From Player To Npc

Chapter 4: Mental Training

With the help of his new sister, Shingi had finally finished his lunch, which was a very bizarre one. Firstly he was fed by someone, which hasn't happened ever again. Even when he was a baby, his parents never treated him like that. Also, the food had a good taste. It wasn't the tastiest he ever had as there were limits in the food in-game tastes. Most had almost no taste, and only high quality and expensive ones had a taste. But now, he was tasting something that tastes close to what he would be in real life, although it wasn't one of the expensive high-quality foods.

After finishing, he was brought back to his bed; this time, his sister was the one who got him there.

He noticed that Annoue 'princess carried' him, which was another awkward moment of the day, without any effort. His body was small and probably didn't have a lot of weight, but it was an impressive feat for a young girl like that.

After he was back to his bed, Annoue sat at the chair on the desk that the mirror he had noticed before was and started brushing her hair.

Even though he wasn't left alone as he hoped, Shingi started his plan. First of all, he had to see what his current situation was with his new body.

He couldn't do any physical training for now, so his only option was a mental one. He had decided to go the road of magic this time, so his mental power was a must.

Magic users' weapon was, of course, their spells, and to use spells, you had to fulfill some requirements.

First of all, you have to use the correct components. Spells have three types of components, and a spell can have any combination of those types.

The first component is chanting some words. Depending on the spell's Grade, the chant would be longer, so it would take more time, but there were ways to get around it. Chant or Arcane words weren't always needed for the spell to be cast, but they were bringing the spell to its real power.

The second component is moving your body, most times just your hands, and making certain gestures. Same as with the chant, the higher-graded spells having more complicating motions, but here there were also some shortcuts in some cases.

The third component needed from some spells was specific materials, which would turn into energy that the spell required to power itself.

No matter the spell, it always needed mana. Mana is referred to as the Mages' stamina since if one depleted his; it was the same as losing all of his stamina. He would be tired enough that moving would be hard or even impossible and being in an Incapacitated-like condition.

So the first thing he needed to do is to create his Mana Pool. But to do that, he needed to increase his INT stat. Even the worst magic practitioner had at least 12 INT, and as far as he understood, it was one of the requirements to unlock his Mana Pool.

Even if he had passed that amount of INT in the past, he had never tried to unlock one; it was impossible since he was a Warrior back then. But even though he hasn't experienced himself opening a Mana Pool, he has heard about it by other NPCs.

Players don't need to unlock their Mana Pool since they start with it by choosing to play as a Mage, so the system takes care of it and gives them a basic one to start with, but for the NPCs, that wasn't the case. There are NPC guilds like the Adventurer guild, where players and NPCs are recruited and sometimes trained depending on their potential. The majority of NPCs that aren't ordinary people are part of at least a guild.

As far as Shingi remembered depending on their potential as an NPC, the time needed to unlock their Mana Pool varied. A normal Potential one required a month, one with great potential two weeks, and the rare ones were a matter of hours.

Even though he couldn't see his potential, he had more knowledge than any of those beginners. He was part of the team that created the game, even if he was just a tester. He spent even days discussing this kind of information with the game NPCs to understand the mechanics from both views. So he should be considered at least like one with great potential.

And so he started focusing his mind on that information and tried to picture the NPC magic practitioner, with whom he was mostly discussing this kind of stuff, explaining him all.

A ball of mist appeared and started getting shaped in a face in the middle of the room, hovering in the air. The mist seemed to be visible by Shingi only as there was no reaction from Annoue as the room wasn't that big, not to notice something like a mist ball getting shaped at the middle of it. When the head finished taking a rough form of a head, two notification windows appeared in front of Shingi.

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SKILL LEARNED

The skill VISUALIZATION has been unlocked at Low Rank.

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INT increased by 1

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'Ok, I didn't think this would be that easy. I knew that VISUALIZATION is one of the easiest and basic skills, but this was fast. Also, the INT reward was a pleasant surprise.' [Shingi]

Since his new skill had a Rank Low, that meant his system worked the same as any NPC. If it worked the same as a player, his Rank would be represented by a number as it would be more of a skill level than a Rank.

Shingi knew that there are ways to raise your stats. He was aware of some of them but he didn't think he would fulfill one so soon and most of all for INT, a stat he had the least amount of knowledge on how to increase other than the new unknown stat of CHA.

But never the less this kind of surprise is more than welcomed since he needed his INT to increase either way.

So after closing the notification windows, he went back, focusing on his VISUALIZATION floating head. Since this was only a visual illusion, he couldn't make the head talk to say the information he needed, or most specifically, he couldn't yet. His VISUALIZATION was of Low Rank so that it could be only a visual thing. Still, as far as he was increasing his Rank and proficiency on it, he could change to make multiple objects simultaneously. Also, he could make sounds and be able to make others see and hear his VISUALIZATION. But that would need him to supply mana to the Illusion, which he currently couldn't do. The current VISUALIZATION was close to what would be considered a spell. Still, it didn't need any mana as it was more like an illusion created by the imagination of Shingi than an actual spell-created Illusion.

'Ok, it will take some time to increase the Rank of VISUALIZATION to what we need, so let's start grinding it.' [Shingi]

Shingi focused once more on the head as it started expanding as the rest of the body started being created little by little. In the next half an hour or so, it took the form of a humanoid creature and, most specifically, of an Elf.

Although the general shape was acceptable to understand what it was, there were many details in the clothes and body far from the original. Something expected because of the Low Rank and proficiency of the VISUALIZATION.

As he finished the shaping and taking a break for a minute or so, he focused back and made the Elf landing on the floor and walking around the room.

At first, its movements were many mechanics like of a broken robot. Sometimes he wasn't even moving forward or hovering little in the air. Still, as time passed, its movements became more lifelike. Some correction on his general appearance started happening. So he continued for the next few hours until it was dinner time. Once more, he was at the table to eat with his sister's help, who feeds him once more.

This time only the two of them were at the table. Their father was nowhere to be seen. Although he was curious about it, Shingi didn't ask as he wanted to end with his dinner to go back focusing on his training. Even while eating, he gave mental commands on his VISUALIZATION Elf. Still, he was getting distracted by his sister, so he couldn't entirely focus on his training at dinner time.

But even if he couldn't raise the Rank of his VISUALIZATION, he got some notifications from the system.

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Restored 1 STR

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Restored 1 AGI

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Restored 1 END

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He could feel his stats changing slowly even when he was taking breaks, but it was at such a slow rate that the system wasn't even considered them as a full point until now. But there were two of his stats that he wasn't feeling any change like that, and of course, that was his highest stat INT and the unknown stat CHA.

He has passed many years in the VR headsets, and later in the capsule, he got his senses to notice the slightest change on his avatar, which was a great way of finding possible bugs, so feeling those subtle changes on his stats were clear as day to him.

After the system gave him those points, he could feel those three stats continued increasing but at a slightly slower rate now. But this didn't discourage him since he couldn't do something about it now. He continued his VISUALIZATION training up as he was brought back to his bed. When he was ready to take a break to clear his mind, he got another increase to his INT, bringing him to the number he needed of 12 INT.

He was surprised when he got 1 point on INT by learning VISUALIZATION. Getting one for training on it was also unexpected.

'Could it because of my currently low stats, so requirements to increase them are way low?' [Shingi]

He knew that any training methods weren't able to be used more than once and required the stat you trained on to be on a specific range.

An example would be lifting stones, or small boulders would increase its STR of someone with low STR, but someone who has a high STR would be a waste of time. Some are other requirements, like being exclusive to a specific class and useless to others. That way, there were restrictions to make a max at all stats, but there were ways to pass them, but not everyone had the resources, time, or even talent to pass that.

Even Shingi, with all his knowledge of the game, couldn't max all his stats, but he never put his hard on it as he would have to take some unnecessary risks.

He put all that at the back of his mind as he reached one of his goals to finish the first step for increasing his power.

Now that he has 12 INT, he had fulfilled the minimum requirement to unlock his Mana Pool.

Of course, that was easier said than done. As his Mana Pool wasn't something that he didn't have access to and had to open the way, so much as he had to create it.

There are different types of mana, depending on their source. Some spells can be used only by specific types of mana or, more specifically, certain Elements of mana.

Creating a Mana Pool, he would store mana that leads and also starting producing some.

Even if one could typically have only one Mana Pool, that didn't mean that he couldn't change the one he started with but once changed, then changing again would be even more challenging. Each time one decided to change his Mana Pool was dangerous; it could lead to death, a light punishment of failure.

One of the worst punishments for failing to change a Mana Pool that Shingi was aware of was opening a portal for a High-Level Demon Lord. This lead to the destruction of a few villages and towns. Of course, that was something rare to happen. It only occurred to that player because he tried to get a Blood Mana pool using Dragon blood. This action would lead to creating the top of the top Mana Pool. Still, not even high Grand Masters Arcane users NPCs would consider themselves capable of controlling a Mana Pool like that.

But in his current state, Shingi didn't have access to something that crazy. He wouldn't even consider trying something like that as he was aware of his limits somewhat. So while thinking of mana's possible sources, he could have access to a voice was heard.

"Look, little bro. It is full moon today" [Annoue]

As he turned his head toward his sister, who had opened the only window of the room, he could see in the sky the moon clear and bright at its full glory.

At that point, a smile appeared on his face as he kept looking outside the window.

'Oh lady luck, you haven't forgotten me' [Shingi]