From Player To Npc

Hineko and Mizuneko agreed to talk about themselves first, and there seemed like they had an interesting story to tell. They were raised in an orphanage and were never adopted while in there until they were old enough to leave that place.

There were times that they had to work many hours for a little amount of money, but at least they had each other. They weren't sure if they were biological brothers, and they never wanted to know.

One of the orphanage nuns who raised them found them in a basket, each at the front door after someone had knocked on it, but the nun didn't notice anyone when she got there, just the two babies who seemed to be a few weeks old. No note was left and no indication of the one who left them or their biological parents.

They were curious some days about the possibility of looking for their biological family and such, but they never got to do it.

Phoenix's eyes were full of tears while hearing their tragic story, and even Tycoon seemed to feel bad for them.

But the 'sleeping' Shingi wasn't affected cause he was able to hear something that the girls could hear as he focused his PERCEPTION at the max.

The heartbeat of Hineko, who was the one who was telling the whole story, and by hearing it, Shingi could understand an important fact.

Hineko's story was just full of b******ts.

Nothing was true, and to tell the truth, Shingi was impressed on how natural he was telling the story and was sure it wasn't the first time he had to tell it. And he understood why as he had noticed the interest he has shown against a certain female Mage.

Mizuneko didn't speak at all during his brother telling their 'story.' Still, he acted to be somewhat sad of hearing their story while considering which time was this time. They should have reached in the hundreds already.

"... and then after meeting this kind man even if we were so old, he adopted us and since he was a man with some money we were able to stop working. We didn't go to a normal school, but he got us some tutors to help us, and we had already learned quite a few things back in the orphanage. So we were lucky that he was also to get in acquiring these capsules and the game, so that's how we got here as before meeting Master, nothing fancy happened." [Hineko]

Of course, he didn't want to tell the story of how he met Shingi and how scared of him he was back then, as it would possibly ruin his own image even if the girls knew that the boy wasn't so simple.

After Hineko finished telling how they got adopted by a rich guy who found it in his heart to raise them, he ended his story.

Phoenix used some cloth to clear her eyes of tears as she took some time to calm herself.

"Well, I guess you aren't as bad as I thought you to be Kitty boys" [Wild Tycoon]

Tycoon was affected somewhat by their story but not as bad as Phoenix, but she thought that since now they are in a good environment, why would she be sad for their past.

Hineko ignored the comment of Tycoon as if he reacted to it; it would probably ruin the moment he built with the story, and Mizuneko just followed him on that since he wasn't liking going against Tycoon either way.

Now it was the girls' chance to share their story as this was the reason this discussion started.

Tycoon seemed to be the one telling the story mainly as Phoenix was correcting her on few details.

Their story wasn't as complicated as the two boys, and actually, it was quite a normal one at the beginning.

Three girls growing together and being best friends. Of course, the two were the shy and not shy Little Phoenix and the third one was the Wild Tycoon.

They didn't go into much detail about their background. Still, their two families were quite close. That had started since their great grandparents became friends, and the friendship continued with each generation. It seemed like they weren't part of a low-income family but didn't detail what their family was doing. Still, it seemed like their families had some business or company. They were cooperating as part of the family's friendship.

Hineko was interested to learn about the Phoenix's sisters and why they acted that differently. After quite some persuasion, he got Tycoon to speak about it, with Phoenix allowing it.

It seemed like the two girls used to act pretty much the same. None could tell the difference between them. That's why they decided to have a difference in their hairstyle as both had long hairs; one had a ponytail to rest at her left shoulder while the other one at her right.

But things changed two years ago as something tragic happened to one of the two girls and made her not want to speak to others and stay in her room doing nothing.

Tycoon didn't speak of this event as even she didn't know and didn't want to go too far on details either way. It may have some effect on Phoenix as the current one was the one who got into whatever that tragic event was.

That was why Tycoon didn't like to be around the other Phoenix, as the event seemed to the happened cause of her. Still, no matter what she said, she never learned anything from her about what happened. Also, the not shy sister seemed not to care much about her sister as much as she used to be, considering that it will pass in time. It wasn't, though, that she was completely ignoring her; just their bond as sisters seemed to be less strong.

The current Phoenix was normally in her room 24/7. Still, after some persuasion from Tycoon, she started playing the game with her.

Of course, after learning about it, the other sister wanted to play too. Since she was able to play only by using her sister's account, they agreed to use it now and then, but the shy one would use it most of the time as she didn't have much else to do.

Tycoon sent them through messages as she didn't want to remind her friend a lot in case she got affected, but Shingi was able to guess most of the things he couldn't hear.

"So the two of you are rich girls, huh?" [Mizuneko]

He wasn't interested in them like his brother, so he wasn't that worried about how he said things or what he asked unless it was completely inappropriate to ask.

"Well, our family has some money, but I wouldn't call us rich. It isn't like we own the business or something." [Wild Tycoon]

It was clear to the two brothers that she seemed to be hiding something, but none could be certain of what it was so their imagination could go wild.

"Well, at least now things are better now. Right? I mean, you met Master and us, so things got more interesting." [Hineko]

Tycoon nodded on that but mostly because things were interesting with Shingi being around and less about them. And of course, she didn't forget that unknown player who seemed to be behind the boy.

After they had some more small talk, Shingi decided to stop his act and 'woke up.'

He walked towards the party.

"So how is everyone? Ready to move on?"[Shingi]

Everyone nodded as they had fully restored their HP, MP, and SP for some time now.

And as they were ready to move on, Phoenix seemed like she wanted to ask something from Shingi.

"Excuse me. But shouldn't we get back at some point? Won't your sister get worried of that much time passed that you are away?" [Little Phoenix]

Phoenix learned from Tycoon about Annoue since she wasn't the one who actually was in control of their character when they met her and didn't have the chance to meet her during the past days.

It was true that they were here for quite a few hours, and even if they got here early in the morning, it was getting close to few hours from dinner time.

"We gonna investigate this way and after that depending what we find we may continue or return. But we have to take a look at it after everything we went through. By the way, did the spell got recognized by the Gods?" [Shingi]

Phoenix seemed confused for a second as she forgot that by the Gods, he meant the System as she then gave him a nod.

"Yes, I did, but it says that it is an unfinished spell of Base Grade." [Little Phoenix]

Shingi's eyes got wide from hearing that he hadn't checked her status, which was the first time he learned about the actual spell.

"What is an unfinished spell? Isn't the Sys... the Gods just letting us know when the Spell is fully able to be used from us?" [Mizuneko]

Shingi nodded on that as he began explaining.

"It is true of it being the case on most cases. But there are times of unique spells that only specific people can learn that are being allowed to be used in a lesser version of theirs and upgraded to their true power without creating a new spell. But the unfinished ones are always at least a grade lower than the final Grade of the spell when it is considered as finished." [Shingi]

Hearing that, silence fell in the room as everyone understood what was just said.

A Master Grade Spell. Little Phoenix had access to a Master Grade Spell.

Even if it was considered a Base Grade one now, it would be a Master Grade one when she completed it. Master Grade one wasn't as rare to reach a skill to be considered Master Rank, but that didn't mean they were easy to learn either way. Even if one found one, it would take them to quite a few resources to learn it—nothing a normal player could afford.

But Phoenix already knew the spell just in its unfinished form. As long as she became familiar with it, it would get at its real Grade. That didn't mean that it was easy, but it didn't need as many resources as it normally would need.

"Do you think you can use it at its current grade?" [Shingi]

A spell not fully recognized by the System has been completely different, with the latter being much easier for the user to use.

Phoenix closed her eyes to focus on the Dark Mana around her, and after almost half a minute, she opened them but no signs of her shadow form.

"It doesn't seem like I can with my current skill. I got a few levels in my MANA MANIPULATION skill, so maybe I could do it if I raise it more. I feel like this is the problem and not my stats, but not sure why I just feel like that."

Shingi was interested in hearing that and opened her status and saw that her MANA MANIPULATION was actually raised to 39. It was very close to being considered Master Rank, just two more levels.

'It seems to learn a special spell-like that while having this much INT greatly affects your skills. Good to know for future training.'[Shingi]

So since they didn't have anything more to discuss, they continued their way deeper into the dungeon and the secret corridor.