From Player To Npc

The merefolks stayed back in the water, shooting their Water Arrows, while the humongous Octopus tried to hie Shingi and the rest with its tentacles.

The Merefolk Leader sitting on the Octopus head had started saying something in a weird language which sounded like sounds toads would make.

Slowly water around the octopus started hovering up in different points around it, creating six water spheres.

The spheres moved over the land as they dropped but didn't form small pebbles. Each one took an almost humanoid-like shape, but it had no feet, just everything from the waist down was one piece.

Those were water Elementals that the Merefork formed using some of the strange energy of the tower.

Usually, only the Boss of the floor could use the Tower's energy, and that wasn't always the case.

Shingi was confident that this merefolk wasn't the Boss of the floor, or at least he shouldn't be.

The Octopus, or more specifically the Kraken it was riding, was to be the Boss.

Taming a Boss was something that many Players had tried, but nobody succeeded. But no matter how he thought about it, Shingi was sure that this Merefolk had done precisely this. If it succeeded in something like that, it made sense of it becoming the Boss of the floor and having the ability to use its energy.

Bosses that could use the strange energy of the Tower were powerful, as there were many uses of it, and the more troublesome one was if being used to heal.

Whatever this energy was, it was better at healing than Light Mana, but unfortunately, only those extraordinary Bosses of Tower could use it.

Shingi noticed a piece of the compass hanging on the belt of the Merefolk Boss, and it was the compass's base, which was the hardest to find.

The Kraken had one of its tentacles almost impacting Shingi, but it got cut into two pieces in a split second.

Shingi was the one who cut it even if its defense was high, it was like cutting butter compared to the Evolved one they faced.

Shingi could tell that since the Kraken wasn't the Boss anymore, it was a bit weaker than it should be.

It also could heal itself and replenish its tentacles when they got cut, but the rate was slower since it couldn't use the Tower's energy.

Still, Shingi and the rest were stronger than it, mainly since their last Boss fight taught them many things.

Wild Tycoon focused on the Kraken, while Mizuneko, An, and Hineko dealt with the Elementals.

Mizuneko partially was freezing part of them while An and Hineko broke those parts, which were considered dead after separated by the main body like that.

Shingi was attacking using its unfinished AIR SLASH Weapon Skill but merged it with some Fire Mana.

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SPELL LEARNED

The spell FIRE SLASH (Base Grade) has been learned.

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Shingi and Little Phoenix focused on the mereforks with the bows. Shingi also threw some of his FIRE SLASHES at the Merefolk Boss, or cast ROCK THROW when he noticed it tried to cast something, to interrupt it.

It didn't take long for it to jump from its throne and try to attack with its trident the person who pissed it off the most; Shingi himself.

The FIRE SLASH was effective against the mereforks, but Shingi was sure if he used LIGHT SLASH, it would be more effective, but it was harder to cast, as he still worked on it.

The Boss Merefork seemed to be more annoyed by this attack than damaged.

But Little Phoenix was with him cast her SHADOW BOLT, which was strong enough to damage him but not to a considerable degree. It was healing itself, like the Evolved Boss they faced, by using the Tower's energy.

Its healing rate was a lot slower than the damage output of the two of them, but still, it would take some time at the current rate.

Shingi used just his Light Mana Blade, as the Fire seemed to annoy it more than damage it.

It wasn't wearing any armor, and even if its natural skin was tougher than expected since its basic form was humanoid-like, Shingi knew some possible weak points.

He cast HASTE, as this time he wanted to end the battle as fast as possible.

The Boss seemed confused by the difference in power that these enemies showed, as the reports said they were weaker. It even brought its pet with him to show how much he overpowered them and capture them as slaves.

During its rulership, the merefolks were a lot stronger than ever and even become the true rulers of the ocean. But that was because those strange, powerful land people stopped hunting them.

The last report of land people was months ago, which was good as it could develop freely. But the Merefolk Boss got sad about not having a decent challenge, especially after taming the Kraken.

Now land people had appeared, and even if they were more challenging to face them than expected, it wasn't afraid but excited of the challenge ahead.

Shingi recognized the look as he had the same one many times in the past, but he wasn't here to play around.

He used as much Light and Earth Mana on his blade as he could and went for the fastest swing he could do.

The Merefolk read his movements and brought its trident in the way to deflect the attack.

When the blade almost impacted with the trident, Shingi disappeared into thin air.

He reappeared behind the Merefolk Boss, which froze in space.

After a few seconds, a horizontal cut started being formed at Merefolk Boss' neck, and when it went all the way around, the head fell forward, followed by the body a few seconds later.

Shingi had used a Special Move he had been working on, which used different spells of his.

First, he would use the desired Mana Blade at this sword. Then he cast INVISIBILITY to hide and MAJOR ILLUSION to create a copy of himself in place. He then made the Illusion self of his make a front attack as he moved to the back to make the actual attack.

His MAJOR ILLUSION wasn't a perfect copy. Still, since he usually moved at great speed during that battle, even his authentic self wasn't perfectly formed, more like an afterimage and blurry.

He had to use almost all his MP for the Spells and mostly on the Blade all it wouldn't be enough to kill it.

Of course, an experienced foe could read behind this trick and detect his real self and avoid the attack, but this Merefolk didn't seem to be of that type to Shingi.

When the Merefolks and the Kraken saw the Merefolk Boss die like that, they tried to escape.

It was too late for the Kraken, though, as the Wild Tycoon had damaged it enough to kill it before it could escape, and the rest dealt with most of the Merefolks. The Water Elementals got destroyed when their creator died, so An, Hineko, and Mizuneko were free to help to deal with them.

Shingi searched the Boss after making sure that his Students had everything under control.

Other than the piece of the compass and the Trident, which had some Runes carved on it, it also had a strange seashell that Shingi didn't see any Enchantment or Runes on it but could feel some peculiar energy from it.

The energy wasn't similar to the Tower's, and it didn't feel like it be of significant power.

Shingi tried to examine the Trident's Runes, but they were more advanced than what he could understand with his Skills. Maybe Little Phoenix would make some sense of them.

It amazed him that the trident wasn't just an Enchanted Weapon but had Runes instead of regular Enchantments, meaning a RUNEMASTER was behind its creation.

Shingi had never heard of a Boss to have Rune Enchanted pieces of equipment, especially that early in the Tower.

He stored it at his Spatial Ring for Little Phoenix to examine it later.

They had to move soon as things would quickly become more troublesome. When the Boss died on this floor, instead of things becoming quiet, it actually went the other way.

The Ocean was always calm, as the Boss got fed by the mana in the air that would cause a storm all over the place.

When someone killed the boss since nobody consumed that mana, it affected the environment, bringing a terrifying storm until a new Boss spawn.

They had a couple of hours before the storm reached a state dangerous for them.

Fortunately, the Merefolk boss and some of his Soldiers they killed had the remaining pieces they needed. Shingi had noticed those pieces and had killed those Merefolks before dealing the final blow to the Boss.

He put the pieces together, and the compass needle started turning until it stopped at a specific position.

Shingi, An, and Little Phoenix worked fast to do the special Enchantment to walk on water for everyone's second pair of shows. An had only one pair, but her clothes were specially made and could be enchanted multiple times quickly.

It took them a little less than five minutes to do the special Enchantment for everyone as they followed the compass.

Shingi could tell only the direction and not how far they still needed to go.

They would have a little less than three hours before the storm would start causing them trouble by his calculations.

They moved for the hour towards where the compass pointed them towards but still didn't reach it to the stairs.

They made a stop to make another pair of theirs with the special Enchantment.

The second hour passed, and still, they didn't reach it, bringing them to their last pair before getting to a dangerous point with the storm's development.

Finally, close to half of the third hour, Shingi noticed the compass turning, meaning that the stairs were nearby. Shingi quickly detected a trapdoor covered with enough dust to blend with the rest of the ground at a small island nearby.

They opened it and went in as clouds formed and the wind was getting stronger.

They made it to the stairs, safe and sound.