From Player To Npc

Shingi and his party kept moving from floor to floor and dealing with the bosses over there. Fortunately, they didn't meet and Mikhail's men or signs of that corruption.

They currently were at Floor 32, meaning the next one would be another Ruin City Floor. Shingi had a similar hideout as on the 22nd floor, and he planned on spending some time there training and making some adjustments to everyone's pieces of equipment.

He had gathered some precious materials. Most of them came from dealing with the bosses, like the core of the Lava Dragon or the Dark Crystal of Kelvin. He had one for each Basic Element, excluding Spirit.

Air Element was on a mountain floor, where the main foes to deal with were Harpies. Those creatures were humanoid, and only female, and had vulture-like wings at their back. Their legs and arms were humanoid except for the fingers being more like bird toenails and claws.

These creatures were great beauties and had the ability to charm the weak-minded and use the amazing look to drop the mental defense of males and even some females. But their tricks didn't work on Shingi.

He could deal with them even as a Player, as he knew better than letting them control him. Also, his eyes protection worked against them, no problem as they were trying to affect his mind.

The Boss of that level was a female Sphinx. Sphinx had a lion or lioness body, depending on their gender, and a pair of Eagle-like wings in their bags. Their face also bore humanoid elements. This one actually was one Boss that you could pass without having to fight her. One just had to solve her riddle. But answering a riddle granted entrance for the individual who answered the riddle, and each one had to answer it by themselves. Each one had three chances, or the Sphinx would attack them.

Fortunately, Shingi knew many of her Riddles since she kept using the same ones now and then, as many Players had passed. She had a splendid memory and could tell if she had told a riddle to someone. Even if Shingi looked like his Player character and got a new riddle, he found the answer.

As for the rest, they got one of the riddles that Shingi had answered already. Syra was the only one that didn't answer a riddle because the Sphinx didn't give her one. She was there to stop the living ones from passing her, not the undead. Also, Dark Shadow didn't need to, fortunately, but the Sphinx didn't say why. She just had taken a look at him and said that he could pass.

As for the item that Shingi needed, it was a stride of Sphinx's hair. One could ask for a favor or a gift from the Sphinx if they paid the price. Giving her a riddle she didn't know. If one succeeded, she would answer a question of theirs or grant a favor as far as it was something she could do. For example, she couldn't join the party of someone or fight for him as she couldn't leave the current room. Also, even if she was fierce at fighting, but her actual strength was her unimaginable knowledge.

Shingi wanted to ask her many things, but each group visiting could only try once and get one question, and that counted for everyone. If one visited again, he or she couldn't try again. Fortunately, she didn't seem to count Shingi as revisiting her. Even if he looked like his old self, he was literally a different person.

Shingi had thought many times what riddle to give her, and he had finally decided on one.

"What am I?" [Shingi]

"Excuse me? Did you say something that I missed?" [Sphinx]

"No, this is my riddle. 'What am I?'" [Shingi]

The Sphinx stared at him, confused, as then a look of revelation appeared.

"A question. This is the answer, isn't it?" [Sphinx]

Shingi nodded, as this was really the answer.

"How simple, but at the same time so hard to think on using it. Remarkable. Name your reward, young man." [Spinx]

She found the answer by herself, but the reason behind this test was to tell her something she didn't know or never thought to use. It would be close to impossible to make a riddle she couldn't solve, giving her some time.

So Shingi got the hair, and they moved on.

The item for Earth Element was at a Desert, and it was the heart of the Mother Earthworm, which was the Boss of the Level. Earthworms lived underground and varied in size, from the size of a normal worm to the size of a truck. That was what normal Earthworms' size could reach, as the Mother Earthworm was easily twice that size.

They could manipulate the sand to make sand traps and suck them in it and 'drown' them, but Shingi had prepared some counters against them. They had a special Rune made on their boots that allowed them to hover for a limited time, and with Dark Shadows and Mizuneko's LEVITATE, they had better control of the fight and avoided those traps.

Shingi hadn't learned LEVITATE back then as he focused on helping Mizuneko to finish perfecting his Spell. This was also a great opportunity to train Dark Shadow to work with the team. There were some close calls, but in the end, they dealt with enough of the Earthworms to draw the mother out.

She was a tough foe, as she had scales surrounding her as tough as one of a young Earth Dragon, bringing it to the top one monster of that level could have. But against Shingi's blade, while using his File/Light Mana Blade, it was like cutting butter.

After killing it, he had to work quickly and carefully to cut and remove the heart and put it in a special box he had prepared from their time in Carda. It was meant to preserve things from losing their potency as time passed.

The Water Element was a pearl they found in the city of another Water Level, and they had to sneak their way in, as they would face an entire army otherwise. Of course, only Shingi and Hineko took part in that operation, as they were the sneakiest among them all. That was when Shingi's STEALTH finally reached Master Rank and combining it with his INVISIBILITY Spell, even for himself, would be impossible to detect.

Little Phoenix also could cast INVISIBILITY, but her STEALTH was quite low, increasing the chance of being detected as INVISIBILITY took care of not getting seen and not of being making no noise.

They faced a few guards on the way, but Shingi acted quickly to deal with them before sounding an alarm and hid the bodies, at least for enough time to get what they looked for and leave.

The peal was at the treasury of King Poseidon, who was the Boss of this place. He didn't fit any description of the god from Greek Mythology, as it acted more like a title than a name among the floor creatures. Still, he was mighty and actually had a trident as his principal weapon.

Fortunately, they didn't face him but had triggered an alarm on the way out, as one body got found.

But with the speed of both of them, even if they were underwater, they left without the need of a battle. Hineko and Shingi had prepared some potions that allowed them to breathe and move more comfortably underwater.

Finally, at the current floor that they were, they would gather the one for the Light Element.

The current environment was actually a cloud city. They were thousands of feet above the ground, and the ground was clouds that were solid enough for them not to pass through them.

The only creature here was Angels, but they only attacked the wicked. Or if they tried to trespass on a place, they didn't belong. But to get the item Shingi needed, he had to go to one of those places.

The item was a harp of an Angel. Not just any angel, but of the Arcangel Lailah. This was one of the personal guards and favorite students of The Goddess of Music Odara.

Shingi knew Lailah used to be a mortal bard, but through years of proving her perfecting her skills and love for music, she drew the attention of Odara. After many tests, she became a normal Angel and quickly raised her rank into the strongest Archangel of Odara. Still, compared to Archangels of more combat-oriented Gods, she was pretty weak.

As for why this floor contained something like that, the answer was quite simple. The Old Gods couldn't get in the Tower as they would lose their power and me almost mortals, but some of their subjects didn't get affected that way.

So some of the Gods took over a floor for themselves and had special items stored in there.

After learning about that, many Players tried to find what those items were and tried to steal them, but even if the minions got weakened a bit, they were impossible to deal with. But if everything went according to the plan Shingi didn't have to worry about fighting.