บท 56: Arrival of an old friend

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STATUS

NAME: Shingi Maki

CLASS: None

PROFESSION: Scholar Master

RACE: Blessed Human

HP: 88/88

SP: 45/45

MP: 42/42

STR: 12

AGI: 14

END: 16

INT: 16

CHA: 3

MANA POOL: Earth and Light Element

SKILLS

Base Rank: STEALTH, MARTIAL ART

Master Rank: VISUALIZATION, MANA MANIPULATION, MANA SENSE, PERCEPTION, IMPROVISED THROW WEAPON, SMITHING, ACCELERATION, GLASSBLOWING

SPELLS

Ungraded: FILTH EATER, MINOR ILLUSION, LIGHT

Low Grade: MANA HAND, ROCK THROW, CAMOUFLAGE,

Base Grade: INVISIBILITY, DOME OF SILENCE, MANA DOUBLE - LIGHT ELEMENT, MANA DOUBLE - EARTH ELEMENT

BLESSINGS: Blessing of Beliss, Blessing of Dlog, Angel's Boon

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His HP, SP, and MP had improved even if his stats didn't change. His crafting abilities have reached another level as his GLASSBLOWING was now at Master Rank, but he could feel that even his SMITHING had improved, even if it was already at Master Rank.

But the most significant change in him was his mana control.

Before, he felt some restriction when he was manipulating mana, but not that great to restrict him, or so he thought.

His manipulation was four times faster than before, but this didn't mean his casting time was four times faster, as there were other factors. He felt his mana without using his MANA SENSE circling in him and could tell how much he had without the System's help.

When he officially used the Master Rank MANA SENSE, he didn't notice any difference until he saw some writing on each type of mana source.

It had written the element(s) of each source he could find with his Skill and gave him a percent number. He did some tests, and it didn't take him long to discover what that number was about. It seemed to be how compatible the mana was with his Mana Tree, so the ones with the highest tree would help grow his Mana Tree faster and safer as if one kept feeding incompatible mana to his Mana Tree would cause damage to it at some point.

Even with his STEALTH and MARTIAL ART, he could feel them getting strengthened somewhat. It was like something clicked in his mind, and he started using his skills differently, in a better and more potent form.

He even felt like he could handle his Breaking-Limit state better now than before but wouldn't know the difference until he tried it.

But for now, he left it to test it later as he stored his Class Crystal to his Spatial Ring, that fortunately, still had with him. He would not use it yet as he wanted to learn more Spells. Of course, if he used it now and got a Mage Class, it would make learning new Spells easier, but he wanted to get the best class he could with using the crystal, so he had to improve himself as much as he could before using it. That way, the chance to get a rare class would be more significant.

He stood up and stretched a little to get his body ready to move on. He felt little pain by moving, but he noticed the herbs and elixirs had decreased it to almost nothing.

He headed towards the kitchen, where he found three individuals drinking tea.

Of course, two of them were Aneta and Karemon, while the other figure was a big fellow.

He was close to two and a half meters tall if he stood, but he was currently sitting to fit in the house and not hit the ceiling, as it wasn't that high. He wore a hood that would cover his face, but he didn't have it up now—no facial hairs or even hair on his face, which was white-gray. His eyes were of an utterly dark color.

He was a Half-Giant, and more specifically, a Half-Stone Giant.

When Shingi entered the room, all three turned towards him, welcomed him, and offered to sit with them for tea, which Shingi accepted.

There was some silence as they seemed to enjoy the tea, but the first one to speak was Karemon. But he didn't talk towards Shingi but the Half-Giant.

"So now that he is awake, are you going to introduce yourself?" [Karemon]

The Half-Giant turned towards Karemon and then towards Shingi, like waiting for something.

Shingi sighed as he put his tea glass down.

"Well, I guess it is time to give you a name. Let's go with Volig. Not so different from before, but enough to be considered as a new one." [Shingi]

The Half-Giant, who was now known as Volig, was nobody else but the reincarnated Varic. It was a surprise for both of them when he turned into a Half-Giant but didn't ruin their plans. It was suitable as the Half-Giant one had control of Earth Mana by default and had access to a mana pool producing Earth Element mana like Half Demons had access to Dark-Element mana. Earth Element was helpful during crafting, as it could strengthen metals and other materials coming from mining and such.

He hadn't given him back then a name as he wanted to consider it and wasn't needed to be decided right at that point.

Volig had traveled somewhat similarly as Wild Tycoon and Little Phoenix but had to use more Teleportation stations to be safer so that none was following him and keep his tracks clear from others. Of course, this took more time and resources to spend, but he had more than enough savings as a Master Blacksmith. Of course, he had everything in Spatial Rings and similar trinkets.

Volig ran his hand through his beard but then realized he didn't have one; some habits are hard to forget. He did this movement when thinking or approved something, and in this case, he seemed to like his new name.

Shingi then got a notification from the System that Volig was now one of his students.

"Well, I guess it is nice meeting you... Volig. But can you say what you are doing here?" [Karemon]

Volig explained as he had gone through the story they were going to use, which wasn't far from the truth. He didn't mention being a reincarnated Dwarf but had met the Blessed One who helped Shingi and suggested getting into this town to help around. He said that this Blessed One had helped him a lot in the past, and it was the least he could do.

Shingi gathered he came into town almost a week ago, and these past days he had helped manage the shop and its order, which was easy for him even at his new body as nothing too complicated got ordered.

His skills got reset, but it wouldn't be too long to rank them up as they used to and even higher possible with his experience.

Aneta seems impressed as she knew that Half-Giants were a rare sight, but not as rare as Half-Demons but close. The System considered Giants the same as monsters, but there were cases where they were like NPCs, but they kept a distance from the outside world. A Giant like that to have a child with one of another race wasn't an ordinary event.

At that point, some more people joined them in the kitchen and were none other than the Player students of Shingi. They joined them at having some tea as Aneta and Karemon left, as there wasn't much space for everyone, and they had things to take care of. They wished, though, to Shingi to be back in full health soon.

So in the house were only Shingi, and his students, since Garry had left.

Silence returned to the room as none seemed to know what to ask. But Shingi was the one to speak first.

"I am sure you all are curious about what happened, but what you need to know is we have a new enemy. He is stronger than what we can face now, but we will beat him and get back Annoue." [Shingi]

As he said that, he cast a MINOR ILLUSION to create a small figure of Mikhail for everyone to see. The spell could work with his VISUALIZATION Skill, so it was a pretty detailed one.

"He had used magic more powerful than what I have heard about, and I don't think even Master can face him and win or even survive. I was lucky that he underestimated me and had shown some interest in me. Although I am still not sure why he came here, it seems to have something to do with Aella." [Shingi]

Volig seemed surprised by the mention of the Goddess's name, but the players didn't respond to it. It was typical since they probably weren't interested in the different Gods of the Game.

Shingi explained who Aella was and her task without mentioning it was part of a Quest. He then described the meeting with Mikhail and everything he learned over his time researching his memories.

He asked them how their training went while he was away. All of them were close to level 20. Mizuneko, even if he didn't have the help of the Egroeg cause he wasn't listening to him, had progressed to Air Mana manipulation well but wasn't yet at the point of making it one of his Elements. Wild Tycoon had raised her RAGE Skill to 41, making it considered barely being Master Rank.

Hineko mainly had raised his level and POTION MAKING Skill as he was the one who made the elixirs that they used on Shingi. Aneta had helped with their creation since she was an Alchemist herself.

But Little Phoenix had the most significant progress of them all, as not only was she level 19, but she also had earned the first element of her Mana Tree.

Now her Mana Tree was of Dark Element and even had ten Mana Seeds, but no Mana Fruits.

It impressed Shingi as he hadn't given her all the steps to do it, so her making by herself was impressive, especially since she was a beginner in these games.

Shingi was happy with their progress, but he was ready to speed things up.

"Well, then I think at four days, we are going to be ready for our next operation." [Shingi]

Everyone turned towards him, waiting to hear what he was referring to.

"It is time to deal with the Dungeon's Boss." [Shingi]