From Player To Npc

Shingi and the rest left the hideout. They split into two groups with Shingi, White Biscuit, Hineko, and An in one party, while Little Phoenix, Wild Tycoon, and Price were the second group.

As for Syra, she moved by herself, as she could turn herself invisible. It didn't use any mana, as it was an ability she had as a spirit. During her invisibility, not even Shingi could detect her. Furthermore, she didn't make any noise since she didn't breathe and could hover.

The two groups headed at the same place, the stairs that were at the center of the ruined city. Shingi's group headed from the west, while the other group came from the east.

Price had paid attention to the group guarding the stairs, which didn't change during the past days. Sometimes some people were leaving for a few hours, but only up to four people. 

The time they left seemed random, so they couldn't aim for when the least number of people was at the stairs.

Shingi had his group under the effects of INVISIBILITY, while Little Phoenix did the same for herself and Wild Tycoon. She couldn't handle having the Spell active in three people as she had trained little on the specific Spell. Still, they had prepared some Spell Scrolls with it.

Since Mizuneko wasn't around and nobody else had the profession to make scrolls, they had to ask their Guild to deliver some through the box. Each one lasted up to half an hour, and Price had 10 of them but tried to use one only when absolutely necessary. It wasn't cheap to make one in the end.

Still, they made in position after four hours of leaving the hideout. Finally, the two groups were in the range of all using the party chat system. 

Shingi turned his attention to the Players guarding the stairs. Currently, there were 15 Players, while typically, there were up to 18.

Fortunately, there wasn't the female mage among them, but Shingi wouldn't let his guard down this time.

He took a deep breath as he hid behind a shit broken wall. He then closed his eyes to focus, and a vial appeared on his hand. It was the vial with the cure of Spirit Madness.

There was no way to pass through them without them noticing, and putting them on sleep or distracting them would not work on them. So they had to fight, and Shingi had to be in full power for it since, from Price's report, each of those Players had Evolved Classes or at least top grade equipment.

One couldn't tell someone's class by just looking, but Price had a special Skill, which was like Ameanum's Eagle Eyes, that let him know this kind of information.

It was a reward for a lucky encounter he had long ago, which ended with helping a powerful individual who offered to 'enchant 'the sight of Price. Price didn't detail how the enchantment was added to his eyes, but one could tell that it was something he wanted to forget.

But using them had its price as they used a massive amount of his SP, so he couldn't have it active for long.

There 3 Mage-based Classes, 4 Rogue-based Classes, and 8 Warrior-based classes. One mage had a Fire-based Mana Pool, the second had Water and Air but hadn't become an Ice Mage, while the third one had an Earth-based Mana Pool.

Two rogues seemed to specialize in range fighting style as one had a longbow, while the other had two hand crossbows. The other two both had daggers and other small blades hidden on them, but Price and Shingi could easily detect them.

As for the Warriors, three used a shield, and a one-handed weapon, like a sword or a mace or something similar. Two seemed to specialize in dual-wielding weapons, while the rest had heavy two-handed weapons. The ones with the shield wore heavy armors, while those specializing in dual-wielding had leather armors, and one could think of them as Rogues from their attire.

As for the two-handed ones, their armor varied. Some wore no armor, as they had a similar class like Wild Tycoon's, which had more benefits from not wearing one.

Price had made a list with a description of each of them. Other than their name, class, and level, he couldn't see anything else, but those were essential pieces of information for Shingi.

From the current Players there, the one with the smallest level to be at 71, while the biggest was at 82. This was a pretty notable difference to their levels, but Shingi had faced worst odds.

As for their equipment, Price had recognized a lot of them as he knew a lot of items. Likewise, Shingi had recognized some that Price didn't know but described to Shingi.

He drank the cure for Spirit Madness, and it didn't take long to notice its effect. The annoying voices were finally gone, and he could feel like a great weight leaving not his body but from within him.

He could feel his Mana Tree working at a significantly faster speed than before, as it drew the surrounding mana, and 'purified' it to create more mana for the one he used to keep his INVISIBILITY Spell active. The mana structures of the mana tree also produced and replaced mana used, but for now, only the one for the Light Element worked, since he used only that Element for his INVISIBILITY

His Mana Tree seemed to start growing in size rapidly, but it didn't feel unnatural. It was close to twice the size before in a couple of seconds.

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INT increased by 1

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CONDITIONS FOR MANA TREE UPGRADE MET

THE UPPER LIMIT OF BASIC ELEMENTS CHANGED TO 4

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Shingi was so glad at this point. With this upgrade, he could have all his current Elements active, since Spirit was active no matter what, and he had 4 Elements other than it. Of course, he will have the same problem when he creates a Water and Dark Element mana structure in his Mana Tree, but this was something to worry about later.

His MP was now at a crazy amount, even crazier than before. It seemed like the Spirit Madness had kept his secret modifier that increased his MP value still, and now that the Spirit Madness was gone, the effects of all his training took place.

He could feel the improvements in his mana control, as even the Spell he currently had active seemed to have improved in power a bit. The difference was barely noticeable but significant as other than making the target invisible to the eye, and it even tried to muffle the noise the target attempted to make.

But to do that, Shingi needed to use Dark Element, as Light didn't have that ability at its nature. Before, Shingi couldn't use those two Elements together in a combination like that, but now it was as easy as casting a Low Grade Spell.

After Shingi made sure that everything was ok with his body and Mana Tree, he started walking towards the guard Players.

When he was out in the open, he dropped his INVISIBILITY Spell, but had his hood up, and had used a MAJOR ILLUSION  at his face to change his appearance.

As he walked towards the Players, he summoned his staff, which he had to have the rune for Earth and Light. Then, he stopped in front of the players, just a little less than ten meters from them.

All Players turned towards him. The mages prepared some spell, while those specializing in range prepared their ranged weapons to shoot. The rest prepared their weapons, but nobody had attacked yet.

The highest level Player among the Players, one of the Shield Warrior-based class Players, walked a bit closer. It seemed like he was the leader or acting like one.

"You are the trespasser they informed us of, huh? Good for you to show up, but you seem to have a head more than you need." [Shield Warrior Leader]

As he finished his sentence, the mages and ranged Players released their attacks on Shingi.

The spells caused explosions, raised dust, and created smoke, covering Shingi completely. It seemed to be a hit, and Shingi didn't have time to avoid the attacks.

But as the smoke and dust dissipated, the figure of Shingi was in the same position. He didn't move a single step and didn't have a single scratch on him. On the surrounding ground, there were broken stones that weren't there before, though.

Shingi hit the ground with the lower end of his staff as 12 Pieces of those stones started raising from the ground and extending. Each formed a humanoid-shaped creature, but not all looked the same.

Each creature seemed to be a living statue of the enemy Warriors and Rogues. Those, of course, were results of the GOLEMANCY Spell of his. He couldn't fully cast it while under the effects of Minor Spirit Madness, but now that restriction was gone.

As for shaping them into a distinct form, like that was something he couldn't do before, but with his current control on Earth and Spirit Element, he could manipulate his Golems' appearance like that on the fly. It wouldn't change their power, as even if they had shields or weapons, they still had the same properties as the rest of their bodies since they were stones one too.

Shingi had boosted his Golems using some Spirit Element, which helped in their regenerations and shaped their 'brains' in a better way to be even better at fighting. He had each of them be in offensive mode, and each would target the one they took their form.

As for the mages, Shingi could take care of them.

The Golems charged at their targets, even the ones that had the form of the Players specializing in range. The speed of the Golems was significant, close to the base speed of Shingi.

Shingi cast HASTE on himself as he also had enabled his Blessing to boost his INT. It was challenging to keep that many Golems active, feed them mana to regenerate, and have HASTE on himself while also keeping his party invisible. Still, with his current mana control and INT, it was far from reaching his limit.

He moved at an incredible speed, and in a split second, he had Sinhunter, which he summoned while he moved, piercing the neck of the Fire Mage.

An orange aura surrounded his blade, which seemed to emit some great heat. This was his Light/Fire Blade, which was way more potent than the one he used a few days ago, since he used Sinhunter this time.

The mage was heavily injured, but didn't die. Instead, his form turned into fire as it moved away from Shingi.

Shingi quickly slashed the flames with Sinhunter in his right hand, holding his staff at the left, chanting a few words, and moving his staff around.

Some yellow energy left the staff and surrounded the flames, and the flames started getting shaped back to the human figure of the mage.

As Shingi was slashing him, and the figure was in the middle of their transformation back to its standard form, the result was pieces of a human corpse felling to the ground. After a couple of seconds, those pieces turned into particles and disappeared.

Shingi quickly moved at another mage, this time the Air Water Element one. He left the Earth one for last as their Spells had their most outstanding defense, so it could buy time to get help from the others.

Still, it didn't take him over two minutes to deal with all three mages. But, of course, most of that time was to kill the Earth Mage since its defense was more outstanding.

He then turned towards the battle between his Golems and the rest of the Players.

The battle seemed not to favor his Golems, who weren't less in strength or speed than the Players, but they were at a disadvantage because they couldn't use any Skills.

Still, his plan was successful even if his Golems couldn't finish them.

He ran up the stairs, and even if some of the ranged Players tried to stop him, they failed because of the golem they fought or missed.

Shingi was ready to move through the portal that led to the next floor.

Just before he could go through the portal, a massive lightning bolt came down and hit the exact position of Shingi.

After the lighting was gone, there were no signs of Shingi, just black ashes, and particles where he used to be. At the same time, the Golems crumbed, losing their shape. 

Bolts of lightning started gathering at the bottom of the stairs as a familiar female mage formed from the bolts.

She looked towards the Warriors and Rogue players, and after shouting at them, and told them to search the perimeter.

As everyone left the place she turned toward the top of the stairs and smiled for a split second.

If one paid attention to the portal, one would notice a few instances of ripples over the portal's surface, like a few figures passed through it.