.

  “We should go before we get outnumbered 100 to 1.” Gendor said.

  “I guess you would like that…” Maxwell said, remembering the man’s excitement before.

  “Maybe some other time kid,” Gendor said good-naturedly before kicking Bob on the ribs.

  Maxwell could see the visible confusion in the boy’s eyes as he opened them to a mangled corpse of the Scrax before him.

  “Ew,” Bob commented before proceeding to puke on the corpse, making it even more disgusting. Luckily, he looked like he was over his psychopathic episode.

  “Get up kid. We should leave here before we become food.” Gendor said and it seemed to work. Bob looked around gazing at the corpses around them before getting up. They started to walk towards the forest as fast as they could manage in their sorry state.

  When they were a bit further away from the battlefield, Maxwell gazed at his last notification.

  The level limit for tier 1 reached.

  Proceed tier advancement?

  Yes / No