From Player To Npc

That Dark Mana Gems design wasn't as good as the Earth One, so it needed more improvements, and so it took more time than what with the Earth One. At least that was what excuse Zhen gave them.

It's been two hours as he held the hand of Phoenix where she was creating her mana ball to keep it still, or so he said. 

He didn't do something like that for Shingi.

Shingi used his Dragon Scale to bring forward some Earth Mana, which didn't have high compatibility. Still, it was a little better than the one of his environment as he, after separating it from the rest that made the Storm Element was purer and a little easier to use.

He didn't use this mana for his Mana Tree but to test some new spells.

He tried to create something not surrounding him or part of his body but create something in the environment.

He started with something simple.

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SPELL LEARNED

The spell EARTH SPIKE (Base Grade) has been learned.

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It took him a few tries to get to the proper form of the resulted spikes of his Spell.

At first, they were more like small pillars, and then with each try, the top of it started losing width and becoming more pointy after a while.

The EARTH SPIKE wasn't the strongest of the spells and was barely considered Base Grade, but that was because Shingi didn't have it fully develop yet.

As with his METAL FISTS, which were still considered unfinished,

they were still mostly rocky and not metal-like, the same as his EARTH SPIKE. The final one would always be fully made of earth, but its strength would as made from metal.

He still had to find how to turn his Earth Mana into Metal which should be possible for anyone with Earth Based Mana Pool, except for a few rare exceptions. He was confident that he could do it just had to find the way.

But at least the Spell was recognized by the System, and it wasn't unfinished even if he couldn't use it in his final form.

It made sense since he knew that this was a Base Grade Spell to just its power would change, not its grade, so no need to be considered unfinished.

After that, he focused on another idea of his that he had some days ago from watching Pan.

He put his hand on the ground and starting using his VISUALIZATION to create a tiny humanoid statue in front of him.

He focused his mana on the ground and started manipulating it, not to draw its mana or draw it by its mana but to take control of it.

Up until now, he either was using force to do things or using his mana, but now he had to take control of the mana of what he needed to use to control it.

The reason was if he were manipulating it by 'dragging' its mana and using its bond, he would have to use his mana all the time to keep control over the result. But if he could 'change' its nature to be considered similar to his mana and be controller by him in a similar fashion, things would be faster and less mana would be used.

Of course, it sounded simple in theory, but he wasn't entirely confident about how it was supposed to work.

Each mana source is its entity, so even two sources of the same element of mana can be considered different on the way of how easy or hard it is to be manipulated, and other approaches may be needed to be used.

He tried to mix his Earth Mana with parts of the ground mana to see if that would make a difference, but it didn't seem to be that easy.

He felt a general resistance as even if they were of the same element, their compatibility was low.

He was confident that she should be possible with any piece of earth and not just some he would have high compatibility as he had to see Pan making golems of hers in many places; she couldn't be highly compatible with all of them.

He let the golem creation for now after having some talk with Pan, who could help him on that.

He then focused on moving his mana and spreading it through the earth in a similar fashion as he was using his MAN SENSE in the past.

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SPELL LEARNED

The spell ECHOLOCATION (Low Grade) has been learned.

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It may be considered Low Grade by the System, but its importance was more than that as its range was better than his Master Rank MANA SENSE combined with his Master Rank PERCEPTION.

This would help to detect underground creatures or even help detect movement in other rooms that may have some extra protections making his usual approaches more difficult.

Of course, since it was a Low Grade Spell, it was easy to counter it, but it was one of the rare 'weak' spells that, with enough mana, they could get past those obstacles.

He kept using ECHOLOCATION while having his eyes covered by a piece of cloth and moving around the lab without using any other detection Skills.

He also used his VISUALIZATION Skill with which he didn't need to use his sight to see the result to help with his training by visualizing what informations he was getting from ECHOLOCATION.

He moved to the room the Zhen was sealed before as he was less familiar with that space, making it a better place to train.

Even with his VISUALIZATION, he had some accidents and tripped a few times as he missed some small items on the floor, which were almost like they appeared out of nowhere.

When he felt that he had gotten the handle of it, he removed the cloth to take a break and noticed a System notification that shouldn't have appeared too long ago, or it would already be gone.

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A student of yours earned their profession while under your tutorage.

As a reward, restrictions of that profession aren't affecting you.

Profession: Enchanter

*This reward is unique and won't be earned again

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Shingi was amazed by this notification as he made his way back to the room where Zhen and Phoenix were to congratulate her.

Zhen's work was highly advanced and should have helped her understand a few things better as she saw them in action, and most likely, Zhen explained a few things and Karemon's help.

He was amazed, though, that there was a reward like that, especially without him being the one who taught them how to earn her profession. He only helped find the person who could, but he was her teacher or Scholar Master by the System.

When he got out of the small tunnel leading from the sealed room to the lab, he saw something unexpected.

Zhen and Phoenix were kissing, or so it seemed at first.

Their lips were barely not touching each other as some of the purple mist of Zhen was getting out of his mouth and entering Phoenix's.

Phoenix's eyes were utterly purple, as also her lips. 

Zhen had his left hand behind her head, keeping her still, but she seemed like she wasn't able to move.

Shingi was ready to tackle Zhen, but then everything was over.

Zhen, for the first time, was sweating.

Phoenix's eyes and lips turned back to normal, and she started moving away from Zhen.

Zhen started laughing and then started drinking from the waterskin Shingi gave him before, emptying it entirely.

"Thanks for the meal. But I must say you handled more than I thought you would."[Zhen]

Shingi tried to grab him from his scarf, but he saw him in time and teleported away, leaving his scarf behind.

For the first time, his neck was completely exposed, and they could see some burn marks on it in the shape of fingers like a heated hand had grabbed his neck and left him this mark.

It didn't seem to be a recent one, but with no further inspection couldn't tell how old it could be.

Zhen seemed not to like his neck to be out in the open for others to see like that as he summoned his cat, who then turned into a snake and surrounded his neck.

"We don't need to get violent. I know things may look suspicious, but I acted in order of goodwill and to help. Nothing else."[Zhen]

Shingi could tell that he was lying for the 'nothing else' part, but the rest seemed to contain some truth.

"What exactly did you do to her?"[Shingi]

Zhen had a silly smile on his face as he seemed to remember the memories of what just happened, but he quickly snapped out of it.

"*cough**cough* As our young friend over there is of a somewhat similar profession as mine, but on its Apprentice level, I decided to transfer some of my knowledge to her. Just a few of the unneeded ones for me, or few I could spare some power from them, that could be useful for her." [Zhen]

Shingi checked Phoenix's status, but he still couldn't see her profession with it but could see her skills, and he noticed a few new ones all at around 20 something level.

The 'unneeded' ones Zhen mentioned were all the Skills an ENCHANTER would need to get to be a RUNEMASTER.

What Zhen was doing of making an Enchantment on simple items like rocks even if it seemed simple, it actually wasn't.

If a regular ENCHANTER were trying this, it would have no effect, or the rocks would explode each time, and that's because of Zhen's real profession of RUNEMASTER.

RUNEMASTERS were able not only to turn simple objects into enchanted ones even for a limited time but were having a wider variety of Enchantment Runes, not following the Shape System or Programming Runes.

They also could use both Shape-based Enchantments and Programming to work with each other, which gave them the title of TRUE ENCHANTERS by a few.

Varan was a RUNEMASTER and was actually the first one; that is why he was given special treatment. The first one to unlock a profession never existing in the past had benefits that others would never have the ability to earn.

Shingi had a few suspicions of Zhen's profession RUNEMASTER being that while seeing him work, he wasn't sure, mostly because he was supposed to be the Boss of a Low-Level Dungeon, so he shouldn't be too strong.

Until now, other than his ability to Teleport, he hadn't seen any fighting kind of abilities from Zhen.

It seemed the Dungeons weren't working as simple as he thought of the levels of the monsters representing the limits of the Dungeon's Boss.

"I really am an ENCHANTER now."[Little Phoenix]

After hearing that from Phoenix, who seemed to have relaxed a bit but still being on her toes, he decided to let it go since nobody was actually harmed.

"What did you earn out of it then, Zhen?"[Shingi]

Shingi threw the scarf of Zhen's towards him as it seemed important to him not to have his neck exposed, and the snake around his neck was a weird look.

After he put his scarf back as it used to be, he responded with the silly smile of his returning on his face.

"Earn, huh? Well, I guess being close to a beauty like that was my earning. I definitely wouldn't do something like that to an unworthy one."[Zhen]

Shingi didn't want to ask what would make one worthy as his guts told him that he didn't want to know.

They heard the sound of the secret door opening as it was echoing to the lab, and after not much time, Mizuneko entered the room they were.

He had a large leather bag that he dropped in front of Shingi, and it opened for one to see what was inside.

It was full of scrolls, and more specifically, Spell Storing Scrolls.