Annoue's training and new info

Seeing the young Dragon acting like a dog happy to see his owner return was quite a weird sight for Shingi. Mainly because this was the first time Egroeg met Annoue.

The two played with each other as Annoue kneeled and started patting his head while Egroeg was trying to lick her face.

Shingi wanted to say something but wasn't sure until he heard a familiar voice from behind him.

"That is a rare sight." [????]

Shingi turned, and he turned his gaze down and saw a familiar dog. The same dog that was with Aella and had led him to her not so long ago.

He knew his name was Nalrin and was a companion of Aella for a very long time and could transform as wasn't a dog the last time he saw him when he was still a Player.

"Been a while since we have last spoken, isn't it, Dr. Nalrin?" [Shingi]

The dog looked towards him, and Shingi could tell that he didn't like to address him like that.

Back in where the Gods were staying, Nalrin had a job other than being one companion of Aella. He had to take care of the Pets' health of every other God and Goddess and any of their children. But even if this sounded important, it wasn't as every pet had part of their owners' energy, making them impossible to get sick. That's why he never mentioned it to anyone and didn't like when others did either.

"You know my teeth can pierce your current body easily, right?" [Nalrin]

Shingi smiled and nodded, as he knew he wouldn't do it. If he continued teasing him, Nalrin may reach that point that he would attack him, but Shingi wasn't planning to try it.

"How come you are here? I thought you and Aella left to research and left the little lizard behind only." [Shingi]

"Well, Aella may trust this youngster, but I sure don't. It hasn't even finished his first decade of age." [Nalrin]

Dragons were an intelligent species, but that was the case because they could live for a very long time. But they had somewhat high intelligence when they were born, close to a young adult human, and maybe even more.

The scales of Egroeg were purple, which showed that he wasn't one of Dragon's common species. Shingi didn't know of that color, but Dragons' info wasn't that easy to find, especially for uncommon species.

"So then, why did you show up at this moment? Also, do you know why he acts like that with Annoue?" [Shingi]

Nalrin looked at Shingi and seemed to sniff him a few times and the same towards the direction of Annoue.

"Well, you both have this strange aura, and it seems the boy there likes it on the girl. I noticed it in you when we first found you, but I thought it was because of your soul. But now, even that girl has this strange aura, but not as strong as yours." [Nalrin]

"It may have to do with our Mother." [Shingi]

He explained and told what he knew using no game terms and referencing his mother as a Blessed One and not a Player.

After he finished his explanation, Nalrin seemed to make some sense of all of them in his brain.

It was unheard of for a Blessed One to get pregnant, as they kept appearing out of nowhere and were of at least some specific age. Of course, some had a relationship with other Blesses Ones or not, but pregnancy was something that Nalrin hadn't heard of until this point.

But it wasn't like he knew everything, but he thought he would have heard of it as there were a few Gods interested in the Blessed Ones and discussing anything new they could do.

Shingi left him, and he thought as he headed toward his sister.

"You two stop playing around; we have work to do." [Shingi]

Annoue stood up, but in the middle of that movement, she turned her head from Shingi back to Egroeg.

"What did you say?.... oh no, he is my little brother." [Annoue]

She seemed to blush a little at the middle of her sentence. But what caught Shingi's attention was that she seemed to speak to Egroeg, and he seemed to have spoken to her.

He saw Aella speaking telepathically with Egroeg, but he thought it was cause she was his owner, but it seemed like it may have been an ability of Egroeg all along.

"What did he ask you?" [Shingi]

"NOTHING... let's start our training." [Annoue]

Even if he found it weird of her not telling him, Shingi paid little attention to it.

Shingi cast his MANA DOUBLE-EARTH ELEMENT and commanded it to take a defensive stance. Thus, he would be a training partner of Annoue to get more fighting experience, and Shingi would gain more proficiency on the spell. He also changed the MANA DOUBLE's  face to make it look different from him to make it easier for Annoue to fight without restrictions.

He had to keep commanding his MANA DOUBLE for now cause he wasn't too used to it, but this was also the reason for the training. He had to use more mana as the attacks damaged it and used some mana to restore it. But he could use mana in the environment and not necessarily one produced by his own Mana Pool. It was slow progress, but this way, he could hold the spell active for a longer time without emptying his own Mana Pool.

For now, they trained on the two Weapon Skills she knew and mostly DEFLECT to bring it as Base Rank. They had worked on it during the past week, but she couldn't reach Base Rank but seemed to get close.

So he started making some attacks with the MANA DOUBLE, first with its fist, and as time passed, tried to change the arms to be blade-like. He couldn't turn it to seem like it was holding a sword but turning the entire arm as one seemed to work for now.

The MANA DOUBLE's  movements were slower than Shingi's, but its power was more significant, giving a new fighting experience for Annoue.

As time passed, Shingi gave her some tips on new Weapon Skills to unlock.

One was to keep her mana surrounding the blade and move at great speed and make it act like a chainsaw. Another was to use the surrounded mana used in the blade to absorb the attack's force and repel it back to its source. It worked like DEFLECT  but had an extra step of empowering the force and directing it in the same direction it came from to cause damage. The Skills were CHAIN BLADE and REPEL.

He decided on working on those for now, as she needed 4 Weapon Skills to go to the Base State of her class. He had more, but it was better to work slowly and to improve quality than gain quantity.

As usual, her progress was impressive in unlocking the skills within an hour and increasing them close to Base Rank within another hour. But to get to Base Rank and beyond seemed to take her more time.

They didn't train for long as they had to take a few breaks, mainly for Annoue to restore her SP and sometimes for Shingi to restore his MP.

In the end, her status had some changes.

================================

STATUS

NAME: Annoue Maki

CLASS: Arcane Blade (Apprentice)

RACE: Blessed Human

TITLE: First Student

HP: 108/108

SP: 42/42

MP: 23/23

STR: 15

AGI: 11

END: 12

INT: 12

MANA POOL: Air Element

SKILLS

Low Rank: MARTIAL ART, COMBAT INSIGHT, CHAIN BLADE, REPEL

Base Rank: COOKING, MANA MANIPULATION, MANA SENSE, AIR SLASH, DEFLECT

Master Rank: LIFT, PUSH

SPELLS

Low Grade: AIR BOLT

================================

Her stats didn't improve, but her skills Rank had. She wasn't far from progressing more with her class, improving her Stats when fully earned.

During the whole training, both Egroeg and Nalrin were watching them.

During their breaks, Egroeg ran toward Annoue to play with her, but Nalrin kept his distance and just watched them for now.

But now that they seemed to have finished, Nalrin moved towards Shingi.

"It seems like you worked hard as always and used peculiar ways of training." [Nalrin]

"Some things can't change. But I am guessing there is more you want to ask." [Shingi]

Nalrin looked at him and then toward Annoue, playing with Egroeg, and then back at Shingi.

"I have, but won't for now. Maybe when you get your crystal. I am curious about the result." [Nalrin]

"I see you are eavesdropping. Do you know anything about these crystals or why they started appearing?" [Shingi]

"I do not know. These dungeons and their resources aren't part of any Gods I talk with." [Nalrin]

"So some of the other Gods may create them." [Shingi]

Nalrin didn't respond and just walked away.

Shingi didn't stop him, but he was curious about the possible God's identity behind the dungeons' creation. If he learned that, he could understand more of their nature.

He moved towards Annoue and told her they should be on their way and to say goodbye to Egroeg for now. The two seemed sad to leave each other, but Annoue told Egroeg that she would keep coming as this was her Secret Hideout.

They started their way back home, and this time they went through the wall's hole and not the Gate itself. Shingi had noticed a few Players who seemed to look towards him when they passed the Gate, and he was confident that they were part of that annoying Wolfhead Guild.

They made it home with no problem, but after having dinner and heading towards the bed, Shingi noticed someone else in the house.

More precisely, one was sleeping in Garry's room, but it wasn't Garry.

Shingi told Annoue to stay back and wait to call her as he was going to investigate.

Getting in the room, he found on Garry's bed a man currently being asleep. He was old, maybe around his fifties, but Shingi could tell that his body seemed to be well built so that he could be older than that. He was wearing regular clothes as a villager would wear but seemed different from others. They appeared to handle more cold-weathered regions, and here it was primarily cold in winter, but not too much. His hair was completely white, as he had a thick beard of white color as well.

Shingi used his MANA SENSE, but it seemed like something was blocking it, making it seem like the man didn't exist for his Skill.

This troubled Shingi, as his MANA SENSE was almost Master Rank, so something to stop it from working had to be a relatively rare item and powerful.

Since his MANA SENSE didn't work, he used his PERCEPTION to notice anything weird on him, but when he focused on him for a few seconds, his senses stopped working.

He was blind, deaf, couldn't feel anything, not even the surrounding air, and even his taste disappeared, as he couldn't even taste his saliva.

He tried to make his head turn away, and after a few seconds, his senses were back, and he noticed a notification in front of him.

================================

THE USER OF THE ENCHANTMENT HAS HIGHER CHA THAN YOU, SO THE STAT'S PROTECTION FAILED

================================