He closed his eyes. He had figured out the basics of manipulating the mana channels inside himself, perhaps it was the same motions necessary to draw the mana out of the monster core.

He held the monster core up and tried to drain it of its mana.

Nothing happened.

He paused.

He tried to think the puzzle through. He was able to move mana around his body because there were channels and vessels that allowed for the flow of his internal mana. He could even send mana through his fingertips into the monster core. Yet when he tried to pull the mana out of the monster core nothing happened.

Max tried one more time.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. This time instead of simply trying to pull the mana out of the monster core, he was going to send his mana into it once more. Only after doing that would he try and pull the mana out. His hypothesis was by sending his mana into the monster core first, he was thereby creating a makeshift mana channel, which he could then use to drain the core of its mana.

He enacted his plan and, within seconds, felt a rush of adrenaline and energy coursing through him. It was enough to make his whole body shiver. He dropped the monster core on the ground.

He gulped. Holy smokes, what happened?

He looked down to the floor and saw the copper monster core had turned into a black lusterless stone.

He had drained it of its mana!

This was how climbers raised their mana affinity, wasn’t it?

He checked his stats with excitement, only to find his mana affinity was still at 3, exactly where it had been when he last checked.

He sighed and got to work on draining the three other monster cores.

When he was finished, he looked at his stat sheet once more.

Name: Max Rainhart

Rank: Unranked

Trait (Unique): Mimic. Unleash the last move you were hit with at double the power.

Strength: 7

Agility: 7

Endurance: 6

Mana Affinity: 4

Passive Skills:

Kokoro (Warrior Spirit)

Max grinned at the sight of his profile. His mana affinity stat had gone up by one. Based on what Sakura had told him, he had to hit eleven to hit E-rank. He was now only seven mana affinity points from reaching that goal.

He collapsed on the floor in both exhaustion and satisfying bliss.

* * *

“I’m hooooome,” said Sakura, stepping into the apartment. “It smells good in here. What did you make, Max?”

She found Max in the living room, asleep on the floor. Four blackened monster cores lay in front of him.

“Couldn’t wait up for me, huh?” she said.

She looked down at the boy and the blackened monster cores. The boy continued to impress her. He had figured out how to drain them of their mana all on his own. This kid was something else.