Chapter 50: Unexpected rewards
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SYSTEM QUEST COMPLETED: BIRTHDAY GIRL
The system is deciding a possible reward.
CALCULATING. . .
REWARD DECIDED
Reward: Angel's Boon
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BLESSING EARNED: Angel's Boon
Passive: When a blood relative of yours is within two meters of you during combat, you gain an HP or MP or SP regeneration depending on their stats. Each person can give you only one kind of regeneration. If multiple people are within range, the regenerations of the same stat are stacked.
Active: 1/day, you can use the Blessing's energy if the passive is enabled to fully restore your HP, MP, or SP depending on what regeneration(s) you have by the passive effect. After that, the Blessing is in cooldown for a month, during which the passive effect and active effects aren't accessible.
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Shingi just stayed there staring at the two notifications making sure what he read was entirely accurate with what he understood it to be.
He had to do a test to see the results.
"Hey Tycoon, can you attack me once?" [Shingi]
Everyone looked at him, confused about what he just told them.
"A... attack you? WHY?!?"[Tycoon]
He has restored some of his SP enough to stand up and avoid a few attacks. He told Annoue to stay close to be within range but didn't explain why.
Even if she was confused about the request, Tycoon went for it since she knew that she could control herself, and they had a few health regen potions just in case.
The fight didn't last long, just a few swings from Tycoon, and Shingi was able to avoid them all, even in his current state. He wasn't as tired as after his battle that he used his Breaking-Limit state, so his speed against the slow Tycoon who didn't use ACCELERATION was more than enough.
After the first swing, Shingi felt this strange power enveloping his body, and after a few seconds, he understood that it was his SP that was getting restored cause of the Passive effect of his new Blessing.
It was more than what he was spending during the battle, and he used his ACCELERATION to test, and the regeneration seemed to be of a little less from that.
This meant that he could use his ACCELERATION more time while he was within two meters of Annoue.
He took a break of a few minutes and asked for another short battle like that. This time he didn't get an SP but an HP regeneration.
He stopped and started more battels, and it seemed like each time, he either had an HP or SP regeneration, but he never got an MP one. He noticed that the HP one seemed to be more effective than the SP one.
'Could it be because her STR is her highest main stat?' [Shingi]
STR is a physical stat, so it made sense that it would affect those two. He thought that if her AGI were her highest stat would probably affect them, and SP would most likely be more significant than HP. END would most likely be balanced for both, and INT would give him MP regeneration.
He had heard of similar Blessings, although most worked differently, he was confident that this was the case of how it worked.
If his passive effect could be triggered by anyone being within range, he could have access to all the regenerations, but since the person had to be a blood relative, only two people fit that role.
These were Garry and Annoue.
But even the active effect can be beneficial and life-saving as it was a full refill of his SP or HP. But the one-month cooldown meant that he had to use it carefully.
They spend the rest of the day having some food that the others bought and relaxing and sharing some stories. Especially Hineko was telling about some of the Quests he had completed, but Shingi could tell that most that he said were a lie, but it worked to keep the party up.
Annoue seemed to have a great time and was hugging her sword, almost cutting herself a few times. Shingi covered it with a glass sheath he created with his mana as he would tomorrow make a real one.
After he relaxed enough, he secretly started producing some of the Earth Mana dust as he wasn't far from the needed amount.
He made it in an open pouch not too far from the forge and was storing all the special dust there. After a while, he used his MANA SENSE to check the progress, and he noticed his Skill to feel somewhat different.
Before, he was sending his mana out like sonar, and it was repelled by other mana, and depending on the element of mana, it would return at different speed giving him the info he needed.
But this time, it wasn't anything like that.
Instead, when he activated the Skill, his mana enveloped his eyes, and he was able to see what previously his brain was creating when using the Skill.
Looking around, he could see everything that had some mana surrounded in the corresponding color, depending on its element.
His Skill was quicker than ever, and he could see everything clearly. Before, there was a delay cause of the time the mana he used had to travel and come back, but this time it seemed like everything was happening instant. Before, things were a little blurry, especially if a source had a different type of mana. One example was the barrel of water he had next to the anvil.
It contained some Water-element mana and some Earth-element mana in its wooden surface and some Fire-element mana for sometime after he cooled down something from the forge. But the Earth-element mana was almost none and the same with the Fire-element Mana, and he couldn't notice them unless entirely focusing on it with his Skill.
But now he could see the Earth-element mana clearly as the Water-element mana but couldn't see any Fire-element mana since he didn't cool down anything there today.
He also noticed something strange that he hadn't seen before.
There was an aura around Little Phoenix, but it was different than the usual aura that the rest of the Players had. It seemed to be over her Player aura and had this reddish color but not the same as Fire-element mana, just somewhat darker.
It didn't seem to be anything mana-related as he checked her status and didn't have anything Fire Based related, but he noticed something he hadn't before.
She seemed to have a Blessing, which wasn't there last time he checked.
The Blessing was called Boon of the Strength, and even if Shingi couldn't see its description but just its name, he knew its effect.
It allowed her to push, carry, or lift items that she usually wouldn't be able to do with her current STR. But this one didn't help in combat, so not many Players find it useful.
But this Blessing wasn't something anyone could get and especially a mage.
To get this Blessing, one had to follow a unique physical training even harder than what Shingi was doing during the other week.
But there was another way as there were some special cases of few people that started with this Blessing. But those were people who were having significant control of their body and strength in real life, and most were martial artists or something similar.
He wasn't certain as he didn't know much about her in the real world other than the short story he heard the other day, but the confident sister seemed to be one with many activities, so it wouldn't be strange for a martial art to be one.
The Blessing could be given even after creating the character as long as the body passed the requirements. This was why he didn't notice it before, as this was the first time he checked Phoenix's status while the confident sister was in control.
After that, he opened his status and noticed that there were some changes.
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STATUS
NAME: Shingi Maki
CLASS: None
PROFESSION: Scholar Master
RACE: Blessed Human
HP: 80/80
SP: 40/40
MP: 23/38
STR: 12
AGI: 14
END: 16
INT: 16
CHA: 3
Mana Pool: Earth and Light Element
Skills: VISUALIZATION (Master Rank), MANA MANIPULATION (Master Rank), MANA SENSE (Semi-Master Rank), PERCEPTION (Master Rank), STEALTH (Base Rank), IMPROVISED THROW WEAPON (Master Rank), SMITHING (Master Rank), ACCELERATION (Master Rank), MARTIAL ART (Base Rank), GLASSBLOWING (Base Rank)
Spells: MANA HAND (Low Grade), FILTH EATER (Ungraded), MINOR ILLUSION (Ungraded), LIGHT (Ungraded), ROCK THROW (Low Grade), CAMOUFLAGE (Low Grade), INVISIBILITY(Base Grade), DOME OF SILENCE (Base Grade)
Blessings: Blessing of Beliss, Blessing of Dlog, Angel's Boon
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Shingi's new Blessing was added to the list as also his MANA SENSE's Rank had changed to the unheard for him Semi-Master Rank.
It was true that his Skill had changed in a way to be considered a different Skill, which was unheard of when changing Rank, but still not be regarded as a full Master Rank made him think what it would be like then.
He was happy about that development as his senses were quite crucial at his arsenal, and an improvement like that was more than welcome.
He looked around a little more to test his Skill and become more familiar with it as he continued his word creating the special dust.
Annoue mentioned how she had a class of her own during the storytelling, even if it wasn't a complete class still.
Everyone seemed impressed by that as they had heard stories of how difficult it was for an NPC to get a class.
"Does that mean you gonna join us at our next Dungeon exploration, Lady Annoue?" [Hineko]
Annoue seemed to blush a little from how he addressed her, but she turned towards the person who was able to give this answer. Her little brother.
Shingi felt some annoyance against Hineko from the way he addressed Annoue, and one would swear for a moment that there was a murderous look on his eyes for a second, but it disappeared as fast as it appeared.
"Well, you have a weapon, and you are capable of using it, so some monster hunting may help you getting some fighting experience. Also, the Slimes are a perfect training target, so they may help speed up to earn your class." [Shingi]
Annoue seemed excited about that, but Shingi said they had to wait for a few days as there were a few preparations he had to make. He told them that they could go by themselves in the Dungeon without Annoue as he wanted to be there with her just in case.
So the party came at the end after some time, and they headed towards their house and inn's room accordingly. Before they each went their way, though, Shingi said to Phoenix and Mizuneko the different way his MANA SENSE was working to possibly her them leveling up theirs faster.
Phoenix didn't find it interesting, so Shingi said to Mizuneko to explain it to the other Phoenix's 'personality' when he next got in touch with her.
Shingi kept his new MANA SENSE active during the whole walk towards their house and noticed quite a few things.
There was some mana, which he recognized as the Special Mana of the Blue moon, in a few places in the town. Also, he recognized a different type of mana by the description from a few of his Arcane Practioner friends.
It was almost completed dark but had some red and yellow in it.
This was the Mana of a Half-Demon.
It was said that all Half-Demons had a separate Mana Pool that wasn't part of their Mana Tree if they made one. This Mana Pool had a specific Type of Mana that looked like the one Shingi was currently detecting.
This mana was more potent than normal mana and had many uses, and the most useful one, which seemed to be for what it was used in this case, was to create a type of Repellents.
More specifically, Demon Repellents.
But creating one wasn't easy and would take years for one to master the way to create one, but know Shingi could detect dozen around the town, especially when getting closer to the mayor's office.
'It seemed Karemon had been busy over the years.' [Shingi]
He wasn't surprised that he could do something like that as he was friends with a Player who saved him and most likely helped him with his training. He understood that his mother seemed to be a woman of many resources, so she wasn't just an ordinary Player.
So Shingi and Annoue, after taking a little walk around they returned to their house to rest, but they found a surprise in the kitchen.
There was a small box with a handle on its right side.
Shingi knew that this was a music box, and it seemed to be a gift of Aneta to Annoue for her birthday. She had passed, but she left a note and the gift since she didn't find them.
Shingi was curious about how she got in as he had the door locked, and it was still locked when they returned, but he knew that Aneta wasn't the usual older woman, so he didn't put too much thought into it.
Annoue turned the handle a few times, and a melody started to play as also a voice singing a song when she let go of the handle.
It was the same voice singing the same song he had heard that one time at his weird dream some weeks ago.
He noticed a few seconds in that Annoue seemed to be affected form the song.
Her eyes were filled with tears.