From Player To Npc

His current staff could handle three Mana Gems, but they were specific ones of Earth, Fire, and Light Element. He could replace the mana gem with one of the other Elements, but the design worked with those three. Changing the design to fit the fourth Element was impossible as the only reason they handled three was because of the staff Price 'acquired.'

So the only option he had was to make different staves, with all the combinations, but would be a waste of materials, or make an Adjustable Rune Design.

And Adjustable Rune Design is pretty much as it sounds, a Rune design that could get adjusted in the fly. But this would lower the quality than if he had a stable design, and he had to have a perfect understanding of all the designs he could adjust it to, or it wouldn't work.

Those past days he worked on understanding all the designs of each element separately, as he needed that knowledge to design multiple ones. He didn't study only the ones he had in his Mana Pool but the ones he lacked too. He had the design for every Element except Spirit, as he couldn't make one even with Syra's help.

He had come in a great understanding of all of them at these days that passed, as he had also increased his RUNE APPRAISAL Skill to Master Rank. He still couldn't make those Runes himself, or at least he couldn't make the last step. But he could design them, carve them, and let Little Phoenix or Syra complete them.

He had trained with Little Phoenix mostly to allow her to control part of his Mana, as she would turn it in the right form to be used at the Rune. Little Phoenix could also use Mana Gems, but using Element from a Mana Pool was increasing the final quality, especially if it was from the Mana Pool of the one finishing the Rune. But Little Phoenix had only Dark and Earth Element, so Shingi provided Air, Fire, and Light Element. Syra provided Water Element, as it still was better than if they used a Water Mana Gem.

They had to use all the Elements for the adjustable design since it would change on all the possible combinations of those six but could be up to three Elements at the time. He could change it into a single one or a combination of just two, which would be more effective than having three simultaneously.

He had to carve on staff all the single designs, the one over the other, and then have a mix of silver dust of each of the Elements. After finishing the carving, he had to imbed the Elements, but that was something that Little Phoenix had to take care of. He could help her, though, by manipulating his mana and help change its 'breathing' so that she can use it like it was hers.

She had to control all the Element needed to be used before inserting them in the Rune, which after three was her limit, and with her INT boosted by Shingi's blessing, the Limit increased to 5. After that, she needed to control one more Element, but passing that limit even with the help of Shingi seemed to be far, but she was steadily getting there.

It wasn't a problem of her INT not being high enough, but her MANA MANIPULATION wasn't high enough level. She still had to pass level 90 at it, which Shingi was certain that she needed in this case. So they worked on increasing her MANA MANIPULATION Skill.

Shingi didn't know of any Player who had passed level 90 in MANA MANIPULATION, but he could tell that he should be higher than that but not too high. He had seen others using it at the limit of that level, and he was certain he had passed it.

She had to learn more Earth-based or Dark-based Spell, or even think some Gravity-base ones since Shingi didn't know any. Still, he had her try to cast Spells of other Elements to increase her proficiency on those Elements and would increase her MANA MANIPULATION Skill. She had finished learning CREATE GRAVITY ELEMENTAL, as also she learned CREATE SHADOW ELEMENTAL, which was its dark-based version. Both were considered unfinished because she couldn't use enough Spirit Mana to use them in a suitable level of power to count as finished ones.

Even if they were unfinished Base Grade Spells, they counted as Master Grade Spells for the count of Spell she knew for things like her class to evolve. She had studied all the spells Shingi, and Syra knew and kept trying to finish casting them, but not in a degree to consider as learned, but only enough to get the benefits of becoming more familiar with how to use the Spell's Element.

He also continued her training to manipulate Spirit Element, and she had some improvement on it but was barely noticeable. Still, improving even a little was more than they could ask for, and if there was even the slightest improvement, it meant that she wasn't at her true limit when they started. 

They couldn't be sure if she could use the Spirit Element, same as Shingi could at any point, but even using it at ten percent would be more than enough for now. Currently, she was less than one percent on the control Shingi had.

But even that one percent had improved her MANA MANIPUlATION, but she still had a long way to reach the target. They didn't focus only on Spirit Element, even if their benefits seemed to be the greatest. She needed to increase her proficiency for each Element manipulation to have the final Rune being of the highest quality possible.

She kept working on learning new Spells, as after two days since Price got in the Tower, she reached the Spell amount she needed to evolve her class. Her MANA MANIPULATION was at level 90, and she could feel it; she was close to reaching level 91, just was lacking at something.

As for Wild Tycoon, she had succeeded in taking full control of the spirit while it was in her body. In the end, she went with the bear to keep focusing on her STR as she was the one with the highest one in the group. Hineko and Price were already AGI-Based, while An's fighting style was both STR and AGI-based. So Tycoon based her focus on a more STR-Based fighting style so that they would have variety.

Her natural defense also increased a bit, as well as her PERCEPTION as far as it involved her nose instead of sight. So she used the bear spirit, and her class changed to Bear Spirit Barbarian. At level 90, she can evolve her class once more and choose another Spirit, but it wouldn't have the same benefits or unlock the plausible options of Spirits if it was her first option.

Hineko had also become a Trickster, which increased his AGI too in progress, making his AGI 16. This brought most of his class-related abilities upgraded to at least twice the power they had before. Some even increased four times.

Hineko's combat abilities also increased, as he had to increase his MARTIAL ART, meaning he could also fight hand to hand and not just with his daggers. He had actually trained a few MARTIAL ARTS moves with Soryn and gotten some notes back when they were still in Carda.

As for his class' expertise, even if it wasn't so much in the battle but the manipulation of it. He could 'trick' his opponents by using some Illusion tricks to distract them or make them scared if playing his cards right. These Illusions weren't using mana but a concept of energy that Soryn had introduced to Hineko with MARTIAL ARTS; it was called the ki.

Somebody could consider Ki the mana of the martial art practitioners, as it allowed the user to do inhuman acts. Its most common ways were to affect certain functions of the target's body, like making it unable to move, or get blind, or couldn't even tell a lie as it could even affect the brain with the right use. This was what Hineko was doing, as he used his ki to pull as an illusion to his target's mind.

Still, his opponent had to be low INT, or it could see that this was fake, but in time he could make them harder to tell what was real and whatnot. But they could act as distractions for most normal enemies, even for a few seconds.

So another week passed since Price joined the party, and then Little Phoenix had her breakthrough.

She had reached her MANA MANIPULATION to level 91.

After having a few hours so that she could be in full power, they made another attempt to control all the Elements one after the other.

She succeeded in controlling five, but that was without Shingi boosting her INT. This meant that she definitely could do it with it.

They did some more tests until they actually moved to pull the Elements on the staff they had prepared with all the designs and the mana silver dust. Shingi tried to help her, other than with his Blessing, but other than providing the mana and changing their 'breathing,' he couldn't do much.

Still, after 20 minutes of struggle, they finished, and the staff was complete. 

So Shingi decided to put it to the test. And he had the perfect sparring partners for that testing, all his students, including Price.