Unexpected rewards

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SYSTEM QUEST COMPLETED: BIRTHDAY GIRL

The system is deciding reward.

CALCULATING . . .

REWARD DECIDED

Reward: Angel's Boon

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BLESSING EARNED: Angel's Boon

Passive: When a blood relative of yours is within two meters of you during combat, you gain an HP or MP or SP regeneration, depending on their stats. Each person can give you only one kind of regeneration. If multiple people are within range, the regenerations of the same stat don't get stacked.

Active: 1/day, you can use the Blessing's energy to fully restore your HP, MP, or SP depending on what regeneration(s) you have by the passive effect. After that, the Blessing is in cooldown for a month, during which the passive and active effects aren't accessible.

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Shingi just stayed there staring at the two notifications, making sure what he read was entirely accurate with what he understood it to be.

He had to do a test to see the results.

"Hey, Tycoon, can you attack me once?" [Shingi]

Everyone looked at him, confused about what he just told them.

"A... attack you? WHY?!?" [Wild Tycoon]

He has restored some of his SP enough to stand up and avoid a few attacks. He told Annoue to stay close to be within range but didn't explain why.

Even if the request confused her, Wild Tycoon went for it since she knew she could control herself, and they had a few health regeneration potions just in case.

The fight didn't last long, just a few swings from Tycoon, and Shingi could avoid them all, even in his current state. He wasn't as tired as after his battle that he used his Breaking-Limit state, so his speed against the slow Tycoon who didn't use ACCELERATION was more than enough.

After the first swing, Shingi felt this strange power enveloping his body, and after a few seconds, he understood it was his SP that was getting restored cause of the Passive effect of his new Blessing.

It was more than what he was spending during the battle, and he used his ACCELERATION to test, and the regeneration seemed to be of a little less from that.

It meant that he could use his ACCELERATION more time while he was within two meters of Annoue.

He took a break of a few minutes and asked for another quick battle like that. This time he didn't get an SP but an HP regeneration.

He stopped and started more battles, and it seemed like each time, he either had an HP or SP regeneration, but he never got an MP one. Then, finally, he noticed that the HP one seemed to be more effective than the SP one.

'Could it be because her STR is her highest main stat?' [Shingi]

STR is a physical stat, so it made sense that it would affect those two. He thought that her highest stat would probably affect them if her AGI were, and SP would likely be more significant than HP. END would most likely get balanced for both, and INT would give him MP regeneration.

He had heard of similar Blessings, although most worked differently, he was confident that this was the case of how it worked.

If anyone within range could trigger his passive effect, he could have access to all the regenerations, but only two people fit that role since the person had to be a blood relative.

These were Garry and Annoue.

But even the active effect can be beneficial and life-saving as it was a full refill of his SP or HP. But the one-month cooldown meant he had to use it carefully.

They spend the rest of the day having some food that the others bought and relaxing and sharing stories. Especially Hineko was telling about some Quests he had completed, but Shingi could tell that most he said were a lie, but it worked to keep the party up.

Annoue seemed to have a great time and hugged her sword, almost cutting herself a few times. Shingi covered it with a glass sheath he created with his mana, as he would tomorrow make a real one.

After he relaxed enough, he secretly started producing some of the Earth Mana dust, as he wasn't far from the needed amount.

He made it into an open pouch not too far from the forge and stored all the special dust there. After a while, he used his MANA SENSE to check the progress, and he noticed his Skill to feel somewhat different.

Before, he was sending his mana out like sonar, and other mana repelled it and, depending on the element of mana, it would return at a different speed, giving him the info he needed.

But this time, it wasn't anything like that.

Instead, when he activated the Skill, his mana enveloped his eyes, and he could see what previously his brain created when using the Skill.

Looking around, he could see everything that had some mana surrounded in the corresponding color, depending on its element.

His Skill was quicker than ever, and he could see everything clearly. Before, there was a delay cause of the time the mana he used had to travel and come back, but this time it seemed like everything was happening instant. Before, things were a little blurry, especially if a source had a different type of mana. One example was the barrel of water he had next to the anvil.

It contained some Water-element mana and some Earth-element mana in its wooden surface and some Fire-element mana after he cooled down something from the forge. But the Earth-element mana was almost none and the same with the Fire-element Mana, and he couldn't notice them unless entirely focusing on it with his Skill.

But now he could see the Earth-element mana clearly as the Water-element mana, but couldn't see any Fire-element mana since he didn't cool down anything there today.

He also noticed something strange that he hadn't seen before.

There was an aura around Little Phoenix, but it differed from the usual aura that the players had. It seemed to be over her Player aura and had this reddish color, but not the same as Fire-element mana, just somewhat darker.

It didn't seem to be anything mana-related as he checked her status and had nothing Fire Based related, but he noticed something he hadn't before.

She seemed to have a Blessing, which wasn't there last time he checked.

The Blessing was called Boon of the Strength, and even if Shingi couldn't see its description but just its name, he knew its effect.

It allowed her to push, carry, or lift items that she usually wouldn't be able to do with her current STR. But this one didn't help in combat, so few Players find it useful.

But this Blessing wasn't something anyone could get and especially a mage.

To get this Blessing, one had to follow a unique physical training even harder than what Shingi was doing during the other week.

There were some exceptional cases of a few people that started with this Blessing. But those were people who had significant control of their body and strength in real life, and most were martial artists or something similar.

He wasn't sure as he knew little about her in the real world other than the short story he heard the other day, but the confident sister seemed to be one with many activities, so it wouldn't be strange for a martial art to be one.

The Blessing could be given even after creating the character as long as the body passed the requirements. This was why he didn't notice it before, as this was the first time he checked Phoenix's status while the confident sister was in control.

After that, he opened his status and noticed that there were some changes.

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STATUS

NAME: Shingi Maki

CLASS: None

PROFESSION: Scholar Master

RACE: Blessed Human

HP: 80/80

SP: 40/40

MP: 23/38

STR: 12

AGI: 14

END: 16

INT: 16

CHA: 3

MANA POOL: Earth and Light Element

SKILLS

Base Rank: STEALTH,

Semi-Master Rank: MANA SENSE, MARTIAL ART, GLASSBLOWING

Master Rank: VISUALIZATION, MANA MANIPULATION, PERCEPTION, IMPROVISED THROW WEAPON, SMITHING, ACCELERATION

SPELLS

Ungraded: FILTH EATER, MINOR ILLUSION, LIGHT

Low Grade: MANA HAND, ROCK THROW, CAMOUFLAGE

Base Grade: INVISIBILITY, DOME OF SILENCE

BLESSINGS: Blessing of Beliss, Blessing of Dlog, Angel's Boon

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Shingi's new Blessing was on the list as also his MANA SENSE's Rank had changed to the unheard for him Semi-Master Rank.

His Skill had changed to be considered a different Skill, which was unheard of when changing Rank, but still not considered a complete Master Rank made him think what it would be like then.

He was happy about that development, as his senses were quite crucial at his arsenal, and an improvement like that was more than welcome.

He looked around a little more to test his Skill and become more familiar with it as he continued his word creating the special dust.

Annoue mentioned how she had a class of her own during the storytelling, even if it wasn't a complete class still.

Everyone seemed impressed by that, as they had heard stories of how difficult it was for an NPC to get a class.

"Does that mean you are going to join us at our next dungeon exploration, Lady Annoue?" [Hineko]

Annoue seemed to blush a little at how he addressed her, but she turned towards the person who could give this answer. Her little brother.

Shingi felt some annoyance against Hineko from the way he addressed Annoue, and one would swear for a moment that there was a murderous look in his eyes for a second, but it disappeared as fast as it appeared.

"Well, you have a weapon, and you can use it, so some monster hunting may help you get some fighting experience. Also, the Slimes are a perfect training target, so they may help speed up to earn your class." [Shingi]

Annoue seemed excited about that, but Shingi said they had to wait for a few days as there were a few preparations he had to make. Then, he told them they could go by themselves in the Dungeon without Annoue as he wanted to be there with her just in case.

So the party came at the end after some time, and they headed towards their house and inn's room accordingly. Before they each went their way, though, Shingi said to Phoenix and Mizuneko the different way his MANA SENSE worked to help them to level up theirs faster.

Phoenix didn't find it interesting, so Shingi told Mizuneko to explain it to the other Phoenix's 'personality' when he next got in touch with her.

Shingi kept his new MANA SENSE active during their walk towards their house and noticed a few things.

There was some mana, which he recognized as the Special Mana of the Blue moon, in a few places in the town. Also, he recognized a different type of mana by describing a few of his Arcane Practitioner friends.

It was almost entirely dark but had some red and yellow in it.

It was the Mana of a Half-Demon.

They said that all Half-Demons had a separate Mana Pool that wasn't part of their Mana Tree if they made one. This Mana Pool had a specific Type of Mana that looked like the one Shingi was currently detecting.

This mana was more potent than normal mana and had many uses, and the most useful one, which seemed to be for what they used in this case, was to create a type of Repellents.

More specifically, Demon Repellents.

But creating one wasn't easy and would take years for one to master the way to create one, but now Shingi could detect dozen around the town, especially when getting closer to the mayor's office.

'It seemed Karemon had been busy over the years.' [Shingi]

It did not surprise him he could do something like that as he was friends with a Player who saved him and most likely helped him with his training. He understood that his mother seemed to be a woman of many resources, so she wasn't just an ordinary Player.

So Shingi and Annoue returned to their house to rest after taking a little walk around, but they found a surprise in the kitchen.

There was a small box with a handle on its right side.

Shingi knew that this was a music box, and it seemed to be a gift of Aneta to Annoue for her birthday. Unfortunately, Aneta had passed and didn't stay waiting for them, but she left a note and the gift since she didn't find them.

Shingi was curious about how she got in as he had the door locked, and it was still locked when they returned, but he knew Aneta wasn't the usual older woman, so he didn't put too much thought into it.

Annoue turned the handle a few times, and a melody played as a voice singing a song when she let go of the handle.

It was the same voice singing the same song he had heard that one time in his weird dream some weeks ago.

He noticed a few seconds in that Annoue seemed to be affected by the song.

Her eyes filled with tears.