章 65: The Mine

Shingi tried to read the facial movement of the Player in front of him to get what he was hiding.

If he knew the whereabouts of a Mithril mine, especially one of High Quality, telling it to him wouldn't make sense even if he could get some equipment from a Master Craftsman.

His Guild seemed to have sources and people, so he doubted they couldn't get equipment close to a Master one with the money the mine would earn them.

"You seem to hide something from this deal, though. What is it?" [Shingi]

Master Whip seemed impressed with Shingi not just taking the deal as he got informed that he was someone with knowledge of crafting and various minerals, so he should know how important was what he was offering.

But Shingi was one how had earned and spend fortunes that even kings would be jealous of, so tempting him wasn't that easy.

"There is one problem that you could help us with. Or, most specifically, your new employee would be able to. The mine seems sealed, and only a Master BLACKSMITH can break it from what our research has revealed." [Master Whip]

Shingi seemed to think for a moment as he murmured some words that Master Whip barely heard.

"A Craft Seal?" [Shingi]

Craft Seals were special Enchantments that were available only for the CRAFTSMAN profession. With the use of one, they could block access to a place or use one of their creation.

They differed from the Enchantment in the showcases. The ones on the cases made the items inside them too heavy to move, but one with great STR could do it.

The Craft Seal made them impossible to be passed as if one tried to touch them, either their hand would get stopped by an unbreakable field.

The only way to pass the Seal other than getting access from its creator was with an NPC Master Rank Crafting Skill. Unfortunately, no matter what level they had their crafting skills, players never could get the ability to do something like that, so they had to persuade an NPC to work with them.

But even if an NPC had a Master Crafting Skill, it wasn't always the case that he could pass or break the Seal.

Some Seals needed specific crafting Skills, and some were harder than others, so one had to be more proficient with it.

Shingi thought over the offer as a mine like that could contain more than just Mithril if someone sealed like that.

"If the mine is sealed, how do you know it contains Mithril and of its quality?" [Shingi]

The Seal would be at the entrance, and if there were any Mithril, it would be deep in it, so one wouldn't be able to see it without getting in.

Master Whip couldn't keep his surprised look as he didn't expect the NPC boy to be this knowledgeable and good in negotiations.

But this showed to him that his Guild Commanders were right.

Shingi wasn't just a simple NPC.

"We have found some reliables sources, but I can't let you know their identity. They want it to stay a secret." [Master Whip]

Shingi contemplated his options.

It could be a trap of the System leading the Players to do something they regret using their greed for the reward.

"I will have to check the mine first and then decide." [Shingi]

Master Whip nodded in agreement right away, like he was expecting this response.

"The mine is quite far by foot, but we have made a temporary Teleportation Circle that we can use. If you want, we can even head there right away." [Master Whip]

Shingi gave it a thought and told Greg to move with the slots as planned.

He told Master Whip that they would prioritize if the deal got approved, but the amount of equipment was still in a negotiation state.

Shingi also informed Volig what he was planning, and he followed the Tamers' Players.

They went into one alley, and Fire Whip and Shadow Whip stayed as guards at the alley's entrance together with the wolf of Master Whip, who got ordered to do so by his owner.

The alley was a normal one; they just wanted a place that had their privacy.

Master Whip brought out a scroll and two crystals and gave one crystal to Shingi, and started explaining what it was.

The scroll was a Spell Scroll of TELEPORTATION, and the crystals were like transmitters connected to their Teleportation Circle near the mine area.

So when he used the scroll, the crystals would be used and would get them precisely at that point with no chance of failing or getting somewhere else, as was sometimes the case when casting TELEPORTATION.

Of course, some Spells could still disrupt this process, but they were difficult to use and needed a lot of preparation.

Shingi was, of course, familiar with the crystals and the scroll, but he let him explain it to make sure that nothing had changed these past years.

The Guild master held with one hand the unrolled scroll and with the other the crystal of his.

He started reading some Arcane Words written in the scroll as the scroll emitted mana and made a circle and different runes in the surrounding ground.

After almost a minute, Master Whip finished reading the scroll, and the circle was complete and started lighting up purplish light.

A purple portal opened at the center of the circle, and both Shingi and Master Whip jumped in, as it would not stay there for long.

Shingi had closed his eyes when he jumped in as the light was dazzling to the point of blinding him, and when he opened them, he saw the difference in his surroundings.

He seemed to be on a mountainside, and he could see a cave not too far from him he assumed to be the mine's entrance.

With their tamed creatures, a few Tamers were on guard when Shingi appeared, but calmed down when they saw their Guild master.

Master Whip and Shingi moved into the cave and didn't go too far, as an invisible field stopped them.

Shingi started investigating the area with his detection skills, and it didn't take him long to find its source.

There seemed to be a Seal, but it didn't seem to be a Craft Seal, or at least what Shingi would expect a Craft Seal to look like.

He had encountered Craft Seals in the past but didn't have MANA SENSE then, so he couldn't detect them then like now.

It seemed similar to the strange seals of Mikhail's and Zhen's, but it seemed to be empowered by the environment's mana, while they seemed to be self-empowered or got powered by something he couldn't detect.

He did some tests to damage the Seal and noticed its regenerative ability to be off the charge, making it unbreakable.

He wasn't sure if a similar approach as with the other Seals would work in this case as it seemed to damage this strange energy, which was their source, but here, there wasn't much of that energy.

He tried to see if he could manipulate any mana, but something restricted him from doing it.

"Hm... it seems to differ from what I thought it to be. There is something I want to test, but I have to ask you to leave me alone in the mine."[Shingi]

Master Whip, the only one in the mine with Shingi, was surprised but seemed to understand as he nodded and made his way out.

Shingi made sure that he was alone as he would use something he wanted to stay a secret.

His Spirit Hammer.

He hadn't used it today, so he still had his daily use of it.

He brought it out from his Spatial Ring, and he enabled the active effect of his Blessing of Beliss to boost his detection Skills.

He turned the hammer into a pick hammer and used the pick to hit a few areas of the field and notice and reactions.

At first, he saw nothing different, but then noticed that the regeneration seemed to get slower for a bit of time if he hit some specific order spots. But if he hit any other area, everything got reset.

He started working to find the pattern, but with each reset, the order he had to hit the areas was changing.

He wanted to cast HASTE on himself to speed things up, but he could keep it active for one minute only, and if he used it multiple times each time, the effect would be weaker and would last less time. So he had to keep it when he was sure he had found them all.

He had found ten spots at ten minutes, while on thirty minutes, he had found fifty. So now that he was fifty minutes since he started, he had a little over one hundred, but he still seemed to lack some.

He stopped for a few seconds, and he enabled one of his VISUALIZATION Skills to point all these areas.

He put in his mind all the patterns he had encountered until now and started "drawing" then with his VIZUALZASTION one over the other.

After ten seconds, which felt like hours for him in his current state, he had found a master pattern.

It seemed to be one strange rune of an unknown language. It seemed familiar to Shingi, but he couldn't remember where he had seen it.

With no delay, he cast HASTE on himself, and with inhuman speed, he hit all the areas of the Master Pattern in what seemed like at the same time.

He understood now that he didn't have to hit them in a specific order. Most of the points were just a ruse, but he needed only to hit a few of the patterns simultaneously.

In front of him for the first time, the invisible field appeared and looked like glass covering the tunnel.

After a few seconds, it started cracking in the areas he hit, and the cracks began spreading and looked like the web of a spider.

When the cracks covered it all, it fell apart, and its pieces started disappearing one after the other.

As this happened, Shingi jumped to the side and put his hand over his left cheek as blood started running as something cut him.

Then in front of him, out of the Shadows, appeared a figure was holding some needles at hand.

She started throwing those needles at Shingi at an incredible speed that even he at his current state was barely able to avoid.

But Shingi wasn't planning just on playing defense this time.

He used two of his Mana Seeds, which was the first time he had done this, to cast METAL HANDS and STONE SKIN.

Since he didn't have to gather the mana or move it from his Mana Pool, the spells were active almost immediately.

He started deflecting a few of the needles, and it seemed his defense was more substantial, and it dealt no damage to him.

He went into offense, and the figure adapted to it by dodging his attacks. The figure was almost as fast as he was under the effect of HASTE, so he had to finish this before the Spell ended.

He enabled his Breaking Limit state, which boosted his speed a little so he could surprise her and finish this.

He didn't use all his speed to attack her chest, and the moment she sidestepped, he moved at full pace and appeared behind her.

He then hit the back of his neck with an open arm and used some of his Light Mana, and made it to get in her.

The neck area is one of the weak spots with the least resistance against mana, so Shingi used his Light Mana to affect the figure from the inside.

He used Light Mana, so instead of dealing damage, it started acting like an anesthetic and brought the figure into a stun-like state.

He brought out some rope from his Ring and started tying the figure to keep it in place and restrict further movements.

That way, the battle ended as fast as it began, and he heard sounds of people coming from the direction of the mine entrance. They were Master Whip and his Guild members who listened to the sounds of battle. But they weren't fast enough to get there before it ended.

Shingi took a better look at the figure he just had a battle with as he couldn't with the speed they were moving.

It was a female figure.