Having regained her usual fidelity, Riva surveyed her situation.
The plan was to reset the automated process for the energy conversion. She needed to hurry. If she didn't, everything up to here would be for naught and it would just drain her mana once again!
She could already feel it leave her body. But something was strange, her overall mana pool didn't reduce in size. In fact, the influx of new mana was exactly equal to the amount that drained away. The total mana level remained stable.
Furthermore, the constant energy exchange resulted in a weird phenomenon. It was what she imagined circulating Qi felt like to martial artists.
Riva closed her eyes and relished in the sensation. The energy flow was opening her pores, creating paths through her flesh, new channels through which it continued to forge its way.
She thought back on what happened. The way things turned out was the final proof of her suspicions. Someone had been observing her through the system and been answering in its name. And for quite some time at that. Their purpose was unknown, for now, that was.
The reason why she chose to gamble on a mere speculation was in fact simple.
Riva could have requested a fixed amount of mana from the system. But this would have been useless. It would have immediately been converted back into energy! Only by editing the automation, could she recover from her mana deficiency. Truly a tricky situation.
But it was simply impossible to use just five words to change the system's routines. She would have needed to wait and recover enough to formulate a sufficient instruction that the rigid system could comprehend. Thus, if waiting was the only option, it didn't hurt to try out something with a low chance of success in the meantime.
She addressed the entity that was observing her. And it worked! Whoever assisted her, added a new form of automation to the system, one that would act as a direct counter to the one that caused this mess. It wasn't certain how exactly they did it, but they had ensured that the new setup would neither drain all of her energy nor mana, creating a balance and causing constant exchange between both.
"Thank you..., system." Riva ended up thanking the entity by using the system's name.
It was likely that they were restricted in some way and couldn't reveal themselves openly.
This could be determined by their reaction when she questioned them before. Back then, the strange edited answer had been an unspoken confirmation of Riva's suspicions while also telling her that they would only act as the system.
Initially, her plan had been to trick them into revealing information regarding the system's creation, but after receiving their goodwill and providing help just now, she decided that this matter could be addressed at another date.
[User's mana capacity has improved] The system message informed Riva of a fact she had long sensed. The same window continued to pop up, but Riva ignored them, something she was growing increasingly proficient in doing.
It was still night and her stupid problem had been resolved. There was no rush, why not remain like this a bit longer?
Riva felt relaxed and entered a meditative state. In the process, her mana sense had activated unconsciously, which she instinctively used to locate the surrounding mana, dragging it towards her and absorbing it all. These actions came naturally with the circulating energy in her body. Was this what they called cultivation?
More, and more, and more! The stream of mana in her body had grown into a roiling flood, the mighty current thrashed inside her. It was enveloping every last cell, making them dance.
She wouldn't have thought it possible but this feeling was even better than feeding. Life energy was delicious but it never permanently nourished her core being before it vanished.
When compared, feeding was like a drop on the hot stone of her lifeless flesh. Meanwhile, these waves of surging mana in her body reached every last fiber of her being and drowned her within. The feeling was simply electrifying!
Riva was immersed in the sensation and had forgotten all about her surroundings. Little did she know that her actions didn't go unnoticed.
~~~
Rao was the first to take notice of the changes in the astral space. With his strength, he was incredibly perceptive to it.
It was long past midnight and he had been reading through a stack of documents that his thralls procured throughout the last two days. They were about a certain girl from several years ago, which had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
He was leafing through a particularly thick stack when he felt the mana currents experience a strange turn. He immediately raised his head and gazed in the direction where Riva was franticly absorbing the surrounding mana. He got up and observed the magnificent phenomenon from the window. Its intensity was increasing by the second, not long and even the dense humans would start to perceive the changes in their surroundings.
Rao stretched his hand as though grabbing onto something and then snapped his fingers.
"This way no one will notice" He nodded in satisfaction.
"The lady is having an enlightenment, I just made sure no one will disturb her." The master explained smiling happily similar to a little kid that had found a new toy.
"You don't understand? I've never come across such a peculiar specimen before today. She's the greatest hope for my research in decades! Mutations aren't rare. Not even gaining incredible strength through mutation can be considered all that extraordinary. But a being that's experiencing new kinds of mutations with each passing day and in so many different aspects at that. It's godlike!"
Rao was in his researcher mode and kept on explaining overenthusiastically.
"Yes, at first, I'd even suspected the gods had their hand in it. But there's no way, I can't think of any that would support her. Only the evil ones mess with the undead and she's obviously not their type. Far too human natured."
"See how she's completely depleting the mana? It's amazing how she has been avoiding touching anything else. Not only creatures and plants. She's even spared magic items… fascinating, even the town's barrier remains perfectly intact!"
Rao had been brimming with excitement all this time suddenly frowned. He had noticed a problem. Even if she didn't touch bound mana, there was no hiding the fact that the surrounding space had been depleted to an unnatural degree. No one would be able to recover their mana in this kind of vacuum. He might have been able to hide the abnormality by controlling the human's perception for the time being but eventually, someone from outside of town would arrive and would easily notice the abnormality.
Rao paced up and down next to the room's window. When he finally stopped he wore a queer smile. To think he'd go this far.
He promptly retrieved a large glittering orb from the void.
"The dragon core! The one I kept for the ritual. I feel sorry for using it here." Rao proclaimed but as if to deny himself his eyes shone with excitement, there was no trace of hesitation or regret.
"Go!" He held the orb above his head which burst into powder, releasing a visible energy beam. It took on the shape of a serpent dragon and completely unobstructed flew through the ceiling and into the sky. Here it circled once and finally exploded into fireworks of energy that covered the town.
Riva should have noticed his actions, but it didn't matter. No, in fact, it was even better if she did. That was she would owe him one.
"Hahahaha!"
The thrall was lost, it couldn't help but ask its madly laughing master,
Rao didn't mind its questions, why would he? He even encouraged it. Curiosity was the key to knowledge and knowledge was the key to power! That was his philosophy.
"Simple, if the space became mana drained all of a sudden the humans would investigate and suspect a magician doing large-scale rituals or the like. Things would become inconvenient real fast. They'd lock down the city until they find the one who's responsible. But when they find the traces of a dragon, be it too much or too little mana, no one will dare ask questions!"
"Have you never thought about the fact the dragon race makes for some excellent scapegoats? These tyrants are far too proud for their own good!"
"No need. Now let's enjoy the show!" Rao brushed off the thrall's words of thanks and turned back to the window.