From Player To Npc

With the rechargeable Mana Gems, they could make some improvements to the shop's equipment.

The Fire Mana Gems would be added to the forge to have better control its fire temperature and reach higher ones.

The Earth Mana Gems would be used to empower some gloves to help them pick up heated-up materials without the need for tools like how Shingi is with his MANA HAND.

Water Mana Gems would be used in the barrels that they used to cool down the heated metals so that the barrel can be filled by itself when the water that got evaporated pass a limit.

Of course, some Enchantments needed to be created to enable the Mana Gems manually or triggered by something else.

Those types of Enchantments were a little different than the usual ones as they weren't using the typical Shape System but specific runes of different meaning each.

These Enchantments were called Programming Enchantments from the Players as it was pretty similar to how you wrote a program to solve your problem. Just the programming languages were different runes.

But to make these runes work, one had to have the ENCHANTER profession recognized by the System. If one designed these runes, his enchantment wouldn't work no matter what.

This was one of the cases where if you had a specific profession or not made a difference.

Of course, Shingi and Volig weren't ENCHANTERS, but they could handle creating everything else needed and enable them with their Skills for now.

This also reminded Shingi to ask his students if they had any profession. He knew Hineko was an ALCHEMIST, but if Mizuneko or Phoenix didn't have a profession, they could be an ENCHANTER. As for Tycoon, she couldn't become one as it was exclusive for people with some mana.

He couldn't see if they had any profession using his Profession's skill as it showed him only their stats, skills, spells, and blessings but nothing else, so he had to ask them to learn.

After finishing talking with Volig about everything, he left him working on it as he was more experienced in it, and he made his way to the Inn.

It was still midday, as the Dungeon's exploration didn't take that long, and his discussions and ideas sharing with Volig just took a few hours.

He found the two girls in the Inn as Tycoon seemed to be at the bar talking with one of the NPCs working there, probably giving her order. Phoenix was at one table on her own until a Player headed towards her. He then sat next to her without asking and even wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

Phoenix seemed to panic and froze while Tycoon was still busy talking with the NPC and hadn't noticed yet.

The Player seemed to be relatively older than Phoenix, given his character's appearance, which in most cases was pretty close to the real thing with some possible adjustments here and there.

He was maybe in his thirties, as far as Shingi could tell, which was quite a difference from the young teenager Phoenix.

He didn't seem to be someone who knew her in real life or have met in the past in-game as he had started flirting with her but got stopped as a young boy started poking his shoulder.

Of course, that boy was none else than Shingi.

"What do you want?" [Male Player]

Shingi motioned him to get closer as he wanted to whisper something to him.

The man got his face closer and turned his head so that Shingi could whisper in his ear.

After telling him something, the Player looked at Shingi and then at Phoenix and repeat it as he was in the middle of deciding.

But soon enough, he seemed to have taken his decision as he stood and headed outside, and three more people who were at the table he was sitting before joined him as they ran behind him.

Phoenix was curious about what Shingi told the Player, and he explained the whole situation.

Shingi told him that the new Local Blacksmith needed some help from brave adventurers and he was his helper send to find some.

It was true that they were looking for people to help, especially for material gathering.

But what he used to draw his attention, as just some material-gathering wasn't that attractive offer for a Player, was that Volig was a Master SMITH.

He may be considered by the System a Basic Rank, but his experience and knowledge were over any Basic Rank SMITH, and with the help of Shingi, he could do most things a Master SMITH could do.

But it wouldn't be too long until he will be considered a Master SMITH once again and maybe even reach Grandmaster Rank.

The Player knew that completing Quests of NPC's like that could increase the reputation with the said NPC, and having an excellent reputation with a Master SMITH was the dream of many of the Players.

Shingi knew that Volig wouldn't consider it much to change the reputations towards one unless in extraordinary circumstances. Low-level players like the ones around this town wouldn't be able to succeed on something like that.

As for keeping a low profile, he knew it was just a matter of time for people to find out about Volig's Skills, so what better time than to start now.

He needed materials for Zhen's experiments, so hiring Players to do the work for him was a good option. This would affect their budget a bit as they had to reward them, but they could handle it for some time.

This was also an excellent way to advertise the shop as rumors will be spread among the Players, and more will come, especially when they start making equipment for them. But the equipment that they would make wouldn't be as crazy as the ones he made for his students but still better quality than what they would typically have.

He had already given Volig a list of what they needed for Zhen, so he was confident he would ask something appropriate for the Players to gather.

Tycoon joined them soon enough and seemed like she hadn't noticed what just happened just a few moments ago.

Shingi asked them if they had any professions, and both of them said that they still didn't have any.

They told him that Mizuneko seemed to be a SCRIBE MASTER, which was one not just to write books but also spell scrolls. Spell Scrolls were like Storing Spell Enchantments, but anyone could use them without the need of any mana.

They just had to read what the Arcane Worlds of the scroll and the spells would be cast by them depending on the spell.

Shingi suggested to Phoenix to become an ENCHANTER, and she was happy to do so as it sounded interesting. She remembered when she saw Shingi making the enchantment of Annoue's sword, and she had considered looking on it but didn't know where to start.

Shingi gave her some tips and advised her to visit Aneta as she may know someone to teach her to earn the Profession.

As for Tycoon, he didn't have a profession for her but told her how she could find an individual for her Special Class who wasn't too far from here.

She still had to travel a bit and had to go alone as the person didn't like crowds.

He gave her a few tips for her approach and told her to make sure she was level 20 when interacted with him: not a single level lower or higher.

Tycoon seemed reluctant to leave Phoenix in the game alone, but Phoenix assured her that she would be fine and around Shingi and the rest the whole time.

Tycoon nodded and decided to start her trip now. The sooner she left, the sooner she would return.

Shingi headed with Phoenix towards Aneta's office.

Things didn't seem to be busy as there weren't any new Quests on the board for some time.

They found Aneta and Karemon in his human form as they seemed to do some paperwork.

Shingi told them that they would start making equipment for the Blessed Ones and selling them in a few days so the town would get even busier. Also, Volig would have some material-gathering Quests that they could also put on the Quest board.

He asked if they could hire someone to be the front of the store and a tutor ENCHANTER for Phoenix.

And it seemed that there was a person suitable for both cases.

Karemon himself.

He had been taught some Enchantments from Angel's Feather back when she was around, and at some point, he became an ENCHANTER although he never really worked on it but had used it to help in a few tasks here and there. He kept researching over the years, especially for ones that would help defend the town in case of emergency.

He also was happy to help with the shop, but Shingi declined his offer to do so as things would get busy at the Mayor Office possibly too, and Aneta would need his help.

Karemon told him that a few townspeople could be suitable then for it and didn't have a job. Shingi told him to pick one he considered the most practical and trustworthy for the job, as Karemon knew them better, and to sent him to the shop.

Karemon assured him that he should have finished everything today and tomorrow the person would be at the shop.

As for Phoenix, Karemon gave her a small notebook with his early notes for her to study. He told her to come and ask him if she had any questions.

Aneta asked Shingi if he used his Class Crystal yet, but he told her that he still wanted to finish some preparations.

Aneta was curious about the result, and Shingi assured her that she would let her know when he used it.

He wanted to learn some more spells and reach the limit to grow his Mana Tree without having a Class. This would increase his chance to get something good as a result, or so he assumed.

Phoenix stayed to exchange some more tips with Karemon while Shingi headed back to the shop.

Volig was alone as the Players seemed to have already come and taken some Quests from him.

Shingi let him know about the person they would hire to be the front of the shop, and they started working on some equipment for their future customers.

Volig had already finished putting the Mana Gems where they were needed, as he had done something like that in the past, so he just needed a few minutes to spend with them.

They put a closed sign in front of the shop to make sure none would disrupt them, but Shingi had his detection Skills on all the time to be safe. Volig had brought some regular crafting material that they could use, so they started making different weapons and set of armors to showcase to their customer. After that, they could take orders and even make a stock of some if it seems to be something popular, but they didn't have the materials to make a stock for now.

They made different blades, some light and some heavy, bows, crossbows, and sets of Armors, some metal ones, some of the leather, and some of both. They even made some staves but weren't considered a mage's staff yet as they didn't have any enchantments or mana gems on them, but they would take care of that when Zhen's made some that they could spare. Same with some wands they made.

They worked on those for three days straight and took a break only when the Players Volig gave Quests returned to bring the materials and when the person Karemon suggested came to introduce himself.

Shingi explained what he wanted him to do, and that person took over on speaking on customers for possible orders and Blessed Ones for gathering materials. He told him not to take any Blessed Ones orders though until said otherwise by him or Volig.

Shingi learned two more crafting skills during that time and ranked them to Base Rank: WOODCARVING and LEATHERWORKING.