54 The Old Man
Shingi was in a rare situation of not knowing how to progress. Both his PERCEPTION and MANA SENSE were useless against this foe, and without them, he couldn't learn the nature of him.
Players would not be afraid in this case cause even if they died, they could respawn, but for an NPC, it would be Game Over if something like that happened.
But Shingi wasn't afraid. Or, more precisely, he was scared but didn't let the fear get the best of him. Even as a Player, he took everything as his life depended on it, even if he could respawn.
Even if he wasn't sure of the man in front of him, he knew it wasn't here to harm him.
Which Assassin would sleep in the job even if he has some protection against detection skills?
He looked towards him without using his PERCEPTION Skill, which didn't trigger the enchantment that made him lose his sense last time.
He didn't notice any symbols on his clothes or any tattoo or anything to show his background.
So Shingi went a little closer to be just a few steps away from him and starting coughing to make him aware of his presence and wake him up.
But after he coughed once, no sound came out of Shingi. His hearing seemed to have gotten disabled again, but he could still see and taste and feel things.
He noticed the Old Man's right arm raised, but he didn't see when he raised it and had a closed fist except with his index finger with which he pointed towards him.
Even without MANA SENSE being active, Shingi could feel mana leaving the Old Man's finger and surrounding Shingi's neck and ears. The power had reached a level he had never seen a human have with a simple move like that.
He froze in place but not by fear, but the Old Man also pointed his middle finger toward Shingi, and more mana came and surrounded him and kept him in place.
The Old Man opened his eyes and stood up, and Shingi could feel this feeling like an ancient beast had just awakened. Even when he fought the Red Dragon, he didn't have this powerful feeling coming towards him.
The Old Man was glaring at him, trying to understand something or decipher some problem.
Shingi, even if he knew things got terrible, he didn't show fear in his eyes. He knew that the System wouldn't do something without reason or wouldn't have a solution for that situation. So he just had to find it.
The Old Man closed his index finger a little, allowing Shingi to hear, but he still couldn't speak.
"I must admit that I expected someone older, but it is a pleasant surprise to find two interesting individuals like that." [Old Man]
At that moment, a sound was heard from outside of something fall and hit the floor or, more specifically, someone.
"It seems like one had a few interesting experimentations in these past years. But I can't tell who? Well, it is always the fun part to find out by your ways and not to be told?" [Old Man]
Shingi couldn't read the man cause he couldn't use his Skill on him, but he got the vibes of a crazy researcher from him.
Shingi noticed a change in the eyes of the Old Man that one would think was just the light making them shine for less than a second, but he knew its true nature of that Skill.
The same thing happened to Ameanum's eyes when he used his EAGLE EYES Skill in the past.
"Oh... you sure have interesting stats for one that young and without a Class. An INT of 16 and these many Master Rank skills, included PERCEPTION? No wonder you didn't go permanently blind. Now I am excited to see what the girl's stats are." [Old Man]
Shingi noticed he said nothing over his CHA stats, but he was aware through the System's message that he had higher CHA than him, so he should know more about it. But he still couldn't ask anything.
The Old Man stood up and walked past him and out of the room.
Even if Shingi couldn't see him cause he couldn't even turn his head, he knew where he was heading. To get Annoue and see her stats.
He had to use this time to free himself.
Even if the mana held him in place was more robust than him, it was like a chain, which was as strong as its weakest link. So he just had to find it and focused everything there.
He activated his MANA SENSE, used it at its limits, and kept hitting the mana that held him in various places to find this weak spot.
The time was passing slower for him as he entirely focused on this task, and he found the spot in a matter of 3 seconds.
But this didn't mean that he freed himself, as even the weakest spot was more powerful than he could imagine.
Without a second thought, he closed his fist, which he could, since the mana held him in place, not wholly paralyzed him. He used the active effect of Blessing of Beliss, bringing his INT to 25 and even activating his Breaking-Limit State simultaneously. He felt the passive effect of his Angel's Boon was active, meaning that they considered him being in combat, and Annoue was within 2 meters.
He used his mana to keep hitting the weak spot he found as he also activated his ACCELERATION Skill and wanted to move his body like vibrating. Cause of his being fully focused and being in his Breaking-Limit state and ACCELERATION Skill, everything was slower, but with his INT, he was aware of everything, and his moves were more precise than ever.
His body started slowly moving left and right at a breakneck speed. At first, it happened less than five times, and then was a break, but there were more and more frequent as time passed.
In fewer than 10 seconds, cracks started appearing around Shingi but weren't on his body but on the mana of the Old Man, which started appearing like glass surrounding Shingi's body and was close to breaking.
And with a final push, Shingi let out a scream as even the mana surrounding his mouth and keeping him mute seemed to be affected and had no effect on him now.
Shingi turned and was ready to go outside to face the Old Man without even thinking of taking a break. But as he turned, he saw something he didn't expect.
The Old Man was at the door with Annoue, who was unconscious, over his left shoulder.
The Old Man looked toward him and showed his right open palm towards Shingi as he released more mana at an even more incredible speed and power than before.
Even Shingi, in his current state, couldn't avoid it as it held him in place once more, and this time his 'chains' were more substantial than before. But this time, he had all his senses.
"It seems I underestimated your powers. How fascinating. You have my attention at this point." [Old Man]
The Old Man looked towards Shingi like thinking about his next move and not much time passed, as he seemed to have decided.
"Well, even if I think you can get far under my tutelage, I wonder what your limit is. So I will have the girl for now. You better reach or better overcome my expectations for the next time we meet." [Old Man]
Shingi tried to free himself like before, but the weak spot was harder to find if one existed, and he couldn't move at all this time, not even one finger.
The Old Man smiled, seeing Shingi's struggles.
"Well, I have to go... Oh, I almost forgot. Would you mind giving my regards to Aella? Name is Mikhail, by the way." [Mikhail]
At that point, he just tapped his left foot twice, and one portal appeared in front of him, and he stepped in, and it closed right away.
As the portal closed, the mana that held Shingi in place lost its power, and he was free once more, but he didn't move an inch.
He was still trying to understand what just happened.
After a few seconds of doing nothing, he just ran outside at his top speed, not trying to stealth his way or anything. But even those who saw him weren't able to inspect him or even understood what this was, except for a few specific players.
Shingi made it to his destination in a short time, as he was still in his Breaking-Limit state.
Standing in front of the Hollow Tree, he shouted with everything he had.
"AELLA... NALRIN. GET HERE RIGHT THIS INSTANT. "[Shingi]
There was no answer.
He kept shouting for them to appear and got only Egroeg coming out and landing next to him, but Shingi paid no attention to him.
Seconds passed and became minutes. Minutes passed and became an hour—no answer at his shoutings.
At that point, his Breaking-Limit state and Blessing's active effect were over, and his body was in a worse state than even when he fought Shadow Whip. But he didn't care; he didn't have the time to care.
Then he heard some movement from behind him.
Multiple people appeared and weren't any other, but his four students were unsure what they saw.
Shingi didn't know it, but in the eyes of the others, his eyes weren't crimson but black; that is why none said anything about it.
But now, all could see his eyes' actual color and could see the dire state the body of his was.
He had broken some of his bones on the first try of breaking free, but he wasn't feeling the pain because of his Breaking-Limit state.
Shingi turned towards them, and they saw something they didn't expect to see Shingi doing for the first time.
They saw tears on his face as he said one sentence when he noticed them.
"I was too weak... "[Shingi]
With that, all the pain finally hit him as he fell to the ground, losing his consciousness.
As the four Players ran to see his condition at a place of unknown distance from where Shingi was, there was the Old Man who had teleported to a Manor.
He brought Annoue to one of the ground floor bedrooms, which seemed to be for the servants, although none other than those two seemed to be in this Manor.
After writing a note and leaving it at the room's desk, he headed outside, locked the room's door, and made the key disappear into thin air.
He smiled at that point as he spoke to himself.
"Today was a profitable day." [Mikhail]
