From Player To Npc

Price and White Biscuit finally found what the players were looking for from their research. Just a few weeks ago, they had encountered a piece of stone that looked to be part of an artifact. The piece was in a wall of a small cave. That cave was now the mine area entrance they were currently digging at.

It seemed that they considered that more parts of it should be around and most likely were deeper into the earth, so that's why they started digging.

White Biscuit heard the discussion of two miners who spoke more about how things started, and he also learned that the part was at a big tent near the mine area. They didn't move the part too far so that they could quickly test any other stones they found to see if they fit.

Shingi was curious about that discovery since it was the first time that something like that had happened to one of the Ruin City floors. Other than the hideouts, Shingi had discovered nothing useful in those floors.

The two of them reached the place where Price was situated quickly enough since both were pretty fast, and with their STEALTH and the use of INVISIBILITY, they could move at a decent speed with no one noticing.

When they were close enough, White Biscuit had sent a message to Price that they were almost there, and Price let them know of his exact location since he had moved from where White Biscuit had let him. 

They kept changing their position from where they were, keeping their watch over the mine now and then. Other than the mine's entrance, there were some more sights to keep track of, and there was no location where they could have a sight of all of them simultaneously.

Price was currently watching the main tent, where people were taking breaks, and the rumored stone was at.

Shingi and White Biscuit joined Price soon enough, and Shingi cast INVISIBILITY on him.

Even if he hadn't reached the Light Element control to 10 Light Mana Spheres but was into 8, his control had improved enough to keep the INVISIBILITY active in three people with no problem. His control had also improved a bit after doing the training for the Dark Element, as even if the two Elements were opposites, they could use the knowledge of one for the other with the right adjustments. 

Luckily, since Shingi was the caster of the INVISIBILITY Spell and he had used Mana from his Mana Pool, he could easily detect the other two players affected by the Spell, like they had a beacon on them that only he could see.

All three of them had their STEALTH Skill be at Master Rank power, with Price actually having it at 91, passing the bottleneck that most players would stop at. As for White Biscuit, his STEALTH Skill was at 82, not at the top of what an expert could typically reach. But with the help of the INVISIBILITY Spell, he was even harder to get detected as Price without the Spell.

As for Shingi, since he was an NPC, he just had a Rank and not a level as the Players at his Skills, but he was certain that his Skill was close to Price. But, of course, Price's was more effective because he had a Rogue-based class which benefited that Skill.

Shingi was confident that no player could detect them, as even he would have a hard time doing so, unless he was entirely focused on just keeping a look at his surroundings and nothing else.

Shingi used the Party Chat to send messages to his two companions and lead them since he knew where both were, while they couldn't.

They headed to the main tent and headed at its back since three people currently guarded the front, and it was an open space. 

They went around the tent, and even at the back, there was a guard, but only one. By the person's equipment, Shingi could tell that they most likely were of a Warrior-based class, and he detected no Mana coming from them, other than the aura that all Players emitted.

Shingi sent a few messages to the chat, letting them know what the plan was, and everyone followed the instructions.

Price went to the guard's left and was at a safe distance to be impossible to get detected, while White Biscuit moved in a position at the same space at the guard's right.

Shingi was at the front of the guard, but he was closer than his companions, a little less than two meters away from the guard.

After making sure that everyone was in position, Shingi sent a single word at the party chat.

"GO. "[Shingi]

At that point, Shingi dropped the INVISIBILITY Spell from both White Biscuit and Price but kept it at himself. Then two figures came out of the position the two rogues were, but they didn't look like the two Players, but instead were two wolves.

The sudden appearance of the two wolves surprised the guard Player, but he wasn't a beginner, so he quickly drew his blade and his shield and was ready to fight the two beasts.

The left wolf reached the Player within a few seconds as it moved at great speed. The Player tried to swing at the one on his left, but the wolf quickly avoided the attack and tried to bite the Player's leg.

The Player moved its leg out of the reach of the beast's mouth and let out a grin, but the smile left his face soon. The other wolf, which was a bit slower, had just reached the Player, and attacked his back using its claws, damaging their armor, and even slashing a bit of their skin.

The Player reacted quickly by jumping quickly away from the wolves, but the wolf that came from the left slashed his leg while he was in the air.

"HELP. BEASTS ATTACKING THE BASE." [Guard Player]

The guard player from the front of the Player heard the shouts of the Player and reacted quickly as they started heading towards his way.

Two of them seemed to be of Rogue-base class, while the third was a Mage. As soon as they saw the wolves, the Mage threw a FIRE BOLT at one of them, while one of the Rogues threw a dagger at the other wolf. The other Rogue drew his shortbow, and shot the same wolf that the fellow Rogue aimed at.

Both wolves moved at an incredible speed and avoided the attacks. The Mage seemed to be quite proficient with his Spell, as he was able to make change its trajectory a bit after he casted it, when he noticed the Wolf moving out of the way, but the wolf moved too fast and far for them to make a hit.

The wolves didn't make another attack and instead ran away. The Warrior guard and the two Rogues followed them, leaving the Mage behind.

"How could those beasts appear here?" [Mage]

The Ruin City Floors had no monsters or beasts on them, but there was always the chance of one appearing from a floor above it.

As the Mage tried to make sense of it, it failed to notice a figure appearing out of nowhere from behind him.

The figure moved at an incredible speed as a blade made out of bright orange energy pierced the back of the Mage's neck and came through the front just a bit under his chin.

The Mage vomited some blood, and then started turning into particles. He got one shotted.

Of course, the person behind that attack was Shingi, and the attack was none other than his Light Mana Blade combined with his Fire Mana Blade for extra damage. He didn't use Sinhunter on this attack, just a silver dagger that he had taken from Volig, which could be useful to be used in these instances.

If he used Sinhunter, the attack could be even more substantial, but it would take more time to have it ready to use. The difference in time was just two seconds, but if the target was a professional Player, then this was more than enough time to cause a problem for Shingi.

Shingi was confident that the Mage wasn't so simple since he showed the trajectory change of an already casted Spell, even if that was FIRE BOLT. This was something that a normal couldn't do, and no equipment could help you do so, only hard work.

Shingi knew he had little time and quickly headed into the tent. As for Price and White Biscuit, they were the wolves that the other Players were hunting.

They were under the effect of a potion that Hineko had made, which enabled them to transform into a wolf for a limited amount of time. To make this potion, one needed the blood of a Werewolf, and as for the recipe, it was something that Hineko had found a long time ago but never had the chance to make because of lack of materials.

Hineko had helped Aneta a few times since she was an Alchemist herself, and she had taught him a few interesting recipes, like the one for Wolf Transformation.

As for the Werewolf blood, Hineko and the rest had faced this monster just a couple of floors before the current one, and Hineko was glad that he finally got the chance to create this potion.

Fortunately, during the transformation, the user kept their usual intelligence, and they weren't becoming a beast completely, meaning that they could use tactics that a wolf would typically use. But they couldn't use Skills or abilities that the new body couldn't make and couldn't cast any Spells either.

As for the reason why Shingi used this tactic, it was because he had to deal with the Mage. He had detected that the tent was surrounded by different magic circles that would send an alarm when one would pass them, and he couldn't find a way to get in the tent without triggering one.

As for attacking to the front as the three individuals could take care of his two companions without calling the other guard. He had to take them all away.

As for the Mage staying behind, he was confident that it would happen since mages most times had a pretty slow speed, and he couldn't catch up to the wolves and the rest of the Players.

Shingi didn't need to look for long, as he found the piece of stone that should be what White Biscuit had heard about on top of a table.

Shingi recognized it right away, even if it was a small part of the whole.

This was part of the strange door that was in Mikhail's Library.