Shom was wrong. He — and no one, in fact — had grasped the concept at play. The slash was, in fact, without mana backing it up.
The reason the conditions simulated that of a mana slash was tied to Rean being a vessel and not just a regular hunter.
Rean's ability to evolve and assimilate talents was intrinsically tied to his blade (extension). In order to activate his technique, the system required a simple task.
Strike the opponent with the dagger, and forced evolution and assimilation would begin.
This spell had subconsciously bound the blade with mana, which meant regardless of Rean's input, his blade would always be reinforced with mana.
'I don't get it. I don't have time to get it. Shom is right,' Rean said, getting up.
'This isn't and shouldn't be me making some half-assed comment just because I want to please Shom. I am doing this and thinking this because I want to do better ultimately,' Rean thought.
"How can I help?" he shouted.
'No, that's wrong. Help implies partnership. Right now I'm no partner,' Rean thought.
"How can I be useful?" Rean shouted.
Shom looked toward his general direction and said nothing.
Rean was disappointed, but he knew Shom's actions were justified.
He stood there waiting. He just couldn't butt in on the match. If he didn't coordinate his attacks with Shom, then he could get seriously injured. After all, this was an A-rank hunter taking on a B-rank dungeon boss.
'Maybe I should go back and get as many reward points as I can farm off those small fry,' Rean thought.
'Hell no,' his inner voice said.
'I will stand still, watch, and internalize Shom's actions. I will reach my own conclusions,' Rean said, getting back the usual fire in his eyes.
'Shom is impressive. He's been holding his own with just regular mana enhancement and pulse blasts,' Rean thought.
Now he had resigned himself to spectating.
Shom leaped into the air. He flipped and landed just on top of the dragon. He climbed down, landing a punch that sent the boss flying.
In an instant, he fired off three mana pulse beams, all making contact that instant.
He didn't pant. He didn't catch his breath.
He just waited.
Shom noticed slight movement in the monster's arm and immediately rushed toward it. Shom took out his extension, finally showing a better view of his hand in the process.
The entire left half of Shom's body was covered in mana skin.
The volume and area occupied was unlike anything Rean had ever seen.
The volume of mana skin explained it all.
The reason Shom was able to land high-speed attacks in a rush and without lag.
"Shom... he... he's incredible," Rean said, without knowing he had actually verbalized his own subconscious thoughts.
It was all going to be over in a single slash.
Shom grabbed his blade.
He drove the blade through the boss's core.
The struggling had stopped.
The boss was dead.
'Is this the power of an A-rank?' Rean thought.
'No, I worded that wrongly. Is this the power of a top 10 hunter?'
Rean's grin was back as he stood in admiration of the power that lay before his eyes.
'Something was off about that fight just now. A dungeon boss who didn't use any of its innate spells but just decided to rely on its physicals. I don't get it,' Shom thought.
"Wait, this delay is unusual. I'm yet to get my reward notification. Where's the pop-up?" he said.
"Pop-up..."
'Wait, if the captain is yet to be notified, then that means the boss isn't dead.'
Immediately, the corpse of the dungeon boss dissipated into smoke.
From the smoke, a new boss was born.
"What the hell? What's going on? Is that some kind of monster skill?" Shom thought.
'If the little ones can multiply, then it stands to reason this one's technique is linked to that somehow,' he thought.
'What's going on? It's only B-rank, so this should still very much be within Shom's capabilities.'
Shom went in for a strike.
The monster stood still.
Shom passed right through the silhouette like the monster wasn't even there.
"What the— was it intangible just now—"
Gbam.
The sound echoed as something immediately made contact with Shom, sending him flying halfway across the chamber.
'What's going on? That impact right now... what could have thrown the captain flying with that force?' Rean thought.
'How is the monster intangible? No monster has spells of different classes. What the hell is going on here?'
Shom got up.
Now smiling.
"I don't get it. Everything is just out of flow today. First of all, this whacko boss doesn't use its spells. Now it uses spells with patterns I haven't seen before. What the hell?" Shom shouted.
"This is the kind of thing I wake up eager to encounter every morning," he continued.
"The only thing that makes sense is if this is one of those rare situations where the monster somehow evolves through sheer will. If that's the case, it's just my luck."
"Unfortunately for you, I'm yet to kill one of such monster types. Forgive me, I'll be using you to bulk my resume," Shom said.
'Did he just say evolve?' Rean thought.
Immediately, a system icon popped up.
Evolution Complete
Talent Assimilated - Man Not Main
Description - ability to switch between an visible self and a non-visible self. Tangibility and intangibility apply at will.
Talent count - 3
"Hey Rean, do you still want to be useful?" Shom said, recalling Rean's earlier remark.
"Shut up, shitty captain. I'm thinking," Rean responded.
'Evolution already began. But this thing isn't dead. That's probably because it's that much higher ranked than me.'
'The only reason Shom had a hard time earlier was because I forced this thing's spell evolution. It was in an egg not too long ago. I guess that means it's not as capable as it would have been had its situation not been peculiar.'
'I am amazing,' Rean proclaimed.
"What?" Michael said, entering the boss chamber at that very instant.
Turning to now look at Michael, Rean said, pointing at all the destruction,
"Look there, you. I did that."