From Player To Npc

Chapter 10: Blue Moon Festival Part 1

Shingi was confused about the whole situation. He checked his system and found that really Spectator mode was available to him as an option but was currently OFFLINE.

He stood up and went towards the window to get some free air to clear his mind, and then he noticed something as he passed from the mirrora specific tattoo over his neck.

Right away, he opened his status window, and he actually noticed some changes.

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STATUS

NAME: Shingi Maki

CLASS: None

PROFESSION: Scholar Master

RACE: Half-Human Half ????

HP: 50/50

SP: 20/20

STR: 10

AGI: 10

END: 10

INT: 16

CHA: 4

Skills: VISUALIZATION (Low rank), MANA MANIPULATION (Low Rank), MANA SENSE (Low Rank), PERCEPTION (Master Rank)

Blessings: Blessing of ??????, Blessing of Dlog

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His PERCEPTION skill that hadn't been unlocked yet by the system was available now, and it was at the Master Rank nonetheless.

He now had the Blessing of Dlog, the God Of Wealth, the one he used when he was with Varic to store the coins given to him. He then focused on it, and on his hand appeared a familiar fist-size pouch full of coins.

He then stored them back and raised his collar to hide the tattoo. Fortunately, it wasn't that hard to hide.

At that point, he kept repeating in his mind everything that happened, and he came to some conclusions.

It seemed that his Player account and NPC were somehow connected, and skills that he used at his player account during spectator mode seemed to be unlocked at the NPC. For example, his perception was now at Master Rank but didn't have access to Eagle Eyes. Also, he didn't seem to have unlocked all the skills he used as he had used his Stealth skill while reaching the two girls he met but not too much. So it seemed he had to use the skill to some extent to unlock them, and since he used his Eagle Eyes, which was using his Perception at 100%, it made sense.

That connection wasn't limited to skills since even a thing like a Blessing was transferable like that.

But he wasn't sure what allowed him to enable the SPECTATOR MODE and what was changing it from OFFLINE to ONLINE, but he thought of one possibility.

'It should have to do with those two girls.' [Shingi]

Him spawning right at them and his SPECTATOR MODE changing to OFFLINE when it seemed that they had logged out wasn't something he could ignore but couldn't think what the connection was.

But even so, that was something he could work with. Now he had a possible way to get himself stronger even faster. If he could go back to being his player character even for a limited time, it could help him gather the workforce he needed for his future plans and unlock some useful skills way faster.

Now that everything made some sense, he started back to his training. After discussing with Varic, he remembered a type of training, which was useful in increasing the skill at its early levels.

He started meditating once more. He was back to the inner space himself, where he was preparing his Mana Pool foundation. Still, he focused on a place not too far from, where there were four buildings, one being a big manor and the other three being small huts.

Each of those buildings was representing one of his skills. Of course, the hut ones were his VISUALIZATION, MANA MANIPULATION, and MANA SENSE, while the big Manor was his PERCEPTION.

As he focused on one of the huts, he noticed a sign at its entrance written on it MANA MANIPULATION. He focused on the door, and it opened. In there, he noticed a blue figure seemingly created by a mist that was sitting in the middle of the room in a stance similar to one he was at when meditating to increase his MANA MANIPULATION.

This figure was his inner self using the skill representing by the building. At each of the buildings, there was a similar figure doing different actions depending on the skill represented by the building.

But there were some key differences between the figure and how they were using the skill and how the real him was using those skills and noticing there was a way to learn the core of the skills and Rank them up faster. But this was mostly usable on the earlier level as at later the differences were getting even harder to notice, and after a while, there weren't any as the user was left on his own. In most cases, the inner self of someone they were proficient up to Base Rank, but there were exceptions.

For example, a professional Martial Artist in real life using that way could notice differences for the first 70 levels for his MARTIAL ART Combat Skill. Simultaneously, a normal person would be lucky if he was noticing differences for up to level 30.

And so Shingi focused on those differences, and after some unknown time, he moved to his MANA SENSE hut. After being happy with finding what he was looking for, he stopped his focus. He wasn't very interested in raising this VISUALIZATION because he thought his Mana Skills were more important for now.

He looked around, and even if it seemed that he was doing this for possible hours, not a lot of time has actually passed, one of the benefits of this kind of training.

And so he changed his stance and started focusing on his MANA MANIPULATION training.

Fortunately, his 'trip' seemed to have taken care of any mental strain we had, and he didn't have to be afraid of affecting his future progress.

And so, after almost an hour, the System showed him a notification.

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SKILL RANKED UP

The skill MANA MANIPULATION has been ranked up to Base Rank.

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Reading this, a smile appeared on the face of Shingi. His way of manipulating mana after it reached base rank was way faster, and he could manipulate even more at the same time. Still, there was also something new that he noticed that he was able to do now.

Before, he could feel the Mana around him and draw at him. Still, he couldn't pick what type of mana he could draw and whatnot, but now not only could he make that choice, but he could also slightly feel if it was multiple types of mana at one source.

Even if he could tell most of the time the mana source, that didn't mean that it was just the mana of it. For example, he could feel that he was drawing the nearby river's mana, but he couldn't feel that part of the fish's mana was part of it as it was at a way small amount.

That could affect him in the future, especially now that he wanted to create his Mana Pool as the mana he had to use should be pure of one source or as much as pure as possible.

But now, with his Ranked up MANA MANIPULATION, he could separate the different types of mana.

But him feeling those different types of mana was taking too much focus, and that was because his MANA SENSE was still at Low Rank. And that is why he next focused on Ranking it up.

While looking at his inner self using the MANA SENSE, he found that instead of drawing the Mana towards him and examining it, he should let out part of his Mana almost like sonar. The interaction with the mana around it would give him the information he needed.

And trying that way was truly less mentally heavy but not that easy at the start, but he was slowly getting used to it. After a while and using the only big mana source on the room, his sister, as a target, had actually made it work, and the System responded to it.

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SKILL RANKED UP

The skill MANA SENSE has been ranked up to Base Rank.

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When the notification appeared, his senses towards the mana around him increased, and the task was way easier to handle.

After doing some experiments with both his Mana skills, he was completely sure that he had what needed for now for the creation of his Mana Pool as he was able to feel the different Mana that he was drawing and even separate them and manipulate only specific ones in a fast enough pace for now.

And so he decided to relax for the rest of the night as he went back to his bed next to his sister.

He still couldn't sleep, but he could relax his mind and plan the tasks for tomorrow.

Shingi wasn't someone who could relax doing nothing completely as he always needed a task at hand. Even his dreams in real life were about him working on one of the projects he was currently part of or the different scenarios, a quest he was ready to take, and more things like that.

And so the hours passed until it was finally morning and came the time that Annoue woke up.

As they went their way back to the kitchen, Shingi noticed that he was in a deep sleep as they passed their father's room. With his new Perception, he could hear his snoring, which was heavier than the ones when they found him sleeping at the shop.

Annoue asked if Shingi wanted to continue their training after having breakfast, but Shingi had another idea.

"Why don't we go around the town today. On our way back yesterday, I noticed that they seem to prepare for something." [Shingi]

Hearing that Annoue seemed to remember something like it had completely slipped her mind.

"Oh yeah. Today is the first day of the festival. No wonder Father is still sleeping. He never opens the store during these kinds of events." [Annoue]

After giving it some thought Annoue continue speaking.

"Well, then we should make our way to check things out, but we should be back before he wakes up, or we will get into trouble" [Annoue]

And that was more than enough for Shingi. Even if he had planned on going to their hideout for his Mana Pool creation, it was quite some distance away. So he had to make sure that there wasn't any place nearby suitable for what he needed.

And so they made their ways out and towards the market area, which wasn't too far from their house.

A big river separated the town, and one part was called High Town, where the nobles of the town were living, and the fancy shops were also the Old Castle of the king. And the other part was called Low Town that most of the town's population was living at, and the market area was.

The two parts were connected by two bridges, one at the South of the High Town and the other at the East. Surrounding the high town was a tall stone wall that seemed older than the one surrounding the Low Town.

And as they reached pretty much the Low Town center, which was also the center of the market area, they noticed quite a few of the townspeople working around preparing stands and the different event areas.

Shingi noticed something else that he considered strange as they reached the market area. There was a group of children between his and Annoue's age. The moment one of them noticed them, he said something to the rest, and after the rest looked towards them, they stopped what they were doing, and they moved away.

After seeing that, he focused his senses, and he noticed something hidden to the face of the rest of the NPCs when they noticed them.

A sign of fear and pity in the way they looked towards them.

Shingi was confused about it and started thinking of the reason behind it but didn't want to ask Annoue, who didn't seem to notice anything at all as she was looking left and right with amazement at her eyes.

'Could the reason behind it being part of the reason our Mother disappeared?' [Shingi]

After he heard about their Mother's disappearance, he was certain that this was the reason behind their father's drinking problem.

Him having a shop wasn't something that anyone could do and most likely wasn't always as it was currently. Even if he had visited this town in the past, he hadn't visited all the shops, so he didn't remember if the specific shop was there or what state it was.

But her disappearance shouldn't be something that happened too long ago; otherwise, no matter who he was, their Father wouldn't be able to keep his store open unless he was a Master blacksmith or better for which Shingi, for some reason, was unsure of it being the case.

But he didn't pay further attention to this as he couldn't do anything and had more things on his mind. And so as they looked around and as he pretty much dragged Annoue around or tried to as he wasn't strong enough to actually doing it, but she followed his requests none the less he found what he looked for.

At a place just a little outside of the market area, there seemed to be an old storehouse that seemed to be abandoned. It also seemed to be damaged as it had a big hole in its ceiling, perfect for the moonlight to pass through it.

It wasn't too far from their house, like a twenty-minute walk, and it was far away from the festival area, so he shouldn't draw any unnecessary attention.

After checking this place, they made their way back, and to their luck, their Father was still sleeping.

So they went back to their room, and Shingi shared with Annoue the improvements he had used on his meditate stance.

"Should we continue on that kind of training. Seeing the Lights make me sleepy." [Annoue]

Shingi wanted to slap Annoue since everything seemed to go so smooth for her, but he kept himself from doing that.

"Well, we can't work on anything else yet. You should increase your proficiency on the skills we learned yesterday as far as you can, and I promise you that after the festival we gonna change the type of training" [Shingi]

Annoue didn't seem to like the answer of her brother but didn't say anything. Even if, in reality, they didn't know each other for long, but since he was born, she was always taking care of him, and she always dreaded the day he would wake up, and they spend time together. Even if she had to do these dull things, she was happy to do them since it was something that she was doing with her little brother.

Not too much time passed, and Shingi noticed that Annoue was at her trance state again.

'I am guessing this is what she was referring to as making her sleepy' [Shingi]

And so Shingi went to do his own thing. Since he already took care of his Mana Skills Rank to be high enough, he started making sure that all parts of the plan were ready. He started mentally preparing his path toward the storehouse as also started training his body for it.

He didn't have any problem moving around, but that didn't mean that he could easily move around stealthily, and this was something that he needed.

He also kept checking his Spectator Mode option if it was getting back to be ONLINE, but there wasn't any change on it for now.

And after quite some hours of training, he had actually unlocked the STEALTH skill and had even reached it to Base Rank.

At that point, it was close to dinner time, and it wasn't too long from when the moon would change to Blue.

Fortunately, his sister seemed to get tired from her training and had ended her trance not too much time after he finished his training, and she went her way to prepare some dinner. It seemed this time her skills weren't changed too much as she got her MANA MANIPULATION at Base Rank and her MANA SENSE was still at Base Rank.

At his point, Shingi wouldn't be surprised if she told him that he reached Master Rank at one of her skills, but fortunately, that didn't happen.

After having another type of soup but this type not as tasteful as they had yesterday, they decided to go to bed.

What surprised Shingi was that their father didn't seem to have left his room during the whole day.

And so after they made their way to their bed and after waiting some time and made sure that Annoue was really sleeping, Shingi, with the help of his STEALTH skill, started making his way toward the old storehouse.