From Player To Npc

Shingi talked with the two female players about their progress at their special training given to them as his player character.

Tycoon mentioned that she had killed close to 30 monsters that should fit the requirements of her challenge. Phoenix was able to manipulate enough Shadow Mana to make a sphere of 2 centimeters diameter. Hence, she still had a long way to go to make one to fill her whole hand. She also was Level 7 while Tycoon was still Level 12. They both tried not to level up too much since it would make their training harder, and there was a specific mechanic that helped them on that.

Players could decide the exp that they received to be added instead to one or more of their skills, but they have to be lower than Level 10. That way, their level wasn't increasing, and their skills were getting stronger, and they were mostly left using this method on their basic skills.

Shingi had investigated about the Dungeon, and its monster would be at around level 10. Still, some should be over level 12 or more, which was what Tycoon needed.

Even if Annoue was too low level if he counted Hineko and Mizuneko, even if their combat abilities didn't seem too good, they should be able to handle the Dungeon. He had, of course, some more preparations to do to help them.

After saying goodbye to them, he closed the shop and run to make his last delivery for today as it was getting quite late. After that, he returned home and saw Garry having dinner in the kitchen by himself. He could detect Annoue with his MANA SENSE being at their room practicing.

"Oh, you are finally back? I expected you'd be back sooner. What took you so long?" [Garry]

Shingi just took out a pouch and dropped it on the table, and it opened enough for someone to be able to see what it contained. It was full of coins, mostly copper with some silver coins mixed in.

"These are today's final payments plus tips. You better use them wisely." [Shingi]

After saying that he then proceeded to take a bowl and fill it with the soup that seemed to be dinner. He noticed that, unlike usual, the soup wasn't meat but a vegetable. Whoever made it knew what they were doing considering how the taste of the vegetable all mixed well without any overpowering the others.

Shingi knew that the Mayor was the one who was sending them this food but wondered if she was cooking it herself or if the cook was actually someone else.

'Well, Annoue has the cooking skill maybe I can ask the Mayor to help her raise its rank. It will be useful to have it.' [Shingi]

COOKING skill didn't just focus on the food's taste but granting on those who ate it temporary benefits and other kinds of buffs. But of course, special ingredients were needed for those dishes.

After finishing his meal while being watched by Garry he was ready to get to his room, but Garry stopped him.

"It seems that you have learned to handle the shop and your SMITHING skill quite well. I have heard quite a lot of praises for our shop's crafts these past days." [Garry]

Shingi was a little angry about mentioning his work as 'their' crafts. Even if he rarely gave him some tips, he had done nothing to help or taught him something new, but he didn't say anything or acted.

"Since you did such a great job with SMITHING, we gonna move at your training at another skill. I wonder how good you are going to be in that one." [Garry]

Shingi was kinda expecting of him saying that as he understood from the equipment at the shop that Garry didn't just have the SMITHING skill but probably had other crafting-related skills.

"What kind of skill we gonna work next?" [Shingi]

Garry seemed to think on that for a second before he gave his answer.

"Since you got familiar with working with fire by using the forge, let's move on GLASSBLOWING. We can use the Mana Blower with some adjustments to it that have been removed. But don't worry, I will work on that, so have a day off for tomorrow, and after that, we will work on your new skills. Expect a similar amount or more of orders that would use that skill, so you better not disappoint me." [Garry]

'Just the skill I needed.' [Shingi]

Shingi needed to make the Enchantment Hourglass body of his, so he needed the GLASSBLOWING skill. Since Garry would teach him, it was perfectly timed. Of course, he could buy an hourglass and replace his bases as they weren't much different in size than what would usually be used, but it wouldn't fit perfectly if he didn't make it himself.

And so he made it to his room ready to help Annoue at her training by using his Blessing's active effect. He had his MANA SENSE active and noticed her mana manipulation being better and faster than normal. She seemed to have gotten the hang of it.

As he got in and Annoue noticed him, she smiled at him, but he caught a look of surprise and somewhat hiding something.

"How was today's training. Any progress?" [Shingi]

Annoue looked down on the floor, having a sad look.

"No progress. The lights are still tough to control." [Annoue]

Shingi, hearing that he got closer to her, put his hand on her chin and raised her face as he had moved his face in front of her at breathing distance and looked into her eyes.

"You don't hide anything from your little brother, do you, big sister?" [Annoue]

After all that time, Shingi was familiar with her personality, and he seemed to understand what was going on.

Annoue probably was too bored of the training and assumed that it would get more boring, so she decided to make it look that there was no progress. And she didn't want to say anything cause she was afraid of hurting his feelings.

But of course, this wasn't the case since Annoue didn't want to stop this kind of training cause she liked it when he was using his Blessing on her. But seeing the eyes of her brother and hearing his words, she felt like she had betrayed the trust he had in her.

"I... i... was successful on the enchantment five days ago..." [Annoue]

Shingi was amazed that she kept hidden this fact for that long and that he didn't notice it. He could tell that her skill should be at the right rank, but he assumed she wasn't successful, because of her being inexperienced and just needed more time to find how everything worked for her.

He put his hand over her head to pat it as he usually did to let her know that she did good or to calm her.

"You don't have to worry over anything as I am here, so all will go well. But promise me that you won't hide something like that from me again." [Shingi]

Annoue, who was almost ready to cry, nodded in agreement right away.

"Good. We have a few things to discuss then." [Shingi]

After making sure that Annoue was able to do the enchantment and was able to change the color of the trinket, he told her about the Players and the team he was creating. He used the same story of the Player who gave the materials for his ritual that he was behind everything. He told her that he communicated with him through magic and was the reason that he had become that strong that fast.

Of course, he was planning to let Annoue be part of the team but wasn't planning on taking her to the Dungeon as she didn't have her class yet. It was too dangerous since, unlike the others who could respawn, she didn't have that luxury. Or so he thought since he didn't know if a Blessed Human could respawn as a player could, but he didn't want to test it.

"So you have taken your first step in the way of Enchantments. We will leave it on that for now, but you can mess with it some more if you have some free time. I have made some notes with the possible enchantments so you can try them in the future." [Shingi]

He gave her a small notebook of very few pages that had drawings of each shape that had to be used for the enchantment and what the result one would be.

"So now we can move to our next part of your training. To learn how to use a blade." [Shingi]

He brought out the Mithril dagger that he always had with him and a wooden dagger of the same size but having a standard blade.

He gave the wooden one to Annoue, who was disappointed with not taking the cool-looking one.

"Your class would normally use bigger weapons, but for now, you need to learn some basics moves. The way of the sword isn't just to swing the blade left and right. There are many techniques and moves, but a swordmaster doesn't need to know all of them but know when to use what. You need to be perceptive and use the right move at the right time." [Shingi]

Annoue's eyes got wide with excitement as they moved on a kind of training that seemed to be having more action than just focusing on lights.

But then the disappointment returned to her face.

"To do that, you need to learn Breathing Techniques and focus on your blade. Become so familiar with it that it feels like an extension of your body. Then we will work on some moves." [Shingi]

And so once more, they were in their usual meditate stance, but this time they didn't have to focus on mana, but it was still a mental task. He used his Blessing, which seemed to help somewhat in this case as well as he also gave as many tips as he could to Annoue.

This type of training was slower than the one with the Enchantment cause there was no indication of how far she had gone. Annoue could describe if she felt any different with handling the weapon, which was the only indication he could use. Still, he knew it would probably take some days until they have succeeded.

Or so he thought as close to the end of the hour of his blessing Annoue seemed to have succeeded.

Shingi made her do some easy movements with the dagger while having her eyes closed, and it seemed like she was successful. At least to a suitable level for their needs.

"You did quite well. You will train yourself in two moves from now on, but it is late, and we need some space, so I will demonstrate them to you and start training on them tomorrow at our hideout. I have a day off, and Garry will be busy, so we should be ok." [Shingi]

Annoue nodded, and Shingi told her to study a few of the pages with the different Enchantments before she sleeps.

He had decided to lay down to relax his brain a little and checked his Status window. He noticed a change that probably happened during his crafting time of the hourglass' bases. He didn't see a notification window appearing since he had his eyes closed most of the time and was focused on crafting.

'My MANA MANIPULATION is finally Master Rank.' [Shingi]