Chapter 490: Artificial Mana Veins

Adrian slept peacefully that night in the bamboo hut. And just like he had planned using his system, the very next morning began with rain.

The moment the rain started falling from the artificial sky of the replica zone, the people of the tribe rushed out of their huts. One of them even came and knocked on Adrian’s door.

Adrian walked out with Vance and Octavia by his side. They stood at the edge of the clearing and watched as the entire tribe got together in the pouring rain.

They all danced under the downpour while passing the baby around. They passed the child over and over to different people in a rhythmic circle for a few minutes. Finally, Tiger stepped into the center and raised his hands high up.

"May the gods bless our child," Tiger shouted over the rain.

The entire crowd yelled back in unison, "May the gods bless our child!"

Right after the chant, every single tribesman rushed over to their respective huts. They took out various-sized bowls and vessels that were placed on top of their roofs to catch the falling rain. They carefully carried the bowls over to Tiger.

Tiger nodded at the crowd and turned to look at the father of the child.

Tiger nodded and the father nodded back.

Adrian silently watched from the side. The father cradled the baby with one arm and used his free hand to grab a bowl of liquid mana. He slowly poured the liquid directly into the child’s mouth.

Adrian had never seen a child this young drink anything properly. The only thing he had seen infants doing, is suck milk from their mothers, or suck on a pacifier. This was the first time he had seen a literal infant drink water without choking or coughing. There wasn’t any pacifier or bottle to feed it with, just a normal pour from a bowl.

The baby drank almost half of the bowl, which was actually a pretty decent amount. After it was done, the infant just closed its eyes and fell asleep in the father’s arms.

The father handed the bowl back to Tiger and raised the sleeping child high up.

The whole tribe continued their tribal dance. They raised the containers that were partially filled with mana water and just poured the rest of the liquid all over the baby. They dumped it right on top of the baby’s head, completely drenching the infant in cold water.

Adrian didn’t really understand the logic behind that part of the ritual, but he just watched in silence.

Once the entire ceremony was done, the tribesmen placed their bowls back on top of their huts and went back inside their tents to dry off.

Seeing this, Adrian nodded to himself and walked back into his own hut.

’System,’ Adrian thought. ’Shut down the rain now. I think that is more than enough.’

[Affirmative.]

’Good,’ Adrian said. ’Now... put them all to sleep.’

[Affirmative. Releasing sleep-inducing gas directly inside their noses.]

Almost two minutes later, the system chimed again.

[Every single entity has fallen asleep.]

Adrian nodded. ’Okay, good. Now bring Aria back in. Or wait, can you just send them back to where they were in the real world? Or do I have to go and touch them again?’

[The host does not have to initiate physical contact once the targets are inside the dungeon. I can directly send them back to their original coordinates.]

’Okay, that is perfect,’ Adrian thought. ’Do it right now. If I knew that before, I wouldn’t even have gassed them. But well, whatever. Send them back and send me, Vance, and Octavia back there too.’

[Affirmative.]

Adrian didn’t even feel a single difference as he was moved back out. The only way he could tell that he was back outside in the real world was the fact that a new system screen appeared in front of him, notifying him that he was outside the dungeon.

If not for that message, even he wouldn’t have known he was back in the real world since the bamboo hut looked exactly the same.

He swiped the notification away and looked at the other two who were with him.

"Let’s just go back to sleep," Adrian said.

The two nodded and got under their blankets. Adrian did the same, but he did not close his eyes.

He summoned the system inside his mind again.

’System,’ Adrian thought. ’Now that they did the ritual inside, you should have been able to record everything. Can you explain exactly what happened to the baby?’

[Affirmative.]

Instead of giving him an answer through text, the system showed him a visual. It pulled up a recorded video of the baby drinking the mana water.

On the screen, the child looked like it was on an X-ray. Adrian could see its muscles, veins, and bones. But then almost everything was grayed out. The only thing that remained highlighted was the skeletal structure and the cardiovascular system.

The bowl of water came close to the child’s mouth, and the liquid went straight down the throat.

This is where the massive change appeared.

As the mana water got close to the heart, it didn’t just pool in the stomach. It was naturally pulled directly toward the heart itself. And this heart wasn’t a "mana heart" or a core. It was the actual physical heart that pumped blood.

Adrian had never seen something like this happen before. He frowned as he watched it happen.

The mana, which was represented by a bluish glowing smoke on the screen, went straight into the heart. The regular water, however, just fell down into the stomach like normal.

The glowing mana was then forcefully pumped all throughout the body along with the blood.

This is where there was a massive difference between how mana reacted with Adrian’s body compared to this child. In Adrian’s body, the mana just moved through his naturally formed mana veins.

But in this child, while the mana moved, it began to thin out. As it moved, it formed a hollow tube made purely of mana. This pathway was literally being built directly on top of the regular veins and arteries that were used to pump blood.