From Player To Npc

Little Phoenix made a simple ball of mana with her Dark Element Mana, and when she finished, Shingi started manipulating it and moving it around. Little Phoenix made a ball as big as a ping-pong ball, but Shingi used only half of it.

He quickly took the hand of it as the source of the mana, Little Phoenix, wasn't putting and resistance against him. Since it wasn't one Element of his Mana Tree, so he couldn't manipulate as well as those, but still, it was better than average.

He focused his detection skills entirely on the gem of the collar and at the space that the opening they decided to use was.

Azalea focused on some of the Tower's energy on the gem, and Shingi could see its energy that permanently moved had slowed down by a little more than half. Still, it wouldn't give him a lot of time to react if something went wrong, but it would increase his chance to do so if needed.

He told Azalea to stay as still as possible; otherwise, it could cause an unwanted trigger.

The mana was close to the opening, but he waited a bit before moving to the next part of the plan. He needed to use an amount of the mana to create a hole in the gem's surface to get the mana inside, as the changes made an opening to the enchantment, not the gem itself.

The Dark element was slowly eating part of the gem to make the way in for the rest. After a few seconds, the gem reacted as part of the energy changed its regular route and headed towards Shingi's mana. It was like someone detected something strange happened and ordered some guards to check it out.

Azalea's action had slowed the energy, so it took it more time to reach the position where Shingi made his 'attack.' Shingi knew that something like that would happen. They chose one that its positions would be the furthest than where the energy would be when he started the operation.

Still, the gem's surface was pretty hard to break through because of its top quality.

The energy of the gem had made it halfway to reach the mana, and Shingi was still far from finishing his way of digging in.

Shingi sighed as he did something he didn't want to use that early on. Beliss Blessing's active effect to boost his INT.

With the boost, his control over the mana increased, and also his detection skill became a little more precise that also made his 'attacks' more precise.

The energy was getting closer at a snail-like speed while he worked with the Dark Element mana as fast as he could do, and it finally made it sometime before the energy reached its destination.

But he couldn't relax because it would be the same as seeing the mana when it detects the hole, so he started his attack from inside. 

The plan was pretty simple. There was a core in it that empowered the whole enchantment, so he had just to destroy it. The hard part was getting in without getting detected, and if he got noticed to destroy the core before the explosion happens.

He started his ruthless attacks, and fortunately, the core wasn't as hard as the surface, destroying it just in time before the energy would reach the hole.

At the next moment, the gem started cracking and turned into dark red gem dust, and the collar fell as the gem worked as a button to keep it close.

The room was into deep complete silence.

Then heavy footsteps were heard as Grud ran and picked up Azalea to check how she was.

Tears fell on his face from Azalea's eyes, but they weren't tears of sadness, but the opposite. She was finally free once more after all this time.

Grud hugged her as she cried a bit and then passed out.

She used too much of the Tower's energy for more time than usual, putting a strain on her. Nothing that a good sleep couldn't heal, though.

"You did it. You ACTUALLY did it." [Grud]

Shingi heard a loud noise from behind Shingi like a heavy object hit the floor. He even listened to the ground cracking a bit, as the cabin had no floor.

Turning around, he saw Durd on his knees and his head down on the floor. The same sound got heard again and turning, Shingi saw Gurd did the same thing but first had left Azalea on the side.

It was a clear sign of them to show how thankful they were for his action.

"Just stand up, both of you. Just saying a thank you is enough. You don't need to bash your heads to the ground." [Shingi]

They both raised their head to look towards him, and after a few seconds, straightened their bodies.

"My brother and I are thankful for this act of yours. Azalea is too kind and had faced too many hardships because of that stupid collar. If there is anything you want help with, you can just ask." [Grud]

"Grud truth. Ask Drug help, Drug give help. Drug no eat little meat." [Durg]

"Of course you won't eat him. *sigh* Like I would let you do this after what he did." [Grud]

Shingi was happy that he succeeded, not only because he helped someone who could provide the knowledge he needed but also because those three have been through many tough times.

"If you don't mind, could you share with me how you guys got here? I get that your owner lost you, but how did it happen, and how long are you here? Where you on this floor all along?" [Shingi]

Grud sat down in front of Shingi and turned towards his Students.

"I trust you, but still, I don't trust them, even if that little girl helped in what you did. I will tell you our story, but I will have to ask for them to leave the cabin for that time." [Grud]

"WHAT?!? You expect us just to leave? Who do…" [Wild Tycoon]

"THAT IS ENOUGH. Everyone goes outside for the time. I will join you when we finish our conversation." [Shingi]

Shingi didn't want to let Wild Tycoon go raging around, so he used some of his eyes energy to 'persuade' her.

Wild Tycoon started walking out, followed by Little Phoenix and the two brothers a little after. This just left An behind, who didn't move an inch from where she decided to take a rest.

Shingi couldn't use his eyes as it seemed they didn't work on her, so if she didn't want to follow what he told her to do, she wouldn't.

"An, can you please, join the others outside? I will join you soon; just have to talk a bit with the people here." [Shingi]

She looked at him and then closed her eyes as she started taking a nap.

Shingi sighed at how useless he was in telling her what to do.

"It is ok. She can stay. Her smell is better than the rest. So you wanted to hear our story." [Grud]

Grud started explaining how the three of them met.

He and Durg weren't biological siblings, but they got raised together and traveled worldwide, looking for new exciting things. Both of them back then were average Ogres, unlike their current selves.

During one of their trips to a forest, they heard sounds of battle, something they never ran from. When they reached the place that the battle was, they found a group of Blessed Ones attacking and trying to capture a group of Nature Fairies.

The Blessed Ones tried to capture them alive, but there were some bodies of dead Fairies around. They mainly used whips to attack them and capture them.

They cared little for the Fairies back then, but they never ran for a battle, so they charged at them. But the Blessed Ones were more powerful than them, but they got captured alive and wounded instead of being killed.

After being captured and tamed, experiments got performed on them. Those experiments changed them to their current selves. The Fairies we also part of some experiments, but few survived as they were more fragile creatures than the two of them. Grud didn't know what the experiments done to Azalea were for, as her appearance didn't change as theirs did.

Those experiments didn't change them only physically and mentally by making Grud brighter, at least a little brighter than an average human, which compared to an average Ogre was a genius. But Durg was instead even dumber than an average Ogre.

They were given new owners now and then for different quests or when heading to the Tower.

They had reached a higher floor than the current one, which was impressive that they returned, as going on a lower floor was more challenging than going on a higher one. Typically, players either died and spawned outside or had used a Spell or Tool to teleport out.

At the last encounter, their owner underestimated the boss, who fortunately didn't target them after killing all the Blessed Ones. It was one with high INT and understood that those three were under control and not there to harm it when their master died. 

Since their master was that far away, they were out of his control and didn't need to follow the last order anymore.

They hid and started their way out of the floor they currently were, but since they were too weak to go up, they went down.

To go to the next floor, one needed to find the stairs, but there weren't any stairs leading to the previous floor.

The only ones who could go to previous floors were Evolved Monsters. After spending weeks on the Tower's floor without getting out, they noticed they could use abilities they couldn't before. It seemed like the Tower considered them as Evolved Monsters and let them go down some floors.

After reaching the Centaur's floor, they stopped, as Azalea liked this one, and they knew they couldn't leave the Tower. They had encountered a few Blessed Ones, and some were after them, but they could deal with them or escape if they couldn't.

Azalea, at first, couldn't do anything as the collar didn't allow her to use her innate healing abilities as a Fairy, but as time passed, she could cast similar spells by using the Tower's energy instead.

They had made a new life here, and after meeting the current boss of the floor, or Guardian as the Centaurs called it, they were more than safe enough as Ferash helped them make the cabin and hid it.

They didn't know exactly how long they were here, but from their story he could tell that it wasn't before he died, so within the last ten years. Most likely at least 5 years was his guess.