บท 66: The Secret of the Mine

Shingi noticed a System Notification appearing that he didn't know its true meaning yet.

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Because of overuse, CHA has been set to 0 temporary for 24 hours.

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Master Whip and his Guild members reached the point where Shingi was, and even if he noticed the individual he fought, they ignored her and went towards the field.

When they didn't feel any field being there, everyone ran, with everything as fast as possible, back outside the mine to get some mining equipment they had at the ready.

Master Whip wasn't among those as he headed towards Shingi.

"What happened here? Who is she?" [Master Whip]

Shingi looked towards him as he noticed his voice slightly different from before when he talked to him. It sounded a little colder and demanding, like Shingi was one of his employees.

Shingi ignored this for now but gave him a response.

"She looks to be a guardian. You better be on guard in case there are more. I will take care of her."[Shingi]

Master Whip seems to think of something while looking at the seemingly frozen figure of the guardian of the place, but as his men were back with the pickaxes and other mining equipment they had prepared just in case, he made his way deeper into the mine.

Shingi looked towards the figure, who was still awake but seemed to be unable to move. He used a bit more of his Light mana to ensure that her stun would last enough time.

She was wearing studded leather armor, which had even studded leather sleeves and pants.

Her body type didn't have too many curves but not too little either it was pretty balanced, fitting someone that fast.

She also had a currently up hood and a leather mask covering her mouth and nose, letting only her eyes be exposed.

Her eyes were dark yellow, and their pupil wasn't a circle but a vertical line like a slit.

Shingi took her mask down to make sure if his assumptions were correct.

Now that he could see her entire face.

There was fine fur on her face, which was also around the exposed area when her mask covered her mouth and nose, but it looked like skin then. So it seemed like the mask produced some illusion while she was wearing it.

Shingi knew she was a Catfolk, one of the game's Races, and he was almost sure he knew who she was.

"Anna, I am not here to hurt you. I am a friend of your father." [Shingi]

He then tried to move this clothing collar to expose his tattoo from Dlog's Blessing.

After seeing that, Anna's eyes got wide from surprise, letting Shingi know his assumption was correct.

During his talk with Dlog, he heard about one of his children at the Mortal Realm.

She was a Catfolk and seemed to be more agile than any of the Catfolks and had taken from her father the love for shiny things like gold and gems. This affection led her to be around some strange people. Dolg had lost connection with her for a few years.

Dolg had asked Ameanum to keep his attention about her and help her, but he paid little attention since he didn't take an actual Quest out of it.

The reason he was confident that she was Anna was also because of her weapons, the needles.

Dolg spoke about Anna's mother a little also, and she seemed to have been an acupuncture practitioner, and Anna had decided to use needles to help others and protect herself.

She looked to be maybe around 20 or younger years old.

Catfolks usually live as much as humans, but since Anna was the daughter of a God, she stayed in her adult state for a longer time.

Shingi released some of his mana that was keeping her head stunned to let her speak.

"You should leave. This isn't a place you should stay for long." [Anna]

Shingi was curious what she meant by that, but he heard footsteps coming from deeper into the mine towards them.

He turned and saw Master Whip moving towards him as he was throwing up and catching a piece of mineral while moving. He seemed to be happy, as there was a broad smile on his face.

Shingi made a sign to Anna to let her know to stay still.

The Guild master got in front of the young boy but still had some distance from him, but not much.

"See? I told you there was Mithril here." [Master Whip]

He kept the silver-colored mineral towards Shingi to get a better look, but he still retained some distance.

But even from that distance, with his detection Skills, Shingi could tell what this was.

"It seems like our partnership has ended earlier than I thought. Now we don't need your little shop; we can buy everything we need with the small fortune in there." [Master Whip]

Then chuckle was heard, but it wasn't the Master Whip, the one laughing.

It was Shingi himself.

"Huh? Why are you laughing? Did you lose your mind or something?" [Master Whip]

Shingi didn't say something and just snapped his fingers.

Then from behind Master Whip, he felt something moved and turned as he felt once more the invisible field being there blocking his way back.

At that point, they heard deeper coughs into the mine and screams.

The Guild master turned towards Shingi. Shingi was already in front of him and punched the Player in the stomach.

It gave him some more time as he brought out his Dagger and created his Light Blade enchantment.

But Master Whip was high in level, so a hit like that didn't have as much effect on him; just two seconds.

Once he was back, he summoned his whip, which seemed to be a better quality Enchanted Whip than what Shingi had seen up until now from the other members of his Guild.

He started attacking Shingi, who had cast to himself HASTE and STONESKIN once more, using two more of his Mana Seeds to cast them right away.

His Breaking Limit state affected Shingi and his previous use of Haster, so he didn't have the inhuman speed he usually had, but he seemed fast enough to dodge most of his opponent's attacks.

Some hits made contact and hurt Shingi as they passed the defenses of his STONESKIN and decreased his HP, but not at a threatening level.

He had to keep feeding his STONESKIN with mana to repair it after each hit; otherwise, the next one could be his death.

He tried to focus on his Enchantment, and he would use another Mana Seed to speed things up, but he couldn't. When one used a Mana Seed to cast a Spell or Enchantment, the result wasn't at full power as a drawback of its fast creation, and he needed his Light Blade to be at full strength.

Cause he was getting hit, his casting time for finishing the blade increased as he lost focus for a few seconds.

He was close to the minute, and his HASTE was over as he finished his blade.

At that point, Master Whip had coughed some blood, creating more openings to his fighting stance.

Shingi appeared behind him as he jumped a bit to hit him at the same position he had hit Fire Whip back when they fought.

Master Whip seemed a little faster and turned, but he still got hit by the blade.

This time, though, it wasn't a fatal hit as Shingi just missed the vital point he was aiming for.

But Master Whip had a hand at his neck was blood was running from it, and he started coughing more blood.

It seemed like he had lost a lot of his stamina and wasn't able to move anymore.

Shingi knew that his attack had this effect, but the mineral Master Whip was holding.

Shingi moved at him and gave him a few more hits as he turned into particles and disappeared.

But the particles that normally would be white seemed to be greyish this time.

Shingi cast a MANA HAND and moved the mineral away from him.

It wasn't Mithril but Mana Infected Silver.

The difference between the two was the way they got created.

They infused Mithril with mana at a steady rate for an extended period, while they forcefully infused Infected Silver with mana.

This action led the created minerals to give a specific debuff to anyone in their proximity for some time.

The debuff was MANA INFECTION, and it was a nightmare for people, especially Players.

If one had the debuff for an extended period, it would make him sick, and finally, it would lead to death.

But this death differed from normal death for Players.

Typically, when dying, they would lose some experience point. Still, when dying with having MANA INFECTION, they would lose a couple of levels and even not be able to respawn for a certain period.

How many levels and how long it depended on how severe the debuff was.

Shingi checked himself and noticed some strange energy in him, but he could exterminate it using Light Mana.

Fortunately, he wasn't overexposed to it.

At that point, Anna was completely free as Shingi wasn't focusing on keeping her in place.

She was standing confused, looking at Shingi and in the direction leading deeper in the mine.

"How... how did you do that?" [Anna]

Shingi turned towards her, and he knew she wasn't referring to how he beat the high-level Player but how the field was recreated.

"It is pretty easy. I never allowed it to get fully destroyed." [Shingi]

Anna seemed confused, and Shingi explained to her what had happened.

He still thought that this could be a trap of the System, so when the field was breaking, he cast a few of his light MANA HANDS which he had CAMOUFLAGE on them to keep them nearly invisible to keep parts of the field in place.

The field didn't wholly break this way, but since he kept those parts at an angle, it couldn't regenerate before he put them back in place.

When he snapped his fingers, he had dispelled the MANA HANDS leaving everything to get back in place and let the field regenerate itself.

It surprised Anna that he could do something like that and even keep his focus during their fight.

She was even more surprised when she learned that he had no class, either.

"So now that you are free, what are your plans?" [Shingi]

Anna didn't know how to answer.

She had been in that place for so long, and the reason she tried to fight Shingi was not to allow something that dangerous to get out.

But now, she was free on the other side of the field, and the field was back in power.

The MANA INFECTION because of her Godly blood did not affect her, so she didn't have to worry about spreading it.

After a few minutes of hard thinking, she seemed to have decided.

"Can I follow you?" [Anna]

Shingi nodded and headed outside the mine.

As for the mineral that Master Whip had brought outside, Shingi put it in his Spatial Ring.

It didn't help craft, but he had to destroy it to ensure there wouldn't be a spread.

Fortunately, while in the Spatial Ring, it wouldn't affect anything else he had in there.

When he headed outside, Shingi checked around the Teleportation Circle to see if he could find anything useful.

He found some crystals, and some seemed to be not assigned to a position. He could use them in the future if he created a Teleportation Circle of his.

But he didn't find any scrolls, so he didn't have a way to Teleport back in Town. The Teleportation Circle was acting as an anchor point and not a form of transportation.

So the only way back home was by walking, but Shingi wasn't sure where they were.

But when asked, Anna seemed to know the way to the nearest Town, she remembered from her time when she was free.

So after making sure that there wasn't anything else he could take from the stuff of the Players that they left behind, they went their way towards where Anna remembered the nearest was.