From Player To Npc

The Lich's undead was more troublesome than Kelvin's since Kelvin wasn't an undead himself. Kelvin's weren't exactly cheap copies, but people could notice the difference even to the simple 'mindless' ones.

Still, they were stronger than when they had to fight Kelvin, and even if they hadn't since Nivlek took his pace, their chance of success was quite high. Shingi and An would fight the Lich while having their special eyes active so that its mind control abilities wouldn't work on them, while the others would keep the rest of the undead busy.

Finding the Lich was like finding Kelvin; they just had to find the primary source of the corruption.

His MANA SENSE Skill was weaker because of his weakened state, but with the effects of his passive MANA DETECTION Skill had it to be at the right level he needed.

The Lich didn't have a Black Crystal as Kelvin's staff, and Shingi couldn't gather anything from its body as on death it would turn into dust. But still, he needed a lot of exps to reach level 60, and also using his Spells and Skills in combat was the more beneficial form of training.

He already knew how to use them; he just had to find a way to pass the restrictions of his weakened state. It was like he started wearing weights and had to get used to them to run once more.

Dark Shadow had barely level 20, meaning he had a long way to level 60 to Evolve his class, but they didn't kill the boss on the previous floor. They would earn some extra exps if they completely cleared the Floor, meaning killing the boss and all the monsters.

They would aim for those extra exps, as everyone could continue to level up now, or at least Shingi could until he reached level 60, and so he couldn't level until he Evolves his class. Of course, one could choose to continue leveling up without evolving their class at level 60, but it was impossible to evolve your class if one did so.

Fortunately, there were ways to keep yourself from getting exps and not level up, but those were for the Blessed Ones, like that they could give exps to their Skills to level up. Unfortunately, Shingi and Dark Shadow didn't have that option, so they had to find another way not to earn exps when they reached level 60.

For Shingi, it would be easy, as he could get unrecruited so that the System wouldn't automatically give him experience for every monster they killed. However, he had not give the killing blow to any enemies, as there was no getting assist exp if you aren't in the same party as the one who got the kill.

That meant that Dark Shadow would only get exps by his kills as it couldn't join the Party, and if Shingi weren't taking any exps, he wouldn't get his share from that. Dark Shadow couldn't 'bond' with others the same way he had with Shingi, no matter how many times they tried. But Dark Shadow's power had increased a lot, and he could fight monsters of even double his level with ease.

Shingi had his new staff outside and had his Mana Pool to have Air, Fire, and Light Mana Active.

He learned AIR BOLT, FIRE BOLT, and LIGHT BOLT, which were easy to learn since they were like ROCK THROW, just different Element, and they were also Low-Grade Spells. However, Shingi still wondered the difference between ROCK THROW and EARTH BOLT, as Little Phoenix had learned EARTH BOLT but couldn't learn ROCK THROW. So he also tried to learn EARTH BOLT, but no matter what he tried, he could only use ROCK THROW.

He also tried to do a similar Spell with Spirit Element, but he hadn't succeeded. It was impossible or not as easy as with the other Elements.

He also learned a Base Grade Spell called EMPOWERED FIRE BOLT, which was a combination of AIR BOLT and FIRE BOLT. Air and Fire were always allied Elements, so using them both into a Spell was easier than for other Spells. He had combined two Elements in the past, but never as a Spell, except if one counted Spirit Element.

He couldn't summon any of his Golems or create Water Elementals unless he would use the Spirit Child's energy, which he didn't want to, so instead, he just summoned his MANA DOUBLES for extra hands. He didn't have them all active simultaneously, as it wasn't possible in his current state, but he could have at least two.

He had cast the Earth MANA DOUBLE, which he had active using his store mana ring's mana, and his Light MANA DOUBLE with which he used his Mana. He kept gathering Earth Mana and storing it in the ring. The mana was corrupted, but the ring was purifying it, making it useable for Shingi. Even if everything was dead, even 'dead' ground had Earth Mana in it, just was not that 'pure.'

Shingi used this two because Earth Element MANA DOUBLE had the best defense among all his MANA DOUBLES. The Light Element MANA DOUBLE didn't typically have the greatest attack power, but it had against the undead.

Shingi had his staff design to be Earth and Light, only to empower his MANA DOUBLES, while he kept using Fire and Air Elements spells with as much change as he could by himself.

He kept using LIGHT BOLT and EMPOWERED FIRE BOLT, which seemed to have the most effect on those monsters and helped Shingi a little to get used to his new state. His speed changing the design had also affected, but he didn't plan to change the design in combat, as he knew his one was the best combination he could need for this floor.

He planned to make a staff like that for Little Phoenix at the next Ruin City Hideout too, but he needed to test run it more for himself. Little Phoenix's staff wouldn't be as complicated but will change only to the Elements she had, meaning Dark, Earth, and Gravity.

It could be easier to go the other way and first make a staff for her first, but this never was how Shingi did things. It wasn't because he would use the staff, but because of the challenge to create it and use it. Of course, he still couldn't use it at its full power as he couldn't use all the elements at similar power, but he was certain that he could do it, especially after a recent notification from the System.

The last Challenge he completed was called FIRST STEP TO THE OMNI WAY, which made him think of the Omni Mage Nyhm. If there was a first step that meant there was a second one, and Omni Way could refer to becoming an Omni Mage.

Nihm had a way to communicate with people in this world, maybe even move between the words, which could be a secret of the power of Omni Mages. If he fulfilled all the steps, he might have access to that power and find a way to get Annoue back. Of course, he could also wait for that Omni Mage boy he saw at his last Scry to do something similar, but who knows how long it would take him.

Shingi tried to learn more about the Omni Mages from Syra, but other than being monstrously powerful, and in most cases, somewhat crazy, there wasn't much to learn about them.

They kept their guard up for Dark Guild members or signs of Mikhail's people, but there were none for either.

Finally, they reached the cave entrance, where the corruptions of energy seemed to be mostly emitted out. The Lich wasn't the only source of corruption, but it was the greatest one. There existed some Semi-Liches it had created, but Shingi and his party had already taken care of them by tracking them and killing them.

Of course, the Lich knew about them, as it was connected with all of them, and would feel their absence the moment they died. But Shingi knew they couldn't surprise the Lich either way, and they would clear the floor for the extra exps either way.

Not killing the Semi-Liches would also make the battle with the Lich as it could teleport them to it, but they couldn't do the same for any of the other Semi-Liches or the Lich itself.

They started walking in, and Shingi had to dispel a few magical traps and needed Little Phoenix's with a few. He normally could take care of all of them, but the Spirits were getting louder the deeper they went into the gave, throwing off his focus a bit. Combined with his weakened MANA MANIPULATION Skill, his chance of failure had increased, so he asked for help to be safe.

He told the others about his Weakened State, as it was a matter of time for them to notice, but he didn't tell them about the Minor Spirit Madness. He wanted to ask Syra more about it, but not yet, as it would draw too much attention.

Even with the Spirit voices, he could still fight, but they just made his training more challenging, which he enjoyed. He never backed away from a challenge.