From Player To Npc

Chapter 198: King's Guards

Shingi could move by himself fine, using his remaining senses and ECHOLOCATION. He didn't have to worry about fighting any slimes as Zhen send them orders to ignore him. He noticed a few players being around the area, mostly hanging around.

Some were curious about him, mostly because he was wearing sunglasses while the weather was quite cloudy. But Shingi kept walking back to town.

He could make it back in a couple of minutes by running, but his echolocation didn't work well if he moved that fast. This situation of his was problematic, but he could use it to his advantage. He had tried to keep all his senses as boosted as he could, but his sight was always the most beneficial one. It was easier to train his other senses now that he lost it.

His MANA SENSE also helped him a bit as he could detect the mana of the environment, but it was very subtle for most things unless he focused on one specifically. But with him just walking at a normal speed and all of his Detections Skills, and ECHOLOCATION, he moved almost the same as if he could see.

He had missed some rocks or fallen branches and almost tripped a few times, but his reflexes were still good enough to rebalance himself.

He reached the Carda's gate in a little over two hours, but he could feel improvement in his Skills.

As he got closer to the gates, he felt that there was a pair of well-equipped soldiers since he could detect the energy of the enchantments of their equipment, probably the King's Guards Master Jax had sent.

"You, stay where you are. State your business." [King's Guard #1]

Shingi stopped and didn't plan on causing any trouble. He had faced those guards in the past, and even the lowest rank among them was hard to deal with if they got into a battle.

It wasn't just their equipment, but their training wasn't something that anyone could handle. Even the weaker among them could face a dozen of normal guards with just his hands. Shingi could also do something like that, but with their equipment, they could overpower him easily.

"Name is Shingi Maki. I was out for personal business and returned to take care of a few things. This is my hometown, as Mayor Aneta can confirm." [Shingi]

Shingi didn't detect any change in them as they heard his response. He waited for some from hearing his name, as he assumed Master Jax would have let them know it. But he always found a hard time getting a read on them.

"So you are that person. I would have to ask to wait until we get someone to approve that you are who you say you are." [King's Guard #1]

The Guard called orders to some of the normal ones who were still around, and that one started running towards the mayor's office.

"I heard you are an Arcane Practitioner. Any tricks you want to share?" [King's Guard #2]

The second guard seemed to be younger, and from the way he spoke, Shingi could tell that he was a young recruit.

The reason was that the first guard's voice was rigorous and bland, while the second also had these characteristics but had some 'feelings' in it, too. But, of course, they never asked questions like that, either.

The first guard didn't seem to mind his subordinate asking questions, which was out of the usual.

Shingi raised his right hand to show them his Spatial Ring so that they would be aware he was going to use it.

He then called out his old staff, the two Mana Gems of Earth and Light Element, with one at the top of the staff and one at its bottom.

He used it to cast at the same time both an Earth and Light Element MANA DOUBLE. He had the Light Element MANA DOUBLE make different hand-on-hand fighting moves, while his Earth Element MANA DOUBLE was its target and was handling them well.

This wasn't something unusual for them to see, but Shingi wasn't finished yet.

He made a ring of fire using his Fire Element to surround the area of his MANA DOUBLES and started producing the biggest EARTH SPIKES he could produce in four corners to make a rectangle in the fire circle.

He got some Air Element of the environment and used it to empower his fires, making his ring taller, and at the same time, he used Light Element on them that changed its color to more yellow than fire red. It also allowed him to control the fire's temperature, but not only to increase it but also decrease it.

He had created a tall wall of fire and started manipulating the file to leave some openings, making the people outside still see his MANA DOUBLES fight.

When the rounded wall of fire was over, it had reached a height of a little over 2 meters.

He then worked on manipulating the EARTH SPIKES he had created to shape them more like pillars, and he had created the windows on the wall to places for one to notice those changes as they were happening.

When the pillars were over, Shingi used a MAJOR ILLUSION of a sign over an opening he made as an entrance, and on the sign, it had a carving of two humanoid creatures, one across the other, with their hand raised and ready to fight.

This was over what he could normally do, but he pushed himself to and over his limits as always. It wasn't because he wanted to show off, at least not entirely, but because he knew that it would be a great ally for the future if he got even the smallest of admiration from one of those people.

They followed orders of Master Jax, but they could always deny doing what he ordered them as only the King himself was the one they couldn't deny. They had helped keep Carda safe and quiet, but that wouldn't last forever, so befriending them to ask for help in the future was beneficial for him.

After letting the guards, and some of the crowd of Players noticing what was happening, he dismissed all his Spells.

He noticed that both the guards' heartbeats didn't change, not even the second one who seemed less experienced. But he probably had seen many Arcane Practitioners doing tricks like so it was difficult to impress them.

"I expected something more, but I guess this was impressive too." [King's Guard #2]

It seems Shingi failed to impress them. He couldn't use his blessing as it was still in cooldown, and his remaining wounds still affected him, even if he had covered them all pretty well.

"Take off your glasses." [King's Guard 1]

Shingi didn't have an option, so he took them out, letting everyone seeing his damaged eyes.

He then heard a familiar sound, the slight sound when a System notification appeared, but he couldn't see it as it wasn't his Status window. He didn't know why they had made it work like that, and it annoyed many people, but the developers said they would never change it.

He heard some gasps from the crowd when they saw pretty much his almost completely empty eyeholes, which had just some smashed remaining of his eyes, and some burnings as Shingi had to do it to prevent infection.

"You you are blind? But how? You walked like a normal individual, and your work was too detailed for a blind man." [King's Guard #2]

"You should remember your lessons, young recruit. Never underestimate someone. Always pay attention to the details. He almost had tripped at that stone over there on his way to the gate while walking towards us." [King's Guard #1]

It impressed Shingi that the Guard noticed it as the last stone that almost made him fall was quite far from the gate and should be barely visible from there. Also, his response to rebalance himself was quick enough that one normally couldn't tell what just happened.

But the senses of an experienced guard like that were even better than Shingi's and maybe even better than Ameanum's EAGLE EYE's.

Shingi put on his glasses once more since having them exposed, even if it didn't bring him pain, it resulted in some annoyance.

Soon the guard sen to the mayor's office returned and brought Karemon, who let them know that Shingi was actually the one he said he was.

Some Players in the crowd overheard the reason Karemon was here and him mentioning Shingi's name and that this boy was that person. Shingi could feel the attention of those Playersattention be drawn completely to him. It seemed his reputation had increased while he was away.

The guards gave him a pass that he could use to go through the gate with no need for inspection like that. But this was a special pass that was given only to a few individuals that wouldn't give it to others or lose it.

There were records of the individuals who had those passed, and the two Guards had all of them memorized. Those two were in charge of the gate all day, apparently.

He walked with Karemon towards the shop and had some small talk with him on the way there.

They reached the shop, which was as busy as ever, and Karemon had to leave to return to the Mayor's office as things there had also gotten busy. Players started wanting to build their personal house into the town, and they had to expand to fit everyone who could afford it.

It seemed like Carda was developing in turning into a large town itself.

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