7: Chapter 7 Unveils a Rare Divine Skill! Mana Shield Opens the Path to Invincibility

"Now, this mist is nothing."

Jiang Feng looked at the green numbers constantly jumping on his retina: +4.3+/sec.

The original corrosive stinging sensation completely vanished, replaced by a tingling sensation like soaking in a hot spring.

He strode through the forest, heading wherever the monsters were most concentrated, practically walking with his head held high.

Just as he swept through three waves of wolf packs and was preparing to go deeper, a brilliant golden light beside a massive wolf corpse dazzled his eyes.

Jiang Feng reached out and grasped; a primitive skill book inlaid with silver edges fell into his palm.

[Prompt: Due to your luck value (65 points) being off the charts, you have triggered a rare drop!]

[Mana Shield (Passive/Special)]

Level: 5

Quality: Rare (True · Top Grade)

Effect: When taking damage, automatically deduct Mana Points (MP) to offset an equal amount of damage. 1 point of Mana offsets 1 point of Health.

Characteristics: No cooldown, does not occupy public cooldown time, instant cast.

Description: As long as the Mana bar is not empty, you are an immortal god.

...

The moment he saw the attributes, Jiang Feng's pupils shook violently, and then he burst out laughing.

"Holy crap, a god-tier skill!"

Mana Shield—this is a Mage's most core life-saving god-tier skill! Usually, only Archmages after the third awakening can learn it after completing those damn chain quests.

Moreover, for ordinary Mages, this skill is a bottomless pit that sucks mana. Once the shield is activated, there's no mana left to cast skills; it's purely useless.

But who was Jiang Feng?

He was a Fountain of Life with over six thousand points of Mana and a Mana regeneration speed as high as 625 points/minute!

"Combined with my infinite Mana regeneration and high Constitution, how is this a shield? This is an Invincible Golden Body!"

Jiang Feng did not hesitate; he clapped his hands, and the skill book turned into starlight and merged into his brow.

From this moment on, he was no longer a simple Mage.

He was a humanoid fortress wearing a Mage's skin and piloting a Gundam!

"Clearance progress is already at 30%."

Jiang Feng looked deep into the forest, where an extremely violent aura was awakening, as if some big fellow had been woken up.

"I wonder if the monsters over there can withstand one of my fireballs?"

Along the way, Jiang Feng was still thinking: with only 65 luck points, he had dropped a super top-grade magic skill. If he had even more luck, wouldn't it be heaven-defying?

After a thought, he added all 1375 attribute points he had just plundered from killing monsters into his luck attribute.

[luck: 65 → 1440]

First, raise his own strength to a certain level, then increase the drop rate (the luck attribute) as much as possible—the more, the better!

...

Meanwhile, outside in front of the Magic Tower portal.

At the entrance of the massive whirlpool dungeon.

Dozens of students had already cleared the normal dungeon one after another, and they were slumped on the ground in groups of three or five recovering health, all looking disheveled.

"Class Beauty Shen and the others haven't come out yet? It seems the Lv3 dungeon is indeed hard to crack."

"Hey, look! Why did that stone tablet light up?"

A sharp-eyed student pointed at the blood-colored stone tablet in the corner that had been gathering dust for years, his voice changing pitch.

That was the exclusive display for "Hell Difficulty," which usually no one looked at because no one dared to enter.

But now, at the top of the stone tablet, a blurred ID "**Feng" was emitting a faint red light.

The row of data following it was even more shocking:

[Dark Forest (Hell Grade) — Clearance Progress: 35%!]

[Kill Count: 36, Time Elapsed: 9 minutes 15 seconds!]

The entire field fell silent instantly; not even the sound of breathing could be heard.

After a full three seconds, the crowd boiled over like a pot exploding.

"Holy crap?! Am I seeing this right? Hell Grade?"

"Killed dozens of monsters in 9 minutes? Did he go in with a harvester?"

"Exactly! Those are all Hell Grade enhanced monsters; a single monster's attributes are ten times that of a normal dungeon! My god."

"This must be a bug! Or some god is using a cheat!"

"By the way, who exactly is this '**Feng'? Could it be the big boss who cleared the Chicken King earlier? Can our school really hide such a big Buddha?"

Just as everyone was inexplicably horrified, a roar of propellers suddenly came from the sky, making eardrums ache.

An all-black armed helicopter with the military's Falcon logo, bringing wild winds, landed domineeringly right in the center of the playground!

The hatch door slammed open.

A middle-aged man wearing a black military coat with a cheap cigarette in his mouth jumped down. He ignored the shivering school leaders and locked his eagle-like gaze onto the blood-colored stone tablet.

Li Yan, the famous "General Mad Dog" of the Dragon Kingdom military.

Looking at the jumping progress bar, a playful smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, revealing a mouthful of forest-white teeth.

"Nine minutes, progress over one-third. This brat's monster-killing efficiency is more fierce than the elite squad under my command."

Li Yan took a deep drag of his cigarette, blew a smoke ring into the old principal's face, and chuckled:

"Old man, no need to check. A monster like this, your school's small files can't hold him."

He turned around, his voice not loud but carrying an unquestionable bloody aura:

"Send out orders, seal the scene! Tell all the students coming out to stand by on the spot!"

"I'm not going anywhere today; I'm staying right here to wait for this big boss's triumphant return!"

"I want to see which little brat can give me such a big surprise."

...

Deep in the Dark Forest, the air was filled with the smell of rotting leaves and fermented old bones; visibility was compressed to the extreme, only five meters around.

Jiang Feng carried his crimson flame magic staff, like an old man strolling in his own backyard, his feet crushing dry bones with a crisp "crack," the rhythm light.

"Three minutes left, if I don't speed up, that nest of assassin monsters will scatter."

He glanced at the red dot distribution on the map, his eyes showing a casual "hurrying to eat" look.

Hell-grade dungeons are called "graveyards for newcomers," not only because of the insane stats but also because the monsters' intelligence is extremely high.

For example, now.

The surroundings suddenly went silent; even the sound of the wind disappeared.

Six extremely faint black shadows, like ghosts flying close to the ground, silently crept into the blind spot behind Jiang Feng.

Old Six behavior, a classic reenactment.

[Ghost Assassin (Hell · Elite)]

Level: 8

Health Points: 6500

Attack Power: 480

Characteristics: Backstab (Critical Damage +200%), Poison Coating.

...

This wave of sneak attacks, combined with the high multiplier of backstabs, was theoretically enough damage to instantly send a full-defense shield warrior of the same level back to the fountain to wait for respawn. They might even owe the monster health points.

"Ssh!"

Six poisoned daggers stabbed out simultaneously, the air torn into sharp sonic booms.

Precise, ruthless, sealing off all retreats.

However, Jiang Feng didn't move.

He didn't even make a move to turn around.

Since he had [Mana Shield], dodging? That would be disrespecting this god-tier skill and an insult to his set of top-grade attributes.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

Dense metal clashing sounds exploded, as if the daggers had not stabbed a piece of novice cloth armor, but an immovable Wall of Sighs.

A layer of light blue light film rippled slightly on Jiang Feng's body surface; the daggers stabbed in half an inch and then seemed to be stuck in a swamp, unable to advance further.

A series of data waterfalls that only he could understand floated above Jiang Feng's head:

[Mana Shield Triggered!]

[Damage Taken: 450 (Backstab Critical)!]

[Damage Offset! Mana Deducted: 450 points!]

...

Six assassins backstabbing simultaneously quickly reduced Jiang Feng's mana by 2700 points.

If it were an ordinary Mage, they would have been out of mana and dead by now, turning into a box on the ground.

But Jiang Feng glanced at his mana bar.

[Mana Points: 3,550/6,250]

Almost the instant the mana dropped, the base mana regeneration as high as 625 points/minute began to rise rapidly.

The six Ghost Assassins revealed themselves; in those originally cold and heartless ghostly green eyes, for the first time, an emotion similar to "seeing a ghost" appeared.

They looked at the daggers in their hands, then at the unharmed Jiang Feng, falling into a deep doubt of their ghostly lives.

Is this "gua sha"? No, this is freaking polishing!

"Are you done scraping?"