Finishing some projects

Shingi waited for the song to end, and it was precisely the same as he remembered it to be. He has an idea, but he had to be sure.

"Do you know that voice, Annoue?" [Shingi]

Annoue started clearing tears from her eyes. She took some time to clear her mind of her sadness.

"This was mother's voice. She used to sing this song to make me sleep." [Annoue]

Shingi expected that answer, but he was curious about how the mayor came to own something like that. He examined the box and noticed that some parts seemed to be old, but most were new. It seemed like someone repaired it, and the damage was extensive since most of it was new parts.

The music box wasn't something expensive to make, but few knew how to create it. The blueprint was something that Gnomes had created and kept to themselves the techniques needed to create one.

He put the box away in his Spatial Ring as Annoue seemed sad while watching it, and he brought her to bed to sleep for the night. After making sure she was calm and asleep, he started meditating and restoring all his mana.

When he had his mana fully restored, he enabled his STEALTH and CAMOUFLAGE combo and headed out to the tree hideout.

With his new MANA SENSE, he could detect people more effortlessly. Before, he didn't take any feedback from MANA SENSE by normal NPCs, but now it seemed like he was taking something white aura from them.

He made his way much more comfortable and faster than ever and was at the hideout in less than an hour.

He looked around and detected the young Dragon in one branch and looked around, but it didn't seem to have noticed him.

When he got close enough, he started focusing his new MANA SENSE over the Seal of the mysterious energy under the tree. He tried to see if he could notice something more now, but he noticed nothing new. But that was at the start as, after a few more tries, he saw something weird.

It seemed now and then, a thin line of the Seal's energy appeared and pierced the ground under it but not an open space in the ground.

After focusing on it, he understood that this was happening every five minutes.

He wasn't sure where the energy went, but he could guess the reason for it. It was most likely sending a report of the Seal state, which was curious about how quickly one followed the other. It seemed like if he wanted to do something, it limited his time before whoever took these reports knew about it.

But he didn't have a way to deal with the Seal yet.

He did some more tests, but nothing seemed to work, so he went his way back but not at his house but the shop.

He wasn't too far from finishing creating as much Earth mana Dust he needed, so he wanted to finish it that night. He also wanted to make a sheath for Annoue's sword, even if she most likely would have it in her Spatial space most of the time.

They could also use the sheath for a few moves or Weapon Skills he knew, and since she had to learn a few more for getting her class, anything could help.

The sheath wouldn't be as impressive as the sword but wouldn't be a normal one either.

But first, he entirely focused on creating Earth Mana Dust while purifying some iron used for the sheath. Most people had the sheath from leather, but it needed to be more solid for the Skills he had in mind.

After a few hours, he finished creating the needed Mana Dust, and he put it at the finished Enchantment Hourglass he had completed some days ago.

After filling it with dust, it filled a little less than half of the body with the Mana Dust. He kept it horizontally so that no dust would be at the bases. Then, he focused his mana on it and started moving the dust to fill two shapes from each base. The shapes were the third one and the fourth one.

After filling them with dust, he focused more mana on the used dust and tried to push with it. This lead to his mana passing through the dust and making it to the other side, which had carved the same symbols in the same order. As the mana passed the thin layer of the base and reached the other side and pushed them enough to be just a little outside of the bases, he pulled down the hourglass while at the same time he slapped the four enchantment symbols he had created.

He first surrounded his hand with mana. Then he made the symbols stuck on his hand without losing their shape while his mana fed them. He also could move them, and he brought the two rectangles next to each other and then put the triangles over them and looked like two houses next to each other.

After that, he pulled the one over the other and started merging them. This way, the enchantment effect would be more potent than usual but not precisely twice as strong.

He then kept focusing on keeping this Enchantment in shape while, with his free hand and MANA HANDS, started working on the sheath.

One would usually create what he wanted to enchant and then make the Enchantment, but this was an excellent and challenging exercise for Shingi.

He could finish the sheath and slap the Enchantment Circle the same way he did for the sword. Even if he didn't have the sword cause of his VISUALIZATION, he was confident that he had the proper measurements.

The Enchantment he created was to strengthen the durability of the sheath. It didn't make it indestructible, but it would still handle more hits than a normal one.

Since he had no more personal projects in mind to work on, he wanted to finish any orders left and deliver them tomorrow to have the rest of the day free.

It didn't take him too long, and he returned to his room a few hours before Annoue woke up.

When both were up, he showed her the Enchantment Hourglass and explained how to use it. Then, he told her to work on different Enchantments, using the notes he had given him the other day.

He headed out to get and deliver the orders he made and then went to find his students. More precisely, Tycoon and Mizuneko.

He wanted to continue with their training, and he would work with Phoenix too, but most likely, the other sister would still be in control.

He found them quickly, and they made their way towards the tree hideout, which Shingi considered an excellent place to train.

"So, what kind of training are we going to do this time?" [Wild Tycoon]

"Well, this time, we are going to unlock an important Skill for your future class and work on Ice Element creation for Mizuneko." [Shingi]

Both seemed excited about hearing that, especially Wild Tycoon, after mentioning the possibility of earning a different class and not just some Skills.

Before explaining what they had to do, he turned towards the Hollow Tree branches and spoke.

"Do you mind helping us? I am sure your owner will appreciate it." [Shingi]

After a few seconds of silence, a small head appeared between some branches and leaves.

It was, of course, Egroeg, the young Dragon.

It looked in Shingi's direction, like trying to read him with his eyes. Then, after a minute or two, it jumped and used its small wings to glide and land in front of him. The creature's sudden appearance surprised the rest, and they were ready to attack the little 'monster,' but Shingi told them it was here to help.

He wasn't too big, maybe a cat's size, which was relatively small for a dragon, even a baby one. But even if it was that young, it seemed intelligent enough to understand what Shingi was telling him as long as he kept it simple.

He tried to explain his plan, and it was pretty simple.

He noticed he had mana similar to Aella, who had a particular mana type called Storm Mana. It was a combination of Air, Water, Earth, and Fire Mana, which a mortal couldn't create. Furthermore, people thought it nearly impossible to develop Dual Element Mana Pools, so one wouldn't even consider making a four Element one.

He wasn't sure why it was the case, but he had never seen a Dragon like Egroeg.

He told Egroeg to blast some air mana towards Mizuneko. However, they did not shape it enough to cause damage or affect Mizuneko. Mizuneko had to manipulate as much of the mana fired at him to shape a mana ball.

But since this mana was part of someone else, it had more resistance than the one found in the environment. Also, since it was a dragon's mana, it would increase the difficulty even if it was a baby one.

That way, he would increase his proficiency in manipulating Air Element Mana and making it easier to make his Mana Pool be partly Air Element. He was confident that the combination of Water and Air Element would result in the Ice Element.

He moved his focus over to Tycoon's training then.

He had her remove all her armor, wearing only her regular clothes and just having her axe as part of her equipment.

Then Shingi activated his ACCELERATION and MARTIAL ART skill at the top of their abilities and started hitting her, but only using his index and middle finger and each time at an original position.

It wasn't doing any damage but caused some inconvenience at her movements. She couldn't keep up with Shingi's actions, and he restricted her from using the ACCELERATION skill, too.

Shingi wasn't using the ACCELERATION skill all the time, as he wanted the battle to last for some time, and he also had drunk an SP Regeneration potion to make him fight for more time.

The battle continued, and since it dealt with no damage on either side, it didn't seem like there would be any winner. But as time passed, Tycoon was becoming impatient and somewhat angry.

Shingi seemed to make the same actions repeatedly, but she didn't seem to avoid them all the time. But even when she did, he countered right away.

As time passed, her movements became more reckless, and Shingi, who was silent during all this time, spoke.

"Do you really think those weak moves of yours can protect someone? Even Phoenix could do better." [Shingi]

His taunts were enough to break any restrictions she had, and she just started attacking without thinking much of how to attack, but only on the strength of the attack.

Her attack speed decreased, but it increased the power of her attacks to another level. Some aura of red energy surrounded her eyes, making them like they were full red, and everything turned red for her.

At that point, Shingi finished casting his DOME OF SILENCE he had slowly worked on during the battle and kept Annoue and him in there.

After a few seconds, the Dome disappeared and in the middle of it was Shingi standing and in front of him, Tycoon being unconscious to the ground.

He checked her status and smiled, seeing a new Skill of hers.

She could now use the RAGE skill.