From Player To Npc

Shingi sent a message to everyone, letting them know of the creature heading towards them. They had recruited An into their party the other day to communicate with her through the chat function.

Shingi and Little Phoenix cast their INVISIBILITY Spell at everyone to hide, except Syra, who could hide by herself. Casting INVISIBILITY was expensive, and keeping it active was for a long time also added to the amount of mana needed, especially when using it on so many people. But Shingi, who had most of the party targeted with his Spell, had enough mana to keep the Spell active for quite some time.

They all used their STEALTH Skill even if at some wouldn't make much of a difference, but any help would be helpful.

After a couple of minutes, the creature Shingi detected entered the part of the cave, reaching their camp. They had stored their tents and the rest of the things in their Spatial Rings and Spatial Bags, but there were signs of someone being around if a person paid attention.

The creature was a male humanoid but wasn't a human. His head was that of a white eagle and had a pair of wings attached to its back. His whole body had feathers, but he wore a rope very similar to the ones Shingi had seen Netsu wore when he had activated SCRY MODE on Annoue before her disappearance. Another of Mikhail's people.

Shingi quickly detected the same burn mark at its neck, even if some feathers were in the way. But with a quick inspection and having Nivlek's mark fresh in his mind, he could detect some slight differences between the two.

"I know you are here. So just show yourself, I am not here to fight you." [Eagle Man]

Shingi could detect that this person had no Mana Pool, but no weapons were out in the open. He also could tell that the man hadn't detected their location.

Shingi showed himself but first sent a message to everyone to stay hidden and wait for a signal. He had his staff out on his hand, as he didn't know how strong the enemy was. He was also more comfortable if a report reached Mikhail about his equipment to be about his staff and not his sword.

"Who are you? What do you want?" [Shingi]

The birdman turned towards Shingi and raised his hand as a sign of him coming in peace.

"Name is Gua. I am part of the Eagle Tribe, but if what Master told me about you is true, you should know this already. I am here to pass a message." [Gua]

Shingi had heard of the Eagle Tribe and other bird kinds, like the Owl Tribe, who were humanoids with bird characteristics, but it was rare for one to have as many characteristics as the Gua. Most could have talons, or a pair of winds, or just a bird-like head, etc.

It seemed like Mikhail was taking under his wings people or rare cases of their races, as Netsu's appearance was also rare for his kind.

"What does Mikhail want to tell me? I am certain he could just send a telepathic message whenever he wanted." [Shing]

"I never said that message was from Master." [Gua]

This response confused Shingi. Then he thought of a possibility.

"Nivlek sent you?" [Shingi]

"She actually went with that name? She had mentioned it, but I thought of being stupid. But yes, she sent me to deliver you something." [Gua]

He checked one of the inside pockets of his robes and brought out a box. It was identical to the one Harbin gave him as a gift from his mother.

"She said you might find more about how to open it. By the way, don't think of this as me helping you or being at your side. Master had said we aren't to fight you unless you try to sabotage his plan, but that doesn't make us friends. She also said 'good luck'" [Gua]

He let the box down and then brought out another stone that Shingi recognized, having some Teleportation circles on it. It seemed to be self-powered, as he didn't have any mana of his to use. He had just pressed an area of the stone to enable it and open a portal that he went through and closed behind him in an instant.

Shingi didn't feel like being monitored, but he asked Syra to check just to be certain. Everything was clear.

Shingi examined the box and was identical to the other one, so he thought it was something his mother used to make for many of her things. He cut his palm and 'fed' the lock's seal to get it open.

After the seal got disabled, he reexamined the box to make sure that he had missed nothing. Nothing seemed to be different from what was expected, so he opened the box.

Inside, there was nothing. He checked in case it had a fake bottom or something, by there really was nothing in the box. He used all his detections Skills and found nothing.

As he closed the box and was ready to store it at his Spatial Ring, he noticed a slight movement of Spirit Element mana from the lock heading into the box. He opened the box, and nothing had changed.

He brought out a blank piece of paper and put it in the box. After noticing the energy doing the same, he waited for it to finish and then opened the box. The box was empty once more, as the paper was nowhere to be seen with any of his senses.

He felt around the box to be certain that the paper didn't just become invisible, but it wasn't the case. He closed the box once more, but this time the lock didn't interact at all. Shingi waited a bit, and after close to five minutes, he noticed some spirit mana going in the opposite direction from before. It headed from in the box to the lock.

When it finished, Shingi opened the box, and he saw his piece of paper being in it but wasn't blank anymore. It had written on it. 

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

Hello 

- Nivlek

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

It seemed this was used to teleport things he put in this box to Nivlek, and she could send them back. Of course, Shingi couldn't be certain that Nivlek was really the one behind it and wasn't just a trick of Mikhail. But either way, he wasn't trusting Nivlek yet, even if she somehow was his Mother, or at least the mother of his NPC self.

He found it suspicious that Gua came here without Mikhail knowing about it, so he didn't let his guard down. He stored the box in his Ring because in the case it worked to monitor them, it wouldn't work since it was in a pocket dimension.

Before they start his travel, he tried using his SCRY MODE at Annoue, which unfortunately failed and checked on Dormon. No changed on Dormon, who seemed to be in a coma-like state. And Shingi noticed that at the nearby cells, there was only Netsu and no sign of Nivlek. Maybe she didn't get punished the same way as Netsu if she got punished at all.

After being certain they forgot nothing at their camp, Shingi and his party started their way down the mountain. The only Eagle left seemed to be Dark Shadow unless some had moved in a different place on the floor. But this mountain was their home by instinct, so if there were still some alive and had moved elsewhere, this meant that something drew them away. Something quite strong.

If they all were gone by sacrificing themselves for creating the egg from which Dark Shadow came from, one question was born from that action. For what reason, they progressed with the creation of something like that?

They started their way down the mountain, still careful and trying to detect any living creature or scouts of the rest of the Floor creatures.

The next would have to go to the lake of the forest where they would face many of the beasts gathering there to have some water to deal with their thirst, or some even took a bath in there.

There may be a big number of beasts there, but they wouldn't be on guard, or at least not as much as usual, since they considered it a safe area.

The lake was on the opposite side of the floor than where the mountain was, so they had to travel for some time. The plan was to investigate what each type of creature's state currently was since it seemed whichever way the current Boss was balancing things. But if that was the truth, even if the Boss wasn't killed even one time in those 10 years, Ameanum was gone; if the Boss was sharing all the energy equally, that meant its own development would be much slower. Even so, if it had that long to develop, it would have grown compelling.

They tried to avoid any scouts they detected, but some cases killing them was the only option, so Shingi, with the help of Dark Shadow, for it to earn some experience in combat.

Everything went smoothly, as they reached the lake.