From Player To Npc

Since he knew what the final design was and to make sure it was as good quality as possible, he first needed to mold the design. He also needed to prepare the materials to use. Since it was a unique project, he needed to use unique materials. He wanted to create it with dust made by his mana, which in theory it sounded simple, but it wasn't that simple.

He could create rocks and dust and different Earth pieces, but if he doesn't keep feeding them mana now and then, it will lose its consistency. Even if he created sand out of it, it would take a lot of mana to keep enough of the dust active until turning it into the glass. But even then, after turning it into glass, any mana that was left in it will be spent, and the glass will be like a simple one or even more fragile than one.

He had to create some permanent sand with his mana, something quite different and needed lots of mana, like casting a few Base Grade Spells. He calculated that it would take him some days to create enough for his needs. At the same time, he should finish the mold and work on some of the orders and move on to Annoue's training.

The mold didn't need much of his focus, so he let his MANA HANDS working on that as he moved towards Annoue. She noticed him and stopped on her training. Shingi saw her a few times and could tell that her MANA MANIPULATION on Air mana has gotten better but still could be improved.

"Are you ready for working on DEFLECT?" [Shingi]

Annoue nodded, and Shingi explained the skill once more as he got a simple stick to use as a weapon since using his Mithril dagger would be too much.

Of course, he didn't use any of his skills. He even made his movements as slow as possible but not too slow to start easy on Annoue, and he was getting faster when the thought she got used to his current speed. Of course, there were a few problems as Annoue not controlling her STR correctly sometimes and would almost damage him by missing his weapon and nearly hitting him. Still, Shingi was always on guard and avoided this danger.

As she got more used to the increase in the speed, he tried to add other elements of distractions. Like casting the LIGHT spell to blind her or faking an attack and doing a different one at another place and other tactics, Annoue also has more experience fighting.

Of course, most of those attacks hit Annoue, but Shingi didn't want to damage her, so no damage was dealt at her, but they had to take a few breaks a few times. Both of them had limited SP to use, and even if Shingi had more END than Annoue, as his was 16 and hers was 12. Even if he had the extra benefits of passing 15, which seemed to cause his SP's cost to be lower than before, even though his SP was slightly lower than Annoue's. So both of theirs SP were getting at low levels to need break pretty much at the same time.

He wanted to do something else by using this type of training, which was to increase Annoue's stats and possibly his STR.

Her AGI was too low at 8 currently, so her reflexes weren't the best, but this training type could help her increase it. Same with her END as they keep 'fighting' till the limits of her body cause an increase on it. There was also the chance of INT getting increased since this type of training was to make her learn to read her opponent's moves, which was a mental type of skill one needed to understand. Still, it wasn't a System's Skill, but something one was earning through pure experience.

Also, if they could increase her STR, it would be great as it was currently at 15, and that would bring an even more significant increase on the power of hers but the wall to pass the limit of 15 wasn't always an easy one. Sometimes it needed luck as with Shingi.

They trained the whole day, and Annoue learned DEFLECT, but it was still at Low Rank and seemed to need some more time to get to Base. Her stats were also increased by this training adding 2 points at AGI and 1 at INT, bringing them at 10 and 11, respectively. It was rare for a type of exercise to increase multiple stats and increase one of them by more than one point. Still, since her AGI was that low, it wasn't so hard to happen as 10 was considered the base value.

She got somewhat used to Shingi's moves, but he still wasn't using his full AGI and not even had used once his ACCELERATION skill. Annoue seemed to handle the speed of someone with an AGI of 12 by the end of the day, but barely. In the real fight against one like that, she probably had almost a 30% time chance to win.

Shingi had finished his Hourglass body's mold and started creating some special sand but not much. To create enough at this rate, he would need the full week or even more. That was also counting of him continuing helping Annoue's training and working on the orders Garry left him.

As they got ready to move out, Shingi stopped at the door of the shop as he noticed something and, more precisely, two individuals being outside across the shop in one of the alleys. They probably were trying to hide, but Shingi was able to detect them with just his MANA SENSE, which he always kept active to increase its power. He had recognized their auras and used his PERCEPTION to make sure they were the two individuals he thought to be. They were the two High-Level Tamers he met the other day.

He had stopped Annoue from getting outside, and they started getting their way to get out from the back door. Still, they stopped when Shingi noticed that there seemed to be some people hidden there and the Wolf of the Slaver he fought.

"What is wrong, brother? Why did we stop?" [Annoue]

"It seems like the bad people from the other day found us and are outside. The one with that had the Wolf and the Bear one area in the front while others were in the back with the Wolf. Not sure where the Bear is, but if I had to guess, it probably was left out of this mission cause of the slow speed of it." [Shingi]

Annoue was surprised, but not even for a moment; she didn't believe what Shingi told her. Even if she wasn't sure how he could tell that much, but he had done many amazing things these past days.

"So what do we do. We going to fight them?" [Annoue]

Annoue got her fighting stance ready to show that she was prepared for battle, and there was some excitement in her eyes.

"We can't fight them. They are too strong to handle. Last time, I was lucky to face one by himself and could barely get out, but I don't think they will let us out like that. It seems that there are no guards around probably; they bribed them. There is only one thing we can do, and that is to call the cavalry." [Shingi]

Annoue seemed somewhat confused and sad about what he said.

"But who can we call and how... wait, do you mean the Hero?" [Annoue]

She knew that Shingi was supposed to talk with her through magical means, and since she seemed to want to help them that much, it made sense to call her for help.

"Not her, but some other people like her but somewhat weaker. Also, they are a little like me of being helped by the Hero. I can send them a message, but I have to close my eyes and get in a sleep-like state to do it." [Shingi]

Shingi wanted to enter his SPECTATOR MODE, which fortunately was available, and sent his students a message. He could send notes to them as he knew their in-game names, and he could also set it to be anonymous as they weren't friends through the System. Of course, there was the chance of them to ignore the message, but he was confident of one of them not to ignore it. That was Little Phoenix as she seemed the type to care about people she knew too much, and she appeared to be somewhat worried for him, so if she learned he was in danger, she would come to the rescue. But he mostly counted on her bringing Tycoon with her as Phoenix was too low level to be of help.

So he sat down and went with this plan, which took just a few minutes, and he was back to his NPC body. So now they have to make his move.

"I send the message, but we need to make a move of our own. Since both ways aren't able to be used, we need to cause a distraction to make one of them available to use and went to the Mayor's office, which would be safe and is closer than our house." [Shingi]

Annoue understood how serious the situation. It could be seen on her face, which was more serious than usual.

"But what distraction can we cause? Shouldn't we wait for the help to arrive?" [Annoue]

"We need to draw the attention of the enemy cause if all the help I called comes, it isn't certain that they will be able to handle them all, so you should go to call for help by the Mayor while I distract them." [Shingi]

Annoue's face seemed to get even more severe after hearing that.

"NO. I won't leave you this time. I saw how tired you got last time as you slept for that long. I won't let you put yourself in that type of danger again." [Annoue]

Shingi wanted to say something, but his guts were telling him that if he tried to persuade her, he would face a side of hers he didn't want to meet.

So he sighed, and after giving it, some thought he had made a new plan.

"Ok, so here is what we will do, so listen carefully." [Shingi]

____________________________

Outside at the alley across the front of the shop, the two Players talked to each other. The Slaver one's in-game name was Shadow Whip, while the other one was Fire Whip.

Even if they were High-Level ones for a beginner's town, they were far from true High-Level ones. Their level was 21 and 19 respectively. They were the newer of the Guild's Generals. They also had the lowest level among them, but they weren't less powerful than the rest.

They had spent much time researching and working on increasing their skills and learning their special class, so their leveling progress was slower than those at level 40+.

Of course, Shadow Whip's class was a Slaver while Fire Whip was an Elemental Tamer. This was one class that was granting him some spellcasting abilities, which was to control the main Elemental Mana to cause Elemental damage or other effects on their attacks. Most were to help in their Taming, but some were for fighting too.

But he got this class not too long ago, and so he still hadn't unlocked any of his specials move as he still had to get familiar with manipulating mana. It was the first game he played a Warrior type as he used to play as a Mage. But since his friend wanted to join him in his Guild and allowed just Rogues and Warriors who could become Tamers, he had to find some way to make things to be more in his field. But the System here was different than other games since it was his first game using a Capsule, so it took him longer than usual to get used to it, but it wasn't letting him out.

"So why again don't we get in by force? Didn't we pay the guards to look away either way?" [Shadow Whip]

Fire Whip sighed as it seemed like this wasn't the first time he had to explain things to his friend.

"Even if no guards are around, we shouldn't damage NPC property as it may draw too much attention. So be patient. Even if he is fast, he won't be able to get far away this time." [Fire Whip]

Shadow seemed to be not that patient this time or as calm as last time. He was the type to be patient in most things unless it had gotten personal. Almost getting killed by an NPC child and even manipulated to fight his allies made it personal.

"Remember, we are here to capture him, not to kill him. What he used on you could help increase the power of our Guild, so be careful of your actions or the Leader will get angry at you" [F.W.]

Shadow seemed to get scared on their Guild Leader's mention and seemed to put him in a state to consider his next moves carefully.

After a few minutes, the front door opened, and out came Shingi with his dagger at his hand but not trying to hide. He also had one of the strongest Light Hammers at his other hand, which he had used mostly in the past week.

"Well, well, well. Aren't some dogs back for some more treats?" [Shingi]

Shadow seemed to be ready to get ready to charge at him but was stopped by Fire Whip.

"You should be aware that this time you won't be able to escape as last time, so you should join us peacefully, and I promise you no harm will happen to you or your family. Either your father or sister." [Fire Whip]

Shingi acted surprised at what he said as he knew that it wasn't that hard to learn about his family, especially for a Player.

"So you want me to join you and go somewhere. But where is it going to be that somewhere?" [Shingi]

Shadow seemed to get annoyed by Shingi asking them questions. But seeing Fire being calm as ever and knowing that he was handling things better, he kept himself back in this type of situation.

"We are going to go to our Guild's headquarter, which we can't share with you where they are, but you will learn when we get there, and I promise you it is a safe place. Safer than this place even." [Fire Whip]

Shingi seemed to make himself look like he was thinking as he kept letting a stone fall, kick it up, caught it, and repeat the action. The action seemed quite weird and drew their attention, especially after seeing the accurate throws of his. It seemed like this meant to relax Shingi and help him think, which made Shadow mad since he didn't know why they had to let him think about it.

"Well, I have decided on my answer." [Shingi]

Both of the Players were focused on him, waiting for him to continue what he wanted to say.

"It seems like dogs are meant to remain dogs." [Shingi]

The eyes of Fire Whip got wide and full of confusion of that answer. At the same time, Shadow had enough and was ready to charge, but something unexpected happened. He was hit at the back of his neck and took a decent amount of damage. He was also stunned for 10 seconds.

Fire noticed it and jumped back but not fast enough to avoid a punch that caused almost no damage but hit his leg and broke his bone a little. This made his movements somewhat slower than normal and threw his balance off a little.

Out of nowhere, Annoue appeared behind Shadow Whip as Shingi dispelled the INVISIBILITY Spell that he had cast on her.

Everything he did up until now was to keep their attention to him. Even the weirdest action of his was making some noise and drawing their attention even more towards him as Annoue. Even if she was invisible, she wasn't too used to being stealthy.

As for the hits she did, it was some of the moves Shingi showed her during their training. Fortunately, they were simple enough. Since she had enough time to prepare herself, the difficulty was lowered, especially since she had the element of surprise.

She turned her attention to keep punching the stunned Slaver, who wasn't able to do anything and was surprised by the high amount of damage the little girl was doing to him. He started remembering the fight with Shingi as she was too focused on punching his still unprotected head and breaking some of his bones of his legs and arms.

As for Fire Whip, he was ready to stop her, but he got stopped by a ROCK THROW of Shingi, which wasn't as fast as his throws with IMPROVISE THROW WEAPON skill of his but not the least precise.

"This is something between the two of us, Mr. Tamer #2; as the fight over there is between them." [Shingi]

Fire Whip was still calm as he knew he had to be careful of the boy's actions, especially if he started moving as fast as at the fight with Shadow.

Of course, he couldn't know that Shingi was still affected by that battle. Using his Breaking-Limit state was mostly useless at that point as it was having a lesser effect now. But it wasn't like he didn't have any other aces up his sleeves.

And so he raised his dagger towards the sky and filled it with mana and, more specifically, Light Mana. He made it form a specific enchantment using the eighth and the third symbol of Enchantment Trinket.

The Mana Attract Enchantment.

Since the Enchantment was used on Mithril, it was strengthened, and since he used Light Mana, it would attract Light Mana, and so he attracted the more prominent source of this type of mana around his dagger.

The dagger started being surrounded by sunlight and would make a full blade when it was finished.

Of course, even if his Enchantment was increased in power, it needed some time for the blade to be complete. But Fire noticed the weird event, and understanding a little of what was happening; he charged to stop it. Fortunately, Shingi didn't need to focus on the Enchantment fully. He could focus on the fight while waiting for the blade to be complete.

He calculated that the blade needed 30 seconds to be at full power, and only then could we have a chance to help him. That was if his focus wouldn't need to focus more on something else.

He used his ACCELERATION skill and used the Light Hammer and some movements similar to DEFLECT while his enemy used his whip.

But after a few seconds, Fire Whip stopped and brought out his Spatial Ring, a red gem. He threw it in front of him and hit it with his whip as it broke it, and flames appeared and surrounded the whip.

'So it seems like he takes things seriously now.' [Shingi]

He still needed 23 seconds till his blade was complete.