From Player To Npc

Using his PERCEPTION and MANA SENSE at their full extent to detect anyone who could be in his path and using his STEALTH skill, he made his way at the storehouse at a slower pace than normal as it took him 30 minutes to get there.

But he was sure that no one noticed him, and not a single person was nearby. Especially with his PERCEPTION, he would be surprised if he missed someone. But he noticed something interesting on his way there.

There were quite an amount of players taking part in the festival. All of them seemed to be new players since almost none was wearing anything else but the starting equipment of their class.

This would make sense if they were in a beginner's town, but this wasn't the case. Even if there was a chance of a town to change at becoming a starting town, Carda didn't fit the requirements of one as far as Shingi has noticed. A starting town needed to have a market area, which Carda did have but of things players could use like new equipment or potions. In contrast, Carda's market mostly had general items people could use in town.

Even if the local blacksmith shop was running, it wouldn't be enough. In his walk with Annoue, he didn't find any other shop that players would normally be interested in. He was sure that no player would be interested in getting in a shop to pick between four different types of cheese?

But he didn't pay too much attention to it and focused on the task at hand. After reaching the storehouse and made his way around it to make sure no one else was around, he got inside.

As he thought, the hole in the ceiling was at an almost perfect angle for his needs. He just needed to be in a height cause it wasn't reaching the ground perfectly cause of its angle, but there were some boxes around that he could use.

After 5 minutes of moving boxes, he put a cloth over them and then undressed and sat on the boxes. He got himself as comfortable as possible and then sat on his meditate stance and manipulated the Mana around him.

And he could really feel the moonlight mana and inside it, barely feeling something else, but it took more of his focus than he thought to notice it. But instead of just having a feeling getting of it, this was different than the rest of the mana he had felt. He could almost get a smell out of it.

It was a familiar smell, but he wasn't sure where he had smelled it before.

And so as he manipulated more and more of it and cleaned it of any other type of mana that was with it. He had a good amount of mana for the first step of his Mana Pool creation.

When someone created his Mana Pool, the first step was to create a Mana Seed through the mana that he was gathering itself and plant it in the place he prepared in his inner place. They had to use the same type of mana to strengthen the Mana Seed to become a plant, and at a point, it would turn to a tree.

Creating the seed and 'feeding' it to be at least a plant was needed to be done by the same kind of mana as the seed wouldn't accept an unfamiliar type of mana and would damage it instead. But after that point, other types of mana would help strengthen it unless their type is the opposite of the one that created the Mana Seed.

For example, one seed created by mana coming from a Volcano area wouldn't be strengthened by the sea or lakes' mana. Still, it would benefit from anything of the earth element just of lesser effect. Any from fire or magma itself would have the best of all effect.

He wasn't afraid because he was trying to create his Mana Pool from a somehow special type of mana since t was pretty close to nature's mana, so anything like that should work.

And so he focused on his mind in the creation of the seed. In the past one of the project he had started and stopped before he found out of the VR gaming, it was botany. It had researched different plants and their seeds, so he thought what could fit his needs, although he wasn't sure how much difference it would make.

He had yesterday gave it some thought over it. He knew that the tree needed to have many seeds on their branches as they were representing an amount of his mana that he could pick up and use right away for his casting. Of course, the tree itself would store mana in itself, but drawing mana from it would be slower than using the seeds or fruits that had grown on the branches on his Mana Pool tree. Of course, fruits contained more mana than the seed ones, but restoring them wasn't fast progress, so they were used in special times.

And so he focused on creating his Mana Seed in shape he had decided and after an unknown amount of time, which for Shingi would feel like days passed but it most certainly not the case he finally finished his seed and put it into the hole he prepared after finishing it with some of the Blue Moon's mana he had left aside for this. After that, he filled the hole using more mana he manipulated, and he decided to take a break.

And as soon as he opened his eyes, he saw something unexpected. There was an unfamiliar person just a meter away from him, currently frozen and starting towards him.

It was a young boy dressed in simple clothes and simple leather armor over it and a big bow compared to his size. Instead, it had an empty of arrows quiver but instead had some sticks in there that would be most suitable for a campfire.

Also, Shingi noticed the aura of a player coming from him, which wasn't so unexpected since he was dressed.

The boy saw that Shingi opened his eyes; he slowly took steps back while he kept looking towards his way.

But Shingi didn't stay still as he made his move and threw a small piece of wood over at the entrance of the storehouse that seemed to make one of its planks loose enough as it fell and landed right behind the young boy, barely missing his head. With his Master Rank PERCEPTION and his great knowledge, this kind of throw was a piece of cake that even the System had to say something for it.

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SKILL LEARNED

The skill IMPROVISED THROW WEAPON has been learned at Low Rank.

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This was a new skill he hadn't had access to in the past or even had heard about, which was quite weird as it definitely was fitting the style of few people he knew, but they never mentioned this skill. But he decided to get back at the task at hand.

"You shouldn't make any other unnecessary movements, or next one would land on your head and not just close to it" [Shingi]

Hearing that the young boy just froze in place. Even if he was a beginner and low level, he understood that in front of him was someone of skill as he could tell that the shot happened without much effort from the person in front of him.

So Shingi stood up and wore his underpants, at least as it seemed weird to be completely naked in front of a person. Then he started his way toward the boy without letting his gaze get away from him for even a second.

During that short time, the young boy didn't even dare to move a single muscle and could easily see the fear in his eyes like he was facing some monster in front of him.

'I can see why some consider it easy to mess with beginners' [Shingi]

But Shingi didn't know that the player wasn't just afraid because of his shot but because of his eyes. They were currently their typical red, which was unusual for a normal NPC. Still, they have currently had a blueish color circle around his iris. Also, there seemed like an unknown type of tattoo of what seemed like a letter of an unknown language, which faded away when he opened his eyes. He didn't notice it.

And so he stood in front of the young boy and looked up at him since it was a little taller than him and spoke in his most commanding voice.

"SIT." [Shingi]

The young boy didn't give it a second thought and maybe not even a first one as he sat down right when Shingi told him to.

"Who are you, and what do you do here?"[Shingi]

The person swallowed some of his salivae and started explaining what happened.

As expected, he was one of the Blessed Ones, meaning a Player, and he got in the town just today. His party had to get away to take care of some business of their own at the last moment. He was left by himself, but since he was never much of a people person, especially unfamiliar people, and without one of his friends at his side, he decided to look around before he gets away himself. Of course, he meant logging out by getting away, but the player, whose in-game name was Hineko, seemed to know that it was easier to use this kind of term when talking to NPCs.

But he wasn't talking to a normal NPC but one that used to be a player himself, so even if he was hiding some stuff by using other terms, he knew what he really meant and was the real meaning.

After looking around, he came across the storehouse. He decided to check it out, and that is when he noticed Shingi, and not too much time after that, he opened his eyes.

Shingi also found the perfect chance to found out about a thing that was on his mind.

"So why is it that you and those friends of yours were here if you aren't that much interested in the festival?" [Shingi]

The young Hineko was unsure how to respond to this question, and after giving it, some thought he spoke.

"We are here to explore the dungeon and increase our strength." [Hineko]

If he had heard that yesterday he would be sure of what he meant as the game never had anything referred to as Dungeon outside the Tower. After talking with Varic, it seemed that it wasn't the case anymore.

It seemed some time ago, entrances to dungeons started randomly appearing and disappearing around in different places, having different challenges and monsters similar to what you would face into the tower. None was sure the reason behind that phenomenon, but some thought it had something to do with the Dark Guild and them, not people letting in the tower.

'Maybe that is how the developers decided to handle it, but I still don't understand how they haven't solved the problem called Dark Guild after that much time.' [Shingi]

He kept thinking it over but then noticed the boy in front of him looking at him like he was expecting something. And so as he put a smirk at his face and took his most menacing look, he spoke.

"Well, little boy tell me what exactly will you say if anyone asks what you did today?" [Shingi]

Hearing that, Hineko knew what he meant and responded right away.

"I checked the stands of the festival and then went to my room at the local inn and spent the rest of the night there." [Hineko]

Shingi widened his smile and then put his hand over Hineko's shoulder and then focused on a specific skill.

His MANA MANIPULATION.

He normally would encounter resistance by a human being on manipulating its mana. Still, the one in front of him seemed to be too afraid to put some resistance actively, and his passive resistance he could tell that wouldn't be too much since he was low level.

And so he drew out some of his mana and released it to the environment, which didn't have a visual effect but had an effect on Hineko himself of having that getting a somewhat getting weaker feeling.

"And I hope you understand what happens if you say something else. And believe me, I have my mark on you now." [Shingi]

Hineko seemed too afraid of what he heard. He didn't think of checking his System for any debuffs or indication of a mark from someone. He didn't even notice the notification that appeared for a second know that some outside source was manipulating his mana.

Even if his class didn't have a Mana Pool, the special aura unique to Players, as far as Shingi could tell, seemed to contain some Mana that he could use for that purpose.

"Yes... yes, of course."[Hineko]

And so Shingi, he pulled his hand and got a little less menacing and spoke again.

"So now stand up and go. And return in five days or otherwise..." [Shingi]

He didn't continue his phrase, but the boy's imagination in front of him got crazy thinking what he meant. And so he right away stood up and ran away.

And so Shingi, after making sure that he really got away, went back, focusing on feeding his Mana Seed with mana. Still, this time, he kept using his PERCEPTION and MANA SENSE, just making sure that nothing like that repeats itself.

Fortunately, the rest of the night was without any further accidents like that. Still, since he wasn't fully just focused on manipulating mana to feed his Mana Seed, his progress was slower. Still, by his estimation, he would be able to make it in time.

He still had two more days, and most likely next days, the quantity of the mana in the moonlight should be more so he could help balance things out.

And so, at some point, that should be around dawn as Shingi spend some time meditating and made sure everything was ok with his body and mana seed, he made his way back at home and then to his bed next to his sister, who was still sleeping.

He noticed that their Father was awake in the kitchen, focusing on something on the table. Shingi was curious about what he was focusing on. Still, he seemed like a man wanting his own space. He respected that, so he made his way around easy enough cause of his STEALTH skill and cause his father wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings.

And so, as he started laying down on the bed, he started progressing on everything that happened today and started making some adjustments for his future plans.

If someone was looking at the face of Shingi currently, he would notice that in his most of the times serious face, there was now a smile of satisfaction.

And so the first day of the festival ended for Shingi.