Chapter 149: New tricks
Shingi stood up from his bunker and could feel his body numb from being still for so long. He didn''t want to imagine how it would be if he had to spend the standard time in there.
His body didn''t change, and looking at himself through a mirror surface, he was precisely the same as before.
He opened his status window to see if things really changed.
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<strong>STATUS</strong>
<strong>Name</strong>: Shingi Maki
<strong>ss</strong>: True Sorcerer (LVL 22)
<strong>Profession</strong>: Schr Master
<strong>Race</strong>: Blessed Human
<strong>Title</strong>: Master of the Arcane I
<strong>HP</strong>: 96/96
<strong>SP</strong>: 64/64
<strong>MP</strong>: 192/192
STR: 12
<strong>AGI</strong>: 14
<strong>END</strong>: 16
<strong>INT</strong>: 16
<strong>CHA</strong>: 5
<strong>Mana Pool</strong>: Earth, Light, Fire, and Spirit Element
<strong>PASSIVE SKILLS</strong>
Minor Mana Regeneration, Mana Detection, Minor Arcane Words
<strong>SKILLS</strong>
<strong>Base Rank</strong>: STEALTH, COOKING, CLIMBING
<strong>Master Rank</strong>: VISUALIZATION, MANA MANIPULATION, MANA SENSE, PERCEPTION, IMPROVISED THROW WEAPON, SMITHING, MARTIAL ART, GLASSBLOWING, WOODCARVING, LEATHERWORKING, ENCHANTMENT APPRAISAL, PROGRAMMING ENCHANTMENT
<strong>SPELLS</strong>
<strong>Ungraded</strong>: FILTH EATER, MINOR ILLUSION, LIGHT
<strong>Low Grade</strong>: MANA HAND, ROCK THROW, CAMOUFLAGE, ECHOLOCATION
<strong>Base Grade</strong>: INVISIBILITY, DOME OF SILENCE, MANA DOUBLE - LIGHT ELEMENT, MANA DOUBLE - EARTH ELEMENT, MAJOR ILLUSION, HASTE, STONESKIN, EARTH SPIKE, FEAR, METAL HANDS, DARKVISION, MANA DOUBLE - FIRE ELEMENT, FIRE SLASH, MINOR RESTORATION, LIGHT SLASH, CURE MINOR WOUNDS
<strong>Master Grade</strong>: LIGHT FORM
<strong>Grandmaster Grade</strong>: GOLEMANCY
<strong>Blessings</strong>: Blessing of Beliss, Blessing of Dlog, Angel''s Boon, Blessing of Choma, Blessing of Nyphm
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His HP, SP, and MP had been improved, with his MP to have the most remarkable change as expected. Especially with the effect of the Blessing of Nyphm, his MP had reached a new level. He had more MP currently than Little Phoenix, Mizuneko, and An''s put together.
He could feel his Mana Tree also grew in power, not just in size, as his mana became even easier to use. Before, it was like he was breathing the thick air high in a mountain, but now it was better like normal breathing.
He finally had a level, and since he got to level 20 from the exps he gathered from clearing the floors, and the rest of the things he had done since he earned his ss at Apprentice State, so he got the title he wanted; <em>Master of the Arcane I</em>.
This title was exclusive to NPCs, and many people wanted to recruit one with this title.
The benefit that one with this title had was changing one Element he controlled into another. This meant he could take the environment''s Earth Mana and change it to Light Mana, although the quantity would be less since part of the mana will be used for the swap.
This could help them in environments thatcked one element they needed.
But since he had Master of the Arcane I, he could only change any Element to one Element of his Mana Tree, and not just anything. But if he evolved his title to Master of the Arcane II, he could choose to produce two Elements instead of one at once.
So currently, he could change his mana into Light, Earth, or Fire mana, as it didn''t seem to work on producing Spirit Mana. He could manipte the Tower''s Spirit Mana, but his swap didn''t work on it even if it was part of his Mana Tree.
Still, just being able to make more Light, Earth, or Fire mana was more than enough.
He wanted to test the limits of the swap as a few notifications started to appear.
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<strong>QUEST UPDATED: ROAD TO LIFE</strong>
<strong>Task Completed</strong>: Earn an NPC ss
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<strong>QUEST UPDATED: ROAD TO LIFE</strong>
<strong>New Task</strong>: Reach LVL 20
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<strong>QUEST UPDATED: ROAD TO LIFE</strong>
<strong>Task Completed</strong>: Reach LVL 20
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<strong>QUEST UPDATED: ROAD TO LIFE</strong>
<strong>New Task</strong>: Evolve your ss
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<strong>QUEST UPDATED: ROAD TO LIFE</strong>
<strong>New Task</strong>: Learn a Base Grade Spell or higher of each Basic Element
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He expected his Quest to get updated since he finished earning his ss, but he didn''t expect to acquire two new tasks and had alreadypleted one.
But even if hepleted two tasks this time, he didn''t take any reward, maybe because they were the first two on the list. He found it troublesome of the new tasks, but learning a Spell of Each Element wasn''t so hard at this point. He already had Earth, Fire, Light, Dark, and Spirit, so he had to earn one of Air and Water.
He could learn them from Mizuneko and be done with it, as also use some Mana Gems for each element he was missing.
But as for evolving his ss, he didn''t know how to do it.
Like Warrior, Rogue, Mage, etc., the standard sses could evolve at LVL 20, like Wild Tycoon had done, with the help of a tutor. For Special sses, the evolution then happened at level 60 like Price had done with his ss when he worked with Shingi back in town as he had reached level 60.
Shingi was confident that he had to reach level 60, but just reaching that level wasn''t enough as special requirements depended on the ss. The System didn''t let them know what the conditions were, but some yers had researched and recorded about the ones of many of the sses, but that was useless for Shingi as no yer ever had the chance to be a <strong>TRUE SORCERER</strong>.
He couldn''t be sure, but the requirements may be like the less unique ss Sorcerer, an imperfect copy of his current ss. He knew some steps for that one to get evolved, so his only choice was to try them out.
"Are you ok? You seem the same as before. Sid something went wrong" [Little Phoenix]
Shingi looked toward his young female student and noticed other than her, only An was around. Wild Tycoon, Hineko, and Mizuneko were nowhere to be seen.
"It went fine. I may haven''t changed physically, but I got some massive updates. But where is everyone? Did they go outside?" [Shingi]
There were only two rooms, and Shingi could quickly check both of them without moving, using his detections Skills, and found no indications of those three to be in either room.
"They needed to take a break and returned to the Blessed Realm. They may not be back for a few days, though. It hasn''t been long since they left."[Little Phoenix]
Shingi understood that they probably had to take care of things in the actual world and log off the game. But since the time outside passed differently than in the game, if they were away for a day, almost a week would pass here.
"I understand now. At least they put together theb. Don''t you need to leave also? You don''t need to stay. I can keep myself busy for a few days." [Shingi]
Overusing the capsule for weeks in real-world time wasn''t good for the user''s body even if the capsule could ''feed'' the user with some nutrients that anyone in the actual world could insert into the machine, but it was checking those nutrients before administrating them in case of someone trying to poison the user.
Little Phoenix was always in the game, unless of the time her sister wanted to y, which was rare, but she had to take a break now and then.
Fortunately, they could log off as long as they were in a safe position, like their current hideout.
Shingi noticed that An was currently reading some of Little Phoenix''s notes about Enchantments and Runes. An had be like an actual apprentice of Little Phoenix, as she learned a lot from her and helped Little Phoenix with anything she could when Little Phoenix worked on an Enchantment.
An was an <strong>ENCHANTER</strong> at profession still, but Shingi was confident that she would be a <strong>RUNEMANSTER</strong> too and surpass Little Phoenix and possibly Zhen.
He let her continue studying as he went to the other room, which was a training kind of open area, but it wasn''t too vast. It was as big as a basketball court, so more than enough space, especially since it only was himself training currently.
He summoned his sword and got ready to talk with it.
"''Been a while since we had time to talk freely. Are you ready for some training action? I have some new things in mind to test.''" [Shingi]
"''I look forward to it. But first, answer me this. When do you n to make me reach the next level? You should have what you need, no?''" [Sinhunter]
Shingi was lucky to find some special materials he needed, one of them being that strange seashell he took from Merefolk Boss of the Water Floor.
He still didn''t know what its energy was, but he noticed that when he used some of his Spirit Mana on his sword, a simr type of energy got created.
Spirit Mana on his de had a peculiar effect that could be useful only in certain situations. It didn''t increase its attack power or defense abilities, but the wounds created by the de''s attacks surrounded by the strange energy were more challenging to be healed, even by the Tower''s Spirit mana.
This meant that the Bosses with healing magic or regeneration capabilities like the Evolved Moster they had faced would lose those benefits as long as Shingi hit them. This was game-changing, and he couldn''t replicate the result with any other weapon, only with Sinhunter.
He didn''t have time to look at it much, but since he had to wait for a few days, he could test things around.
"''We need to be sure that we have reached the limits of your current form before going to the next. This is the urate way of getting stronger.''" [Shingi]
"''Understood. Then what do you want to try?''" [Sinhunter]
Shingi worked with his Spirit de, as even if he could use it and its effects were impressive, it still felt unfinished to him.
He learned SPIRIT SLASH, which gave him another way of attacking from range, and even if its effect seemed to be weaker, it still was better than nothing.
He used his Golems as targets to spar with and try his ideas, and after a few hits, he had to recast them as he couldn''t heal them by using mana because of the attack''s effects.
He could feel that the energy of the seashell felt more natural than the one his sword made, but he didn''t know why. He tried to manipte some of the seashell''s energy to use it on his sword, but it didn''t work.
So he just let the seashell over his de to let it be in ''touch'' with the energy to see if anything new would happen but was ready to pull his sword away at any time.
Sinhunter''s <strong>INT</strong> had improved enough that it had his version of <strong>MANA MANIPULATION</strong> and tried to use it to attract that energy, which seemed to be more effective than when Shingi tried.
The energy started surrounding the de, and Shingi paid close attention to any change that could show that everything was going wrong.
But just when the sword had almostpletely covered by the energy, the energy returned to the seashell.
"''What happened? Is everything ok?''" [Shingi]
Shingi noticed nothing weird, but these were unknown waters he was sailing at.
"''The child is shyer than I thought. We should let it be for now?''" [Sinhunter]
"''Child? What do you mean child?''" [Shingi]