From Player To Npc

Chapter 106: On the way to second hideout

Shingi woke up at the room of the Inn he had spent the other night. Roth was sitting in a corner by himself.

Jax or Beliss didn't seem to be nearby as he couldn't detect them anywhere.

"So you are finally awake. You were out for a whole day."[Roth]

Shingi could still feel a headache of the overcharge to his brain for pieces of information about the sword.

It contained over a thousand different ways to make it grow in power, leading to a different effect.

The approach he was doing up until now of feeding it Blessed Ones was the simplest and one that would raise its damage power, but it was also the hardest to keep its power at its peak as it involved 'feeding' it constantly.

He still was early on it to change his approach to increase its power in the best way.

He spent two hours going through as much as he could do and organizing everything in his mind, and he was confident he had a suitable path to work with.

He would need to gather some materials for it, and many were parts of creatures.

As for killing Blessed Ones with it, he could now control letting it eat their parts of the in-game soul, which took time to replenish; that's why the penalty.

Roth didn't say anything else during this as he understood that Shingi seemed to try to meditate on something.

When Shingi had everything in place, he stood up and started heading outside after getting his bag of things.

"Where do you think you are going?"[Roth]

"I have stayed in this place for more than planned and have places to be. Did Jax let a message?"[Shingi]

"Firstly, it is MASTER Jax. And yes he left you a letter. He had to leave early in the morning, and I will go back to my duties now that you are awake."[Roth]

Roth brought out an envelope with a waxed seal on top of it.

Shingi took it and opened it right away, and read it quickly before storing it at his ring.

He then got out a piece of paper and a pencil as he started writing a list.

"You can pass this to Master Jax. I have no seal, but I am sure you can keep it unseen by unwanted people."[Shingi]

It was a list of items that could get delivered for Volig and the rest back to Carda.

Roth stored it into his Spatial Ring, said his goodbyes, and left.

Shingi found the place's owner to let him know that he was living but first to get some dinner for later.

He could store it in his ring to keep it fresh until then, at least.

The room was already paid for the time he stayed, so he didn't have to worry about it.

A few people stared at him, but he tried to make it look like he didn't notice them.

While heading for the gate, he got stopped by a young boy, maybe around his age.

"Excuse me. But may you help me? My and my family needs help, and I have heard adventurers like you are capable of helping."[Young Boy]

Shingi sighed as he signaled the boy to lead the way.

The boy was happy as he ran towards where his home was supposed to be.

At some point, he made a sudden turn into an alley, getting lost by Shingi's sight.

Shingi headed at that alley as a man appeared in front of him, ready to stab him, and two more that were hiding at the entrance of it started their attack.

But then, before they finish their attack, they froze in place and then fell to the ground unconscious.

Sinhunter was at the hand of Shingi, and he could feel that he was able to use it at full power even if the Sword's Spirit didn't entirely like it.

He had used the dull side of the blade to make them fall unconscious and not kill them.

The young boy stood motionless as he saw these three adults get entirely defeated in a split second.

Shingi moved with his incredible speed, grabbed the boy by its neck, and raised him in the air.

The boy was relatively thin and light that didn't need a lot of STR to raise him with just one hand.

"So there are two ways things can go. Either you tell me who you work with, or you join the rest. But trust me, you will feel more pain than them."[Shingi]

He used his MINOR ILLUSION to make his eyes look golden for a split second. He could use FEAR, but this would terrify him a lot to and make him pass out or getting mute at him.

"We... we are just trying to get by. We saw you be the only one who got in the Inn with that high-class soldier the other day, so we were certain you would have some coins."[Young Boy]

Shingi squeezed the young boy's neck.

"You know I can hear your heartbeat to be closer to one of a liar than one of being afraid for his life and telling just the truth. So try again as next time it won't be just some pressure."[Shingi]

"Ok, ok. We had reported your situation, and we got orders to try to capture you."[Young Boy]

"Order by whom?"[Shingi]

The boy seemed like he wanted to say something, but when he started, he stopped. 

Shingi noticed that the boy was in pain but not because of him.

He brought him down and ripped the boy's shirt.

There was a tattoo of the bottom of a talon, and more specifically, an owl talon.

The tattoo seemed to produce a dark red light that was barely visible, which appeared to be the cause of pain for the boy.

This was a particular tattoo of an Underground Criminal Organization, which was going by the name of Owl Talon.

The tattoo meant to hurt and possibly kill the one it was on if it tried to reveal any vital pieces of information. It was just warning the boy as it just thought of telling something and not actually tried to.

Shingi didn't have a way to deal with it as it wasn't exactly working as an Enchantment, and if one tried to remove it without being careful, it would result in the death of the one who had the tattoo.

He hit the boy in the head to make him fall unconscious.

He didn't have the time to think over Owl Talons and why they wanted him other than possibly making a profit as he continued his trip.

He knew the Owl Talon was supposed to have bases in many places, so he was confident that it wouldn't be the last time he heard from them.

He reached the gate soon enough and didn't even have to report his leaving.

At first, he casually walked away from the town, but when he was in a reasonable distance to be out of sight, he started moving at full speed once more.

His next stop was another hideout of his, but it was about a week's way from where he was.

He had enough provisions for the trip but would have to resupply at the next town, which would be near his next stop.

This time his hideout wasn't in a house but at a cave, and there didn't use to be a town nearby, but it seemed to be one of the new ones created by Blessed Ones while he was gone.

The place was a Swamp, and the town of it was named Delta City even if the maps were categorizing it not to be big enough to be considered a city yet.

He kept his eyes open for anyone following him, but there was no indication of one having attempt to do so.

Night came, and he prepared his simple camp and heated up a little of the dinner he took from the Inn with just some of his Fire Mana.

He then brought out the Dragon Scale of his and started using its Fire Mana to strengthen his Fire mana side of his Mana Pool.

He decided to lessen the size of his Light Element to give more space for his Fire Element. 

His Mana Pool was currently separated to  50% Light Element, 40% Earth, and 10% Fire, so he decided to give 10% of Light Element to Fire.

The percentage didn't truly reflect the amount of mana each Element had in his Mana Pool as each Element used more or less space depending on its nature.

From the three, Earth Element need more space while Light required the least.

He didn't want to decrease his Earth one as it was important for his GOLEMANCY Spell. He had to use some Light Mana too on the brains, but most of it used Earth mana.

He continued changing his Mana Pool to produce his mana in with the proper 'breathing,' especially for his new Element.

He was glad to have those three Elements getting balanced as most Players considered themselves lucky to get two Elements.

He continued working on his Mana Seeds and Mana Fruits, but he couldn't do much without some high compatible Mana.

He could use his TRANCE ROOM, but he wasn't planning to use it in the middle of nowhere.

The next few days progressed with some stops of fighting some beasts or monsters but nothing too hard.

Those were having some of the parts he needed for his sword, so when he found something, he made a stop for it.

For the first step, he didn't need anything too fancy. He probably could buy things at an auction house, but he never said no to saving some coins when he could.

On his third day, he reached the start of the swamp, which made his speed slow down a bit.

On the fourth day since leaving the previous village, he stopped at the entrance of a cave.

He looked around for any signs of people being around but didn't notice any.

But there were some of what looked to be some large animal footprints leading into the cave.

He could tell that some were relatively recent ones and assumed that one decided to move in while he was gone.

It seemed that its beast repellent wasn't working anymore.

He carefully made his way inside.

He soon heard some laughter and a voice speaking.

It was a deep male voice but not one of an older man.

Shingi cast INVISIBILITY on him as he progressed carefully.

As he reached a part of the cave that was opening up, he saw three figures.

One was of a full-grown bear whose footprints seemed to be all over the place.

Then there was a smaller bear but not precisely a cub but neither full-grown. It was somewhere in between.

The third figure was the source of laughter and voice Shingi heard and was actually a dwarf.

The dwarf was wearing some simple pants and had a pair of battleaxes by his side.

One of them had a blue blade, while the other one had a red blade.

A long chain connected the bottom of their handles.

"Hey Winestone, do you think you can give me a ride at the inn this time?"[Dwarf]

Shingi thought that the small bear that the dwarf was talking to was like a pet or tamed creature of his. But he wasn't getting the same aura from it as with the other ones.

"I told you already I am not a horse, and I won't get used as one." [Winestone]

Shingi was amazed as the bear actually spoke.