From Player To Npc

Shingi checked the bear more with his detection skills, and it seemed like an ordinary bear, except there were two sources of mana in its body.

One was near its heart and was mostly red, showing that it was of Fire Element, but its shape wasn't that of a Mana Pool.

The other one had purplish color, which wasn't fitting any of the base Elements' colors.

It reminded him of the Zhen's mist when he teleported as it had a similar color.

He wasn't aware what combination of Elements was of Zhen, but by the color, he assumed it to be Dark and Water.

He wasn't sure about it as he wouldn't need help designing the Dark Mana Gem design from Little Phoenix then as he could use his mana. But then he remembered what happened with the two of them when Zhen 'transferred' his Skills and thought that it was probably just part of his plan.

Shingi decided to have some talk with Zhen when he returned to Carda.

He paid attention to the Dwarf and the two bears and noticed that the older bear couldn't speak the Common language.

He learned that the name of the Dwarf was Ragnarock, which was a strange one for a Dwarf.

The Dwarf was having some drinks and cooked meat, and the latter also shared with the two beasts.

"Yeah, I know, mom. Fire ruins the meat, especially when he is putting it there."[Winestone]

Ragnarock punched the young bear but didn't use too much force.

"What did you say? I will find something else for you to eat later."[Ragnarock]

Ragnarock didn't seem to speak towards any of the bears. Instead, he looked towards one of his battleaxes and, more specifically, the one with the red blade.

"Yeah, I know we didn't have any good fight recently, but we will soon find one. Have I ever let you down?"[Ragnarock]

Shingi noticed the blade release some barely noticeable light, and Shingi had seen something similar in the past.

Sinhunter did the same thing when sending him a message.

'Another Growth Type weapon? But this one seems to be a set. Beliss' info wasn't mentioning of it being possible.'[Shingi]

The two axes looked identical other than the color of their blade, but soon Shingi noticed that there were some barely visible carving to the red one that there weren't at the blue one.

It could mean either that only the red one was a Growth Type weapon or only the red one was used enough by its owner to reach the Base Grade and get its runes.

Shingi thought it to be the first case, although he wasn't sure why the second axe existed as he doubted that it got crafted at a different time.

He could tell from the more complicated runes than his sword that its progress was way higher than his, and it could have reached the Master Grade.

He was still putting together the explanation of the runes as it was part of the knowledge Beliss gave him, but he could tell that those were advance of the ones his sword was currently developing.

It had followed the path of absorbing the souls of others, not necessarily Blessed Ones, but they had the most significant effect on it. Since it had more advanced runes, it meant that the weapon's personality also had been developed towards more the path of its growth.

The path of absorbing souls was granting some benefits and had some drawbacks, which Shingi thought weren't worth it.

The Dwarf didn't seem to be one with evil intentions as one wouldn't spend time with a bear and share food with him and his mother.

He knew that there was a chance for the sword to get control of its user if it is overdeveloped, which wouldn't be good as its current basis of growth is from feeding on the souls of others.

His hideout was deeper into the cave that the bear hasn't explored yet as he didn't see any footsteps in that direction.

Shingi got himself ready for things to go wrong as he got out of his stealth mode and coughed to draw their attention.

"Who the heck are you?"[Ragnarock]

The mama bear looked at Shingi suspiciously but stayed where she was.

"I would like to ask the same question to you too. But since you asked first, my name is Vangel, and I am here on a mission from my Master. Deeper in the cave used to be his place, and I came to investigate it. How about you?"[Shingi]

He used a fake name as he didn't know what to expect from that individual.

"Name is Ragnarock Gunnolf. Son of Chief Holt and undefeated champion of Zephron. Here is my buddy Winestone and his mother. And this place belongs to them cause they stay here, so you and your Master can piss off."[Ragnarock]

Shingi was surprised but not by him telling him to piss off, but by his real name.

*"You really a child of the Gunnolf Clan?"*[Shingi]

Ragnarock's eyes widened from the surprise of hearing Shingi speaking this strange language, but he responded right away.

*"Firstborn too"*[Ragnarock]

================================

LANGUAGE LEARNED

The language ORCISH has been learned at Base Rank.

================================

Gunnolf was one of the main Orc clans that existed and also the only one which wasn't a public enemy.

The Orcs had dealt with the King during the war before the Great Pact and helped him fight his enemies. In exchange, they got land for themselves and were considered part of the kingdom.

Of course, many people still considered them evil Orcs who wanted to pillage their homes and kill everyone, but the Clan didn't give them a reason to fight them.

He had met the one name Holt in the past and remembered that he had two sons, and one was named Ragnarock.

But he was confident that he was a Half-Orc and not a Dwarf back them.

'Could he be reincarnated?'[Shingi]

He could see some scars and bruises on its body, but none seemed to be more than a year old. He appeared to be an adult, and he doubted he wasn't in a fight before one year.

"So friend, I see you are a friend of my people if you know our language and you speak it that well."[Ragnarock]

Well, ORCISH wasn't so hard to learn as their dictionary wasn't that big. That's why he unlocked it at Base Rank right away.

"My Master had some deals with your Clan in the past and had taught me the language. But I must say I wasn't expecting the son of their Chief to look like that."[Shingi]

Ragnarock was confused at what Shingi said.

"Yeah, he used to be greener in the past. But he had to fight a horn guy, which made him die and return like that."[Winestone]

Orc skin was grey, while Half-Orc's was green.

"I see. I am sure it was a fascinating story, but I need to check the place. It won't take me long and won't mess with the cave."[Shingi]

Ragnarock seemed to be in thought, and Shingi noticed that the red blade of his slightly lightened up a few times, meaning it was telling him something.

Shingi was ready to summon his sword to fight at any point.

"Ok, you can look, but I will join you and keep my eyes. It is my friend's mother's place, so I won't let you mess it with."[Ragnarock]

Shingi could tell that Ragnarock didn't have the brightest mind, and from his way of dressing, he was a Barbarian like Wild Tycoon, just unsure what his exact class was.

Shingi didn't mind him looking over him, but he kept his guard up. The axe of his seemed to keep sending him messages now and then.

He continued deeper into the cave, and soon enough, they reached a dead end.

"Is this it? I thought it would be a room or something. There is nothing here."[Ragnarock]

Shingi didn't respond as he used some of his mana at a specific spot.

Similar runes like those at his other hideout appeared, but this time, it was of Earth, Fire, and Dark Element.

He used different combinations and amounts of runes for each hideout, but he had an algorithm in his brain to remember which one had which runes and how to find the solution.

He put the correct combination as part of the dead end's wall started sliding to the left, making an opening that led into a medium-sized room.

It looked to be a storeroom as it had some boxes, barrels, and a desk with some papers on it.

He got everything stored in his Spatial Ring, which was starting to get closer to be packed and can't hold more things. But he wouldn't stop at any other hideouts of his as this one was his best one. Now with the help of Jax, he could cover some of the others he had to the rest of his hideouts, saving him time from needing to travel there.

But this didn't mean that his trip was over as he wanted to visit some people before going back to Carda.

He lifted a level that there was fin the room and got out as the wall was slowly sliding out again, making it a dead end once more.

"As you see, everything is as before."[Shingi]

He started his way out but got stopped by an axe getting thrown towards him.

Shingi was on guard, so he easily avoided it.

He noticed the eyes of Ragnarock being completely black and dark smoke getting released by them.

Ragnarock used the chain to pull back his axe, and at the same time, charged Shingi.

Shingi summoned his sword right away and started avoiding the swings of his opponent.

Ranarock's fighting style was easy to read, so he didn't have to focus much to avoid them, but he could feel that it would be pretty nasty if one connected.

Some of the dark smoke surrounded the red-bladed axe making its blade being pure black.

Shingi tried to make some attacks, but it seemed the natural defense of Ragnarock was more significant than expected as even his sword wasn't making a single scratch on him.

He focused his mana on his blade to strengthen it while keeping his distance. Ragnarock seemed to speed up as time passed but was still far from reaching Shingi's current speed.

After a few moments and as Shingi was almost halfway to finish his preparations, Ragnarock raised both his battleaxes and slapped them together.

Some partially red and partially blue light was emitted by the weapon surrounding it and disappeared after a split second.

The battelaxes were gone, and in their place was a big double-bladed greataxe with one part of his blade being black and the other being blue.

He noticed the chain to be attached to the right arm of Ragknarock.

This was completely different from what he made for Wild Tycoon as firstly, this one was a growth type weapon, and secondly, the change from one form to the other was way shorter in duration than what Tycoon's was.

The speed of Ragnarock got also increased further and started causing some problems to Shingi, who used one of his Mana Seeds to cast HASTE right away.

He felt anger coming from his sword, but not towards him but the weapon of his opponent.

"'Me will help win. We no food, we are the ones who get food.'"[Sinhunter]

Shingi could feel the sword being somewhat lighter and more potent than when he used it as Ameanum.

There was some green energy surrounding his sword, which mainly seemed to be the Earth Mana he used. 

The mana was strengthened, and it was ready for what he needed it to do without giving more mana.

Without any further delay, he changed from defense to offense as he charged towards Ragnarock.

Ragnarock swung down his axe with unnatural speed, and it seemed like it made a clean cut through Shingi; to clean.

Shingi started disappearing like it was a mirage, and he soon reappeared behind Ragnarock.

His sword was full of blood, and one drop of it fell, and when it reached the ground, a big slash appeared on the chest of Ragnarock, who fell to the ground unconscious.

Shingi didn't make a vital wound at him but seemed to have caused enough damage by inserting some of his Light Mana into his body to push the dark energy controlling him to lose control and force him to pass out by the shock.

He used Earth Mana to strengthen his sword to open the way for the Light Mana.

He brought out an HP Regeneration potion of his, but before he used it at Ragnarock, he stored his axes at his Spatial Ring.

It was too dangerous for it to remain at the hand of its current owner.