The beast gained a half rabid grin on what I could consider its face, the rolling mana stood still in one area near the lower middle of it creating the impression that it was grinning. The beast then opened it's maw thinking that I'm unable to attack it, then lunged towards me leaving me with precious seconds to consider how to get rid of this thing.

If you wait for it to get closer you can form a lance or pike out of your mana and let it impale itself, and before you ask the reason it was able to dismiss your mana dagger was because you left it with no connection to you so it was losing power as it traveled. Keep a line of mana going from you to your mana construct and that won't happen again.

That makes some sort of sense but I'd like to not have to wait for it to get within stomping distance from me to stab it, then again that is the best plan so far so, well the only plan now that I've tried and failed to stab it at a distance. Whilst I was thinking my other half was hard at work forming the rough outline of a lance leaving me to hold the thing steady once our foe was in position, we kept the lance inside of us forming and rolling it to condense our mana into a harder and heavier thing.

Our foe was not going in slow motion though so it quickly was upon us, far faster than something of its weight should be able to manage, it was so close, so much so in fact that I could see the almost hypnotic light show going on inside of it. I would have gotten lost in there if the thing wasn't trying to kill me at the moment. And it being so close lended to it's next action raising up and forming a foot almost looking thing to smash me into the ground.

I would rather like to avoid that but also want to make this hit count for something, I spent the time while it was winding up to use its mass to crush me to look for the core of it.. So you're trying to be sneaky then, I found it at the very back of it, almost on the ground, if I would have done exactly as the voice wanted then I would have died, good thing I don't trust them. Also a good thing that I made such a long weapon to use for my attack.

as I saw the foot begin its descent down, I very soon had to make a decision of when would be the best time to attack this thing... Nah sooner is most likely better in this case. I shot the mana lance forward at a slight angle to hit the center of the beasts core. The lance of mana held strong and breached all the way to the core, but the beast was able to move it's core at the last second so that instead of hitting the same spot near the center I would instead hit towards the edge. I do in fact want to hit this thing for as much damage as possible so I forced more mana into the blade hoping to force it to dig deeper into the core maybe even split the thing in half if I was aiming right.

What I didn't expect to happen is for the mana of the beast to be pushed back violently and my lance to almost home in towards the core, nearly ripping it out of my grasp of it, seeing as the the entirety of my lancehead being buried inside of it the mana beast stopped and started dissipating from outside in, the limb that was hovering over my head like an executioners axe first, then climbing through that limb into the main body.. watching the beast that was so full of life wither away so quickly brought an odd sense of melancholy to my heart but the boons I would get from it's death soon swept those thoughts aside.

Leaving me almost frothing at the jaw to taste the new powers that I could gain... Soon the core of the beast fell to the ground, it had to be only a few cm's big 3x5 at the most, a rough gem of mana almost bisected in half by two separate attacks. "So what happened there, why did my attack do so much damage?"

Mana is incredibly hostile and reactive to other mana, it was all well and dandy with the construct of mana because it was being forced to stay in one shape under your complete control, but when you pushed extra mana into it you just gave it some general direction but left it to the mana to make the decisions on how it was going to go about doing that.

"So I just let it do what it thought best, and it came up with the man's equivalent of "Yeet I'mma get e'm one way or another." Is that what I'm hearing?" "Don't answer that."

More importantly than my mana, and my personal beliefs of it pulling the most redneck thing it could have done, is the situation of my profile.

Name: N/A

Race: lowest undead Lv1, Single body part (Head) variant, HP 20/39, LF 200/250, MP 200/290: +7 per second

(author note some one PM'ed me saying that they would like the regen rates of MP added so here ye go)

Str -

Con 6(-2)

Wis 16(+3)

Int 18(+4)

Dex -

Cha -

Free points 3

Abilities: Life detection-6/10, Observe-4/???, Grappling-1/10, Bad aura-1/???, Bone Manipulation-9/50, Mana manipulation-22/???, Undead healing-4/10, Mana craft-3/50, Life force manipulation- 1/??

Limitations: Undeath- Cha, (Con has been unlocked) is locked forever, baring evolution or resurrection, No Str- a Str of zero means that you have no ability to use physical force due to injury or other reasons, if you regain your ability to use your body’s might then the score will be unlocked automatically. No Dex- You have lost all ability to use your bodies natural motor control, if you regain this ability then the score will be unlocked automatically.Undead- You have no stamina, you have no need to sleep, and any desire to do so is magickly influenced, Low Con- you find yourself healing slower and taking more damage from things than other people, Hunger for life- Your body has no life in it, you must take this life from somewhere lest your unlife ends. No body- your abilities that require the use of your body no longer function, can't be leveled or altered in any way. Head variant undead- You have forgone the use of your body in search of some greater goal, your mental abilities are more powerful, easier to upgrade and you gain new mental abilities far easier, your mana pool is now larger and is much more responsive to your wishes than before. You have unlocked a skill normally only available for high ranked undead, it allows you to heal from damage. Mana touched- You have challenged your mana in a battle of wills and won. You find that your mana is more responsive and mental abilities are even more efficient, mana pool and regen are also increased. Life force user- Now that you have such fine control of your mana your life force is now completely under your control.

That's worth it, like really worth it... What now? ' I was really concerned with not being reduced to atoms there for a while but now I'm faced with my lack of any ability to actually do anything...'

"Any ideas for anything, as in literally anything?" Might as well ask the crazy voice lady, after all what's the worst that could happen.

We could sit here till some helpless animal comes by then kill it, absorb it's bones and start working on getting a body put together.

.... If I was capable of glaring I would, if I was able to drop my jaw I would, if I could cry I would. But alas I can't do any of these things. Well now I know what the worst thing is, it's me developing an incredibly onset case of "I want to slam my head into the floor-inetis." 'Noted don't ask the crazy lady for ideas, they aren't worth it.'

Taking not of my increased mana regen I feel like using my bone manipulation to hover might be a fizable idea now. Wrapping my skull with mana I noticed a difference from earlier, when in the past I used my mana it felt cold and distant, not that I could tell that in the past, but now it wrapped around me without needing to be told. It felt like a warm blanket or a hug from a close family member. As nice as that is I can't stay idle after all the world waits for no skeleton!

The mana use was not only more efficient but also more comfortable than before, soon I was floating above the ground, only about 4 inches any higher and the mana cost went from manageable to down right highway robbery, looking towards my mana I learned that I would be unable to keep this up for more than 10 minutes. and right back to having a time limit over my head forcing my hand.

'I need a destination in min.. Well can't say I'm not disappointed, but I'm also not happy.' I was interrupted from my mental debate over where I needed to go towards by the mana gem. That I was going to completely ignore considering I had no ability to use it, nor the ability to repair the damage I did to it. Doing the unthinkable it was healing, I only noticed because of my resident crazy person and my mana gaining a slight "edge" to it.

While I hate to interrupt we shouldn't leave an enemy alive considering how hard it was to kill when it had no idea what you were capable of.

My newly named blue friend was correct in saying that. So to repay the favor I traveled towards the gem and let go of my mana, resulting in me falling onto it. As my skull made contact with it I felt something try and dig into my mind. Without hesitation or needing to be told I understood what this was, the mana beast might have seemed dumb and maybe it was but it had a definite advantage when it came to weilding mana and considering what I'm able to do, I have zero doubt that the thing was capable of causing me harm in it's new form.

I spirited my mana and life force to defend me, the two energies coming together and meeting where I could feel the intrusive drilling sensation.. The second went, the more I thought that maybe there was nothing, after all it couldn't take this long to get through my skull.. Even more seconds, only a few away from a minute the only thing stopping me from thinking that there wasn't a threat is my mana it's been getting progressively more uncontrollable as the seconds go by, I've already sent my LF away from the side of my skull considering that I don't need them.. Soon the seconds turned to a full 2 minutes, my mana at this point is almost as uncontrollable as when... That's it! It's already inside, my mana has been trying to warn me this entire time, only question is where the heck this thing is, 'where would I go if I was a damaged mana beast in hostile territory..' With no time left to waste I sent up a call to arms to all energies I had and any more I had that I wasn't aware of towards the gates where this all started.

Considering the size of my skull it only took a moment or two for me to arrive, a second or so more for my mana to arrive who at this point was doing it's best impression of feral dogs, but I still got to the mana gates first only to see the little gem trying to weezle it's way into my mana pool. 'Not happening buddy, I forced my LF into the gate puting my new reserves at risk but, I'm unable to risk letting it do whatever it's trying to accomplish here.' The beast who up until this point was making good progress found that it's phantom claws were doing absolutely nothing, it let out a roar of frustration and turned towards me the beast sending out a phantom snarl menacingly, and my mana growling, howling, yipping and a hundred different noises threatened to drown the beast. I would have smiled if not for a small part of my mind still believing that the situation was dangerous, the part of me from earlier today, who learned a harsh lesson I'm not the main character either go in straight for the kill while the enemy is hurt, or run away. And as hurt as this thing is it's also cornered and unable to get away from us, we've cornered it and so it's going to do something reckless.

I knew it and looking at the thing it thought that it was clever for thinking something up that would get it out of this situation, but I was waiting holding my mana back just letting it posture and make it feel like I was more scared that I was, not to say that I'm not it's just a fact that at this point it was behind enemy lines cornered against a rock and lots of point things, it realistically didn't have many options here. So when it spread out across the floor like a liquid trying to catch my forces off guard for some greater motive I was ready and my forces were well outside of it's range I didn't force my legion of howling mana towards it though instead I willed my mana to take shape into a liquid as well then turning my excess forces into an advantage against my single powerful foe, my mana also once again surprised me when rather than just spreading out and surrounding the gem it did follow my idea yes but it also took that idea and ran with it leading to my mana forming into a wave crashing against the liquefied gem.

And at this I felt emotions from my mana something along the lines of the mana needing to destroy any vestiges of their old self to prove their loyalty, my mana was asking me to let it go, to let it be free.. Ever since I gained my new control over my mana I've kept a firm hold on it but I was also able to sense faint emotions from it, this wasn't a faint emotion it was coming from every single point of mana I had and in my heart I knew at that moment no matter how much I could control my mana it would always want to be free. So I for the first time since I gained my ability to control mana, I let go.. As soon as my hold lifted I could feel my mana leave without me needing to pull my mental grasp away, it felt like an incredibly strong muscled snake slithering out of my hand, I could also feel the pure devotion, gratitude, and something else from my mana. Lost in my thoughts I was surprised to feel a presence of mana on my shoulder almost asking for my attention. I followed the draw my mind felt and I quickly was transported mentaly at least up close and personal with the mana and their war against the gem.

I saw hundreds of men and women all with different faces heights and weights all charging in against a smaller army of blank emotionless golems is the best word for them. I saw for every 3 golems killed 1 of mine would die and another injured pulling their friends corpse out of the chaos. I looked around me and saw much older men and women looking over the battlefield as well, but unlike me they were watching me from the beginning watching to see how I reacted to the loss of life on both sides.

"hello you have me at a bit of a disadvantage." I said aloud to the general looking figures they looked towards each other then towards one of their group in particular, while the rest of them looked old, this man almost screamed old. "Well now, it's been a long time since someone was able to gain the trust of their mana, what makes you so special?" The man's voice was like caramel sweet, smooth, and again sent my senses screaming this time not at how old he appeared but by how sickly of both those two traits his voice was. "I honestly don't understand what's happening um mr.?" I decided to not answer his question and instead ask my own question I was looking towards him trying to understand what his next move would be, but as my gaze flitted around him looking for body language I couldn't help but notice two things one his hands were pure alabaster white, and two his eyes were looking towards me looking for the same thing I was looking for, his eyes just found what they were looking for faster.

"Young man I'm no sir in fact you could call me by many names yet none, considering I'm a representative of an element of mana just like my fellows here and just like you are a representation of what you really are. But to more directly answer your question I would be the representative of un life mana separate from death mana and life mana who are here today but are choosing not to speak on the matter" The elder man as he was naming other mana representatives nodded in the general direction of two people in particular I for some reason was unable to get an idea on what they looked like other than they had similar features, so much so that I could call them siblings. "I apologize I don't know much of this world or my last, I guess you could call me new to this whole being well anything." This time I told the truth to see what the being did and two because those eyes almost looked disappointed when I didn't answer his question.

"Good man, I'm always happy to help I can't say that I'd be able to help more than the little blue lady you have, but would be more than willing to answer any questions you have in the future, within reason of course." I don't think I want to know what a thing like this considers reasonable but I can't say no to the offer of advice from whatever this thing is. "Thank you Mr. un life I'll keep that in mind, um would you mind telling me what's happening here, with the armies and dying by the bucket loads?"

The man smiled at that and I could tell he wanted to let out a chuckle "Yes an odd situation, since your mana is semi conscious it can be quite will full about hating outside influence, like that mana gem it could be considered the antithesis of what your mana has become so one of them has to die. Don't worry you damaged the mana gem quite badly so it can't regain mana but we are on our home turf our numbers are only limited by how many you let us have. Considering you let go of your dictatorial control over us we find ourselves with quite a lot of wiggle room on how to.. Handle our unwelcome guest."

As unnerving as the voice was before I thought it would be unable to top that, but seeing the skeleton man being on the verge of laughing the entire time he was talking combined with the subtle pokes at me for not letting them go sooner definitely took the cake. "So you guys are winning? That's good um, will I be allowed to leave here any time soon?" I couldn't help but ask, what's left of my body being left undefended. I felt that I needed to get back soon rather than later.

The voice looked around the room then it's eyes squinted if you could call it that, trying to look through me almost, then it let out a sigh dropped his shoulders and leaned back. "Yes you can leave, I know you don't trust the blue lady but I would suggest getting rid of them as soon as possible, they were listening till now so I couldn't tell you that but the best thing I can do to help the newest person to gain that special trait is give you protection against them reading your mind. Oh don't give me that look I'll give you some other things mostly so that it doesn't stand out too much. Also I would activate the ability I'm giving you know rather than later considering it will stop other entities from messing with your what did you call it, ah yes a profile, good name by the way."

And once again a powerful entity who barely says anything drops a load of information on me right as they're telling me that I was about to leave and they were running out of time, but even considering how scary the guy was I wouldn't argue that he has charisma because as the energy that brought me here started wrapping around me I looked into my profile and activated the ability I saw with golden caramel highlights.

Then I woke up still a skull, still in the middle of the woods and still having very few options to get a new body any time soon. The only real difference from before and now being my profile.

Name: N/A

Race: lowest undead Lv1, Single body part (Head) variant, HP 25/50, LF 250/250, MP 200/300: +14 per second, (pretend this isn't here U.MP 30/30)

Str -

Con 10(+0)

Wis 18(+4)

Int 19(+4)

Dex -

Cha 10(+0)

Free points 3

Abilities: Life detection-6/10, Observe-4/???, Bad aura-9/???, Bone Manipulation-19/50, Mana manipulation-29/???, Undead healing-7/10, Mana craft-9/50, Life force manipulation-3/??, Undead energy-3/10, Mask of unlife-???/???

Limitations: Undeath- You have no normal negatives of being undead, you find your strength, speed, and mana abilities increased during the night and day,

No Str- a Str of zero means that you have no ability to use physical force due to injury or other reasons, if you regain your ability to use your body’s might then the score will be unlocked automatically.

No Dex- You have lost all ability to use your body's natural motor control, if you regain this ability then the score will be unlocked automatically.

Undead- You have no stamina, you have no need to sleep, and any desire to do so is magickly influenced,

Hunger for life- Your body has no life in it, you must take this life from somewhere lest your unlife ends.

No body- your abilities that require the use of your body no longer function, can't be leveled or altered in any way. Head variant undead- You have forgone the use of your body in search of some greater goal, your mental abilities are more powerful, easier to upgrade and you gain new mental abilities far easier, your mana pool is now larger and is much more responsive to your wishes than before.

Mana Blessed- Somehow you have gained the attention of mana itself, your mana has gained increased awarness, and mental abilities are exponentially more powerful and easier to use.

You have unlocked a skill normally only available for high ranked undead, it allows you to heal from damage.

Life force user- Now that you have such fine control of your mana your life force is now completely under your control.

Blessed by representative of undeath mana- You were blessed by the origin of all undead mana, you find mana of the same or similar type are much easier to use and when ever a being less to or equal to in strength to the representative tries to see your status/ affect your mind they will be unable to do so. You also gain access to higher level undead abilities sooner, they are much stronger that they should be at your level.

As an undead blessed by pure undeath mana all limits on having stats vs. not having stats. Are removed as long as it was caused by your being undead, and your stats are slightly higher.

Well that's a jump in status, I can't forget that I'm in the middle of a flipping forest with only slightly braking even on health, and the fact that my LF is maxed out means that my mana won that battle. Also with my new mana regen I'm more than able to maintain my flight for as long as I'd like. So I did just that this time noticing an even larger difference in my mana than before, my mana was already flowing around me trying to find anything it could do to please me, but there was also a slightly new addition to my internal space dark inky mana that as it moved left trails of gray mist and sludge straight out of a tar pit then as if to answer my question of what that this is, and why it's in my head. My profile updated a single line U.MP 30/30 as much as I love assuming I was forced to do so yet again "Undead, Mana points." Now why it was separated from my normal mana I couldn't tell you but maybe it has something to do with undead energy considering it's level 3 and I only have 30 U.MP I can't see any reason why not so that's what I'm going with till further notice.

Casting eyes down from my now hovering position, I could faintly see the marks and gouges from my earlier battle, and using my life detection powers I soon found the perfect enemy, an old one.

Zooming towards the rabbit I was making incredible progress considering I had no legs, or maybe because I had no legs, While I left my skull on auto pilot I turned towards my status screen and started to think.. Thos free points I need to use them now rather than later. Rather than asking the "blue lady" I tried mentaly adding one of them to my Int score considering that seemed to give me its ``+ value" in bonus points when I leveled up I can only assume that helping that along would be beneficial to me.

I was forced to perch onto a lower branch of a tree from the shock at a new notification one unlike I had ever seen, considering most of them just appear at the bottom of my profile waiting for me to read the updates, one just appearing out of nowhere had to be important.

You have made an achievement for yourself, you have maxed an ability score that being Int at 20 points resulting in a +5 to all mental attributes be they attack or defence. Be warned that you have only maxed that score for your ranking and as soon as you go up a rank your ability scores maxes will raise. Your achievement has enabled your right to use the ranking system. If you would like assistance or have any questions feel free to ask for help during the next 24 hour window, we are very busy here and are only able to help during this short window of time.

First impressions, whoever wrote this is kinda full of themselves, and I honestly could have used the help like yesterday considering that I wouldn't have tried messing with the whole rogue mana thing if I had any help at all or at least someone to tell me why sticking my metaphorical fork into a wall socket would be a bad idea.

Looking through my status I soon discovered yes in fact that my regeneration was at +15 now and other values had increased slightly as well. Looking towards my "Ranking" I discovered that I'm only rank 0 even though I'm level 1. 'Better late than never.' I think as I will the message into sending a positive response to wanting help.

I waited but three seconds before The world lost all color and a figure rose out of the air? I can't tell but the beings eyes locked onto me immediately. It looked around for a moment then asked Are you the one who called for help? If so then ask any questions you have, since you called so quickly you have plenty of time.

Not as rude as I expected, but the more I was thinking in my head the more the being looked impatient. So I was forced to ask a few questions like where am I, are the other people who reincarnated alive yet, and a few other questions.. The being looked at me for a moment then pulled a chair out of nowhere, sat down and started listing answers to my questions.

You are on an island over 300,000,000 miles away from the closest human, elf, or any civilized race, and unlike certain bigots the boss does consider goblins and their like part of the civilized races. The other reincarnated individuals you speak of are at least 20 years from coming to the world. You gain bonuses for maxing abilities before you rank up, you only rank up when you change race or power level significantly between levels, meaning yes you most likely will rank up as soon as you level again. And if you are so hell bent on becoming powerful then you will want to get control over the dungeon on this island, I believe you found it very early on during your adventure, it's and I quote "my strongest enemy yet.. I couldn't help but promise that I would come back." That's about how specific I can get and towards your final question that I'm able to answer, if you feel that someone is trying to kill you, then sometimes keeping them around is a good idea.. Other times well I'll leave that for you to imagine and plan around that seems fair doesn't it?

Then just as if he never came he was gone, not forgetting his chair either. And I sat there in my tree thinking, re thinking and coming to the same conclusion each time there was no way that was 24 hours I just got scammed!