From Player To Npc

The only people who could have this symbol on their armor would be the New Gods. They all belonged under a Guild named Enerias World, but it never took part in any Guild activities, as it wouldn't be fair. No player could join this Guild, and only people that were part of the Development team were members.

Ameanum had the chance to be part of it, but since he would get limited on playing the game, he decided against joining.

"How are they the enemy? They are here to help and keep the peace." [Shingi]

"No, Master has been clear that they plan something nasty. They aren't as good as you thought." [Nivlek]

Shingi didn't notice any signs of her lying, which meant either that she was telling the truth or she believed she was telling the truth. He had worked on that game for many years, but even if he hadn't worked with the Eneria's World team for that long, he knew that the main company behind the capsule were good people. He also knew many people belonging to the Enerias World Guild, like Night Wind, and they were good guys.

But there was a tiny chance of them hiding something as he never monitored their actions, but why would they do something bad in the game?

"How can you be certain about this? Have you seen any proofs other than this piece? He could just lie to you to control you." [Shingi]

"He had shown me what is to come. They are going to invade us in time, but first, they need to prepare." [Nivlek]

This sounded like crazy talk, so Shingi wanted to put a stop to it. But before he did, Nivlek added something.

"This isn't a game, Shingi." [Nivlek]

Shingi looked at her curiously and noticed some fear in her eyes, which this time remained. It was like she remembered some terrifying memory and was reliving it.

"What do you mean? What is it then?" [Shingi]

She was ready to say something, but a hole opened under her feet and sucked her in. Shingi tried to catch her, but some chains appeared out of nowhere at an inhuman speed and kept him in place.

This was a familiar feeling of power but was stronger; it was Mikhail.

"'I think you learned a lot for today, kid. You should meet me face to face if you want to learn more.'" [Mikhail]

The portal that got Nivlek disappeared, and so did the chain, letting Shingi move once more. It seemed like truly Mikhail could monitor them and even could open a portal like that. Shingi doubted he left his place, which meant that he monitored them from his headquarter, which was many floors above them.

The rest of the party noticed what happened, as he was still within sight of them, but they were glad to see that he was fine.

"What happened? How did she escape." [Wild Tycoon]

"It was Mikhail. It seemed like we underestimated him. We should be extra careful from now on." [Shingi]

Everyone nodded as they understood how serious this was.

"Did you get any information out of her?" [Mizuneko]

"She knew a few things." [Shingi]

He told about who she said she was and everything she told him, except for the revelation about the Enerias World. Shingi didn't believe that story yet, and he had to be careful. If they really had some other plan that they were hiding all along, then they were facing something over their head.

The more he thought about it; the more things made sense about the Dark Guild. He always wondered why the Company did nothing about them, but if they worked with the Enerias World Guild, this would give them the power not to fear anyone like the one he had heard from Soryn.

As for the last mention of this not being a game, he thought little about it. Even if this game was more realistic than anything else created, at least while Shingi was still part of the real world, it was still a world made by a program. Or could it not be the case?

He was part of the team to test the game mostly and not so much to develop it, even if he had given some feedback on how things could be done. He still lacked information, so he just put it at the back of his head.

"Should we move our camp, since he knows where we are?" [Wild Tycoon]

"No. It would be a waste of time and energy. He won't go after us yet, as he had invited me to get to him as soon as possible. He probably will monitor us or learn about us if we face other people like Nivlek. I doubt she was the only one." [Shingi]

He didn't get the chance to ask her if there were more like her, and at floors, they would be, but he would recognize them easily, as they would have the burn mark most likely.

"Let's rest. This forest has some mutated beasts, but their INT is low, so the Repellents would keep them away. As for the Boss, we should face it to weaken the Tower's energy and be certain it won't evolve in the future. It is a Beast-Type Monster itself, so its INT is Low, and its chance to evolve is also low, but these types are dangerous if they evolve. We won't have any problem with it as long as we clear some lairs of the other beasts, as it can call them as reinforcement. Each one will not be an enormous challenge, but facing them together it will be." [Shingi]

This was one of the few floors that the Boss was a random one. There were different types of lairs, each one with only one type of beasts. One representative from each lair would take part in a battle to the death of all the representatives. The last survivor would be the Boss of the floor, and its kind would get further mutated during his leadership.

The other beasts normally followed the Boss's orders, but it wasn't uncommon for some to attack it to take over the 'throne,' but only if they found the chance. Their INT was still low but was over normal beasts.

The beasts not killed after the Boss died kept those further mutations; that's why Ameanum tried to kill all of them back then. If the mutations stacked, they would be problematic for next time, especially if one of them became the Boss.

Since they were in a forest, he enabled his Earth Element and disabled Light this time. He would need Light Element to use his CAMOUFLAGE or his INVISIBILITY, but most of the beasts here had a pretty good nose, so those Spells would be useless against them.

"So she was supposed to be your mother? That's a crazy family you have here." [Syra]

"To tell the truth, nothing about my family makes sense. I think I have more questions than answers at this point, and the only one who seems to have those answers is Mikhail. It seems like he wants to speak with me, but I don't know why. He has an agenda, but I am not sure what part I take to it." [Shingi]

"I have met many families, and I can tell you something that all of them had in common. They were problematic. Some may hide it, some it was open for everyone to see and didn't care, and others don't even know that they had one. But this is what families are for, getting together to face those problems. Or at least that is my opinion." [Syra]

Shingi seemed to be in deep thoughts after hearing those words.

His family from his father's side was part of an unknown sub-race of humans, his mother used to be a Blessed One, his sister was born with a Mana Pool, and they may be related to a crazy Old Man who thinks there is a great conspiracy that may or may not be true. Mikhail's eyes were gray when Shingi had met him, but those could be his special eyes if he were actually like him.

He didn't know about the eyes or could detect their energy back then, so there was no way to know. But with the discussion he had with Nivlek, he got the feeling that this assumption was correct.

Shingi had some small talk with Syra and trained a bit on his Spirit Mana control since now he could use it.

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SPELL LEARNED

The spell MINOR HEAL (Base Grade) has been learned.

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This was the first healing spell his party had access to, as none of his students were interested in the healing arts, and they had Hineko's potions in case they needed any. But during combat, the regeneration potions wouldn't be as useful. Especially if facing a mighty enemy.

Still, if this was had the word MINOR, it was almost as potent as any of the top Base Grade Healing Spells Shingi had encountered in the game. This was the power of the true Element of healing. He couldn't overuse it, but his limit was quite high because of his eyes, but still, he needed to be careful. If he kept reaching that limit, even if he was lucky enough not to get Spirit Madness, his resistance would get lower, which probably would also decrease his limit.

But the strain of using the Spirit mana didn't take too long to pass, as long as he didn't reach very close to his limit.

Syra explained many of those to him since he didn't have time to do so many tests. The symptoms of overusing Spirit Mana were the same as in her world, which helped with his training, even if drawing their mana from their Mana Pool was different.

He didn't learn any other spells and rested before they started their way around the lairs.

They planned to take them all out, as it would be a superb source of exp for all of them, as the monsters were getting closer to their level.