章 11: Blue Moon Festival Part 2

Using his PERCEPTION and MANA SENSE to their full extent to detect anyone who could be in his path and using his STEALTH skill, he made his way to the storehouse at a slower pace than usual, as it took him 30 minutes to get there.

But he was sure that no one noticed him, and not a single person was nearby. Especially with his PERCEPTION's current Rank, he was confident he couldn't miss someone. But he noticed something interesting on his way there.

There were quite an amount of players taking part in the festival. All of them seemed to be new players since almost none was wearing anything else but the starting equipment of their class.

It would make sense if they were in a beginner's town, but this wasn't the case. Even if there was a chance for a town to change at becoming a starting town, Carda didn't fit the requirements of one as far as Shingi has noticed. For example, a starting town needed to have a market area, which Carda had, but players could use things like new equipment or potions. In contrast, Carda's market mostly had general items people could use in town.

Even if the local blacksmith shop was running, it wouldn't be enough. In his walk with Annoue, he didn't find any other shop that players would typically be interested in. He was sure that no player would be interested in getting in a shop to pick between four different types of cheese?

But he didn't pay too much attention to it and focused on the task at hand. Finally, he got inside after reaching the storehouse and making his way around it to ensure no one else was around.

As he thought, the hole in the ceiling was at an almost perfect angle for his needs. He just needed to be in a height cause it wasn't reaching the ground cause of its angle, but he could use some boxes around.

After 5 minutes of moving boxes, he put a cloth over them and then undressed and sat on the boxes. He got as comfortable as possible and then sat on his meditation stance and manipulated the surrounding mana.

He could feel the moonlight mana and inside it, barely feeling something else, but it took more of his focus than he thought to notice it. This mana differed from the rest of the mana he had felt. He could almost get a smell out of it.

It was a familiar smell, but he wasn't sure where he had smelled it before.

He manipulated more and more of it and cleaned it of any other type of mana within it. So he had a good amount of mana for the first step of his Mana Pool creation.

When someone created his Mana Pool, the first step was to create a Mana Seed through the mana that he was gathering itself and plant it in the place he prepared in his inner place. After that, they had to use the same type of mana to strengthen the Mana Seed to become a plant, and at a point, it would turn to a tree.

He had to create the seed and 'feed' it to grow to be a plant by using the same type of mana. After that point, other types of mana would help strengthen it unless their type is the opposite of the one that created the Mana Seed.

For example, the sea or lakes' mana wouldn't strengthen one seed created by mana from a Volcano area. Still, it would benefit from anything of the earth element just of lesser effect. Any from fire or magma itself would be the most beneficial.

He wasn't afraid because he was trying to create his Mana Pool from a somehow special type of mana since it was pretty close to nature's mana, so anything like that should work.

So, he focused his mind on the seed's creation. In the past, one project he had started and stopped before he found out about VR gaming was botany. It had researched different plants and their seeds, so he thought about what could fit his needs, although he wasn't sure how much difference it would make.

He had yesterday given it some thought over it. He knew that the tree needed to have many seeds on their branches, as they were representing an amount of his mana that he could pick up and use right away for his casting. Of course, the tree itself would store mana, but drawing mana from it would be slower than using the seeds or fruits that had grown on the branches on his Mana Pool tree. Of course, fruits contained more mana than the seed ones, but restoring them wasn't fast progress, so people used them at particular times.

He focused on creating his Mana Seed in the shape he had decided. After an unknown amount of time, which for Shingi would feel like days passed, as he finally finished his seed and put it into the hole he prepared after finishing it with some of the Blue Moon's mana he had left aside for this. After that, he filled the void using more mana than he manipulated, and he took a break.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw something unexpected. There was an unfamiliar person just a meter away from him, currently frozen and starting towards him.

A young boy dressed in simple clothes and simple leather armor over it and an enormous bow compared to his size. He had an empty of arrows quiver, but instead of arrows, it had some sticks in there that would be most suitable for a campfire.

Also, Shingi noticed the aura of a Player coming from him, which wasn't unexpected by his way of dressing.

The boy saw Shingi open his eyes; he slowly took steps back while he kept looking towards his way.

But Shingi didn't stay still as he made his move and threw a small piece of wood over at the entrance of the storehouse that seemed to make one of its planks loose enough as it fell and landed right behind the young boy, barely missing his head. With his Master Rank PERCEPTION and his expert knowledge, this kind of throw was a piece of cake that even the System had to say something for it.

================================

SKILL LEARNED

The skill IMPROVISED THROW WEAPON has been learned at Low Rank

================================

"You shouldn't make any other unnecessary movements, or the next one would land on your head." [Shingi]

Hearing that, the young boy just froze in place. Even if he was a beginner and low level, he understood that in front of him was someone of skill, as he could tell that the shot happened with little effort from the person in front of him.

So Shingi stood up and wore his underpants, at least as it seemed weird to be completely naked in front of a person. Then he started his way toward the boy without letting his gaze get away from him for even a second.

During that short time, the young boy didn't even dare to move a single muscle and could easily see the fear in his eyes, like he was facing some monster in front of him.

'I can see why some consider it easy to mess with beginners' [Shingi]

Shingi didn't know that the player wasn't just afraid because of his shot, but because of his eyes. They were currently their typical red, which was unusual for a normal NPC. Still, they have presently had a blueish color circle around his iris. Also, an unknown tattoo of a letter of a strange language faded away when he opened his eyes. He didn't notice it.

He stood in front of the young boy, looked up at him, and spoke in his most commanding voice since it was a little taller than him.

"SIT." [Shingi]

The young boy didn't give it a second thought and maybe not even a first one as he sat down right when Shingi told him to.

"Who are you, and what do you do here?" [Shingi]

The person swallowed some of his salivae and started explaining what happened.

As expected, he was one of the Blessed Ones, meaning a Player, and he got in the town just today. His party had to get away to take care of some business of their own at the last moment. So he left him alone, but since he was never much of a people person, especially unfamiliar people, and without one of his friends at his side, he looked around before he got away himself. Of course, he meant logging out by getting away, but the player, whose in-game name was Hineko, seemed to know that it was easier to use this kind of term when talking to NPCs.

But he didn't talk to a normal NPC but one that used to be a player himself, so even if he was hiding some stuff by using other terms, he knew the real meaning of what he said.

After looking around, he came across the storehouse. He checked it out, and that is when he noticed Shingi, and not too much time after, Shingi opened his eyes.

Shingi also found the perfect chance to investigate out a bit.

"So why were you and those friends of yours were here if you aren't interested in the festival?" [Shingi]

The young Hineko was unsure how to respond to this question, and after giving it some thought, he spoke.

"We are here to explore the dungeon and increase our strength." [Hineko]

If he had heard that yesterday, he would be sure of what he meant as the game had nothing referred to as Dungeon outside the Tower. After talking with Varic, it wasn't the case anymore.

It seemed some time ago, entrances to dungeons started randomly appearing and disappearing around in different places, having unique challenges and monsters similar to what you would face in the Tower. None was sure the reason behind that phenomenon, but some thought it had something to do with the Dark Guild and them, not people letting in the Tower.

'Maybe that is how the developers handled it, but I still don't understand how they haven't solved the problem called Dark Guild after that much time.' [Shingi]

He kept thinking it over but then noticed the boy in front of him looking at him like he was expecting something. And so, as he put a smirk on his face and took his most menacing look, he spoke.

"Well, little boy, tell me what exactly you will say if anyone asks what you did today?" [Shingi]

Hearing that, Hineko knew what he meant and responded right away.

"I checked the stands of the festival, then went to my room at the local inn and spent the rest of the night there." [Hineko]

Shingi widened his smile, put his hand over Hineko's shoulder, and focused on a specific skill.

His MANA MANIPULATION.

He used it on this special aura he detected from Players as he was curious what it would do.

He usually would encounter resistance by a human being in manipulating its mana. Still, the one in front of him seemed too afraid to put some resistance actively, and despite his passive resistance, he could tell that wouldn't be too much since he was low level.

He drew out some of his mana and released it to the environment, which didn't have a visual effect but affected Hineko himself by getting a somewhat weaker feeling.

"And I hope you understand what happens if you say something else. And believe me, I have my mark on you now." [Shingi]

Hineko seemed too afraid of what he heard. So he didn't think of checking his System for any debuffs or signs of a mark from someone.

Even if his class didn't have a Mana Pool, the special aura unique to Players, as far as Shingi could tell, seemed to contain some Mana that he could use for that purpose.

"Yes... yes, of course." [Hineko]

And so Shingi, he pulled his hand and got a little less menacing and spoke again.

"So now stand up and go. And return in five days or otherwise..." [Shingi]

He didn't continue his phrase, but the boy's imagination in front of him got crazy while thinking what he meant. And so he right away stood up and ran away.

And so Shingi, after making sure that he moved away, went back, focusing on feeding his Mana Seed with mana. Still, this time, he kept using his PERCEPTION and MANA SENSE, just making sure that nothing like that repeats itself.

Fortunately, the rest of the night was with no further accidents like that. Still, since he wasn't fully just focused on manipulating mana to feed his Mana Seed, his progress was slower. Still, by his estimation, he could make it in time.

He still had two more days, and most likely next days, the quantity of the mana in the moonlight should be more so he could help balance things out.

Around dawn as Shingi spent some time meditating and made sure everything was ok with his body and mana seed. He then made his way back home and to his bed next to his sister, who was still sleeping.

He noticed their father was awake in the kitchen, focusing on something on the table. Shingi was curious about what he focused on. Still, he seemed like a man wanting his own space. He respected that, so he made his way around easy enough cause of his STEALTH skill and cause his father wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings.

As he started laying down on the bed, he started progressing on everything that happened today and made some adjustments to his plans.

If someone looked at the face of Shingi currently, he would notice that in his most of the times serious face, there was now a smile of satisfaction.

And so the first day of the festival ended for Shingi.