Chapter 207: Hidden Ability Of Life Element Mana

Joseph remained the calmest among them. After Alex finished explaining, the former Navy SEAL looked at him and said, "Sounds like we’ll need to go back quickly and check on our bodies."

"Why didn’t you return already?" Alex asked.

"Both you and Frank didn’t come back from Earth, so we were worried something dangerous had happened. We decided it would be better to stay here and get stronger first, especially since we didn’t know what was happening," Joseph explained.

He added, "Moreover, with two members already gone, we were barely managing to deal with the monsters that were appearing. If anyone else had left, the whole group might have been wiped out."

Alex nodded as he understood the situation. "Thank you for protecting my body."

"Don’t worry about it. You’ve done much more for us," Joseph said as he waved his hand.

Alex nodded before finally asking the question that had been bothering him since he woke up. "So, why are all of you outside the dungeon? It should’ve safer to camp inside."

"Come with me. I’ll show you why," Joseph replied.

Joseph stood up and leaned against a wooden crutch. Alex then noticed a wooden stump attached to Joseph’s severed leg, and his expression became slightly serious as he looked at the injury.

Joseph started walking toward the dungeon entrance, using the crutch. Alex was about to follow when Emma suddenly held out a piece of crab meat toward him.

"Here," she said.

"Thank you."

Alex took the piece of meat without refusing. His second body hadn’t eaten anything since arriving in the Land of Origin, and his stomach felt almost hollow. It seemed energy, stamina, and mana weren’t synchronized between bodies. His mana and stamina were full thanks to the increase in the stats, but he was incredibly hungry. His second body had done a lot of work and not eaten anything for the entire day, so the delicious smell coming from the cooked crab meat made it difficult to turn down.

He bit into it as he followed Joseph toward the dungeon entrance. The meat was surprisingly delicious, with a rich and savory taste that was much stronger than ordinary meat, and although it was somewhat chewy, it had been cooked well enough that Alex could eat it without much trouble.

As he chewed, Alex could feel his body eagerly devouring the food. The sensation was different from eating normal food, and he couldn’t help but wonder if monster meat contained considerably more nutrition than the meat he was used to eating on Earth. He wondered if monster meat carried diseases, and became slightly cautious, but it wasn’t enough to stop him from eating because Priests should be able to deal with diseases coming from monsters of this level. As long as he was careful, Alex felt the benefits were worth the small risk.

He was more curious about how they had prepared the meat in the first place. When he had cut the Titan Reef Crabs, their flesh had been extremely tough, so getting it to this texture without proper preparations couldn’t have been easy. As he continued chewing, Alex noticed that his stomach was already digesting the food, most likely because it had been strengthened with mana.

’Mana really is the best stat,’ he thought.

Alex continued eating as they walked, finishing the first piece before taking another bite. At the same time, he activated the completed Life Rune and began directing life mana toward the blood cells leaving his heart.

Since blood cells carried vitality throughout the body and life mana seemed closely connected to vitality, Alex believed strengthening them with life mana should work better than using ordinary mana. He carefully adjusted the flow, trying to ensure that the life mana strengthened the blood cells without causing them to become cancerous.

As expected, his guess was correct. The moment the life mana boosted his blood cells moving through the body, Alex felt his senses sharpen considerably, while his stamina also increased by a large amount and made his body feel much more energetic.

Moreover, there was one unexpected surprise. Alex was still receiving a passive physical boost, even though he had replaced normal mana with life mana when reinforcing his blood cells.

Previously, the passive boost had happened because normal mana reinforced the blood cells in every aspect. As a result, when those enhanced blood cells reached his muscles and other parts of his body, they naturally provided them with the same boost.

But this time, he was using life mana. Life mana should have primarily increased his vitality, thus leading to stamina increase, and Alex could understand why his senses had also become sharper since the increased vitality made his body function more efficiently. However, he couldn’t understand why he was still receiving a physical boost.

’Why is this happening?’ he wondered. Originally, Alex had been prepared to lose the passive physical boost. He hadn’t been particularly worried about it because whenever he ’actively’ reinforced his body with mana, the stronger effect would already replace the passive boost, so losing it wouldn’t have been a major problem.

If he needed a physical boost again, he could simply use Superior Body Reinforcement. Having another way to increase his stamina was much more important to him, which was why he had decided to use life mana to reinforce his blood cells instead of normal mana.

Yet despite that, he was still receiving a passive physical boost.

Alex decided that he needed to carefully investigate what was happening later. Understanding why life mana was producing an effect he hadn’t expected could teach him more about the nature of mana, and with a better understanding of it, he might be able to discover even more ways to use life mana.

While he was testing the effects, another notification appeared in front of him.

[Blood Vitalization Spell has leveled up. Level 4 → Level 6.]

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